A Patriot's History of the United States

I’m pleasantly surprised with the intensity of passion and diversity of opinion from the reviewers who posted their comments here. It is an affirmation of what the author of this book is saying. The heart of American patriotism lies in our self proclaimed right to express ourselves. Right or wrong, Americans have had the strong will to stand up and take action. This book is an account of that American will. I highly recommend this read. We have a unique history. I chuckled at the account of how Europeans considered American colonists to be unrefined and lack class. As pioneers we have never dressed to impress. Our culture is rooted in a pragmatic approach to living, with special emphasis on the rights of the individual. Americans think differently than the rest of the world. History helps us recognize why. We protect our social freedoms and economic security with a 230 year old political system of checks and balances, laws, not kings, or dictators. Americans trust that system of laws where so many other nations have self destructed with violence. We don’t live in a perfect world. This book does not propagandize us as such. Mistakes and injustices are exposed. Men of genius and character are recognized. And just for the record, I am not of the politically right. I was not offended by this author’s perspective. My interest was kept as he explained how we created a system to challenge the unjust, employ reason and critical thinking to self analyze, to right the wrongs, to blunder, admit it, and pick ourselves back up, to be cautious when it came to starting the fight, but recognize when the time is right to come together with formidable strength to protect what we all know to be “self evident truths”. With eyes wide open, republican conservative, or liberal democrat, we are all patriots.

Wow! I almost always finish my audiobooks, keyword: ALMOST. This book was so slow. There wasn't much life in the narration which made it difficult to stay interested. Also, I felt like the attention to subject matter would just flip flip going from detailed descriptions of events to general moments in history. It seemed like an awkward approach to revisiting history. I really wanted to finish it and brush up on history but It was so hard to attend to.

It was a refreshing departure from the "History" that is taught in colleges these days. It focuses less on racism, prejudice, and bigotry and more on politics, war, and the home. The obvious conservative bias makes it a little difficult to take seriously primarily due to the author's treatment of Clinton and George W Bush. Up until that point in the story, I was right with him in what seemed like a pretty fair assessment of major events in US history. The events of the recent past (with the exception of 9/11) don't seem as critical in the story of the country as other major past events, but one would not be able to make that determination based on the relative amount of time spent by the author in recounting this period.

This volume contains only stories you've heard before... occasionally with some new insight, but basically the same stuff you learned as an elementary and junior high schooler. Weren't there any unsung heroes in American History that aren't household names?

The depictions of the Civil War and the New Deal provided insights and opinions that I had never heard before.

It was quite long... but I spend a lot of time in the car. I wanted a start-to-finish history of the United States, and that's what I got. This can't be done in a shorter time period and still be worth listening to.

I would recommend this for the younger generation who probably hasn't heard some of these stories due to the changing curriculum in primary schools and to anyone who is tired of hearing that American is history is simply a story of racial bigotry and hatred.

This is a history book that I did not want to end. This is the most balanced book covering America's history. I was concerned that it would be too glossy and put a positive spin on everything and everyone.

Every high schooler and college student should listen to this book before heading off to school. The narrator has great energy and is the best narrator that I have listened to.

I highly recommend this book for people that are tired of left/right wing spins on history and want the story of their nation.

First let me state that I am a died in the wool republican. I think Ronald Regan walked on water and both Bush's got a bum deal. However, this book is too slanted even for me. The book not only totally disregards the liberal perspective (which I generally have no problem with) it's full of historical errors. I'm not a history major and even I caught a couple of glaring errors with some of the events of WWII.
Another problem I have with the book is that it seems to gloss over events that I would have liked to hear more details on. I suppose that has to be the case, given the extreme breadth of time this book is trying to encapsulate.
Overall, it's not awful and it is nice to hear from the other side of the fence for a change, but it's not anything I'll listen to again.

I am disappointed with the reader of this audio book. I was hoping for something like Burl Ives or James Earl Jones, or at least a voice that was more assertive, but not aggressive. This voice is okay but not for long periods of listening. Additionally, the reader added TOO much enthusiasm to his reading. I want content not entertainment. It is difficult to listen to this audio book, because I want to learn not be entertained. The reader does a nice job of inflecting and emphasizing, but the content of this book, in my opinion, should not be read with such entertainment-type exuberance.

This book is long overdue, finally the other side of the story can be told, the one you always knew or hoped for would be true. We live in a great country and its not run by crooks or crazy men. This book is an excellent story and well worth your time. After hearing this story I hope you will be proud to live in this country again.

This book had some good facts and gave me a feeling for some of the things that were happening. But there was a great lack of good quotes or stories about the characters. The author obviously has biases about each of our presidents and these come out and are not balanced at all by contrary facts.

an overarching criticism is that the book fails to take into account philosophical trends which were occurring in Europe and other nations at the time when the events were occurring in the United States. For example, the eight or so other civil wars which were occurring all over the globe with parallel issues at the time of ours.

But I ask, what about this book inspires me to be a patriot? Can anyone tell me?

I am changing my rating from 5 stars to one star after reading the last chapters. I need to say that I utterly enjoyed listening and could not understand why others were pointing toward bias. But I became suspicious when there were disrespectful attacks on FDR and JFK whom I respect as much as I respect Ronald Reagan. I believe authors broke basic rule that historians true historians: they should not be partizan in their writing and try to be as objective as possible. Rabid hatred of Clinton family and painting everything dark is totally disgusting and unprofessional. Painting George Bush junior as somebody who astutely created "true democracy" in Irak and Afganistan is ...????. Should you write books to enlighten people in history when you are so naive??? Come on, only struggle between parties is an engine which catapults America into it's greatness. It is great because it embrace us all irrespective of race, religion or party preferences. The worst thing possible is that when only one party is in charge and there is no competition. "Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely". Of course, as a person with moderate conservative views, I would prefer moderate republicans to rule our country. But for best results, moderate democrats should rule the country at least every 8-12 years. And I would not hesitate to vote for Hillary Clinton despite the fact that I do not agree with some of her ideas.

It is amazing the USA became a nation and survived to its present time considering the ignorance and varied opinions of the general population and government leaders that dealt with events thoughout its history.
This book is laid out and paced well, it does not slog down with too much detail, and presents facinating stories of the events and leaders that directed this country.
All patriots are bound to find this book moving.