nonfiction

I am currently a first year high school teacher whose school has chosen Boorstin to for U.S. I and II. Boorstin's writing is unbelievably frustrating on so many levels. For advanced level students, the text is woefully incomplete. It seems clear that the author's focus was to be concise and simple; however what ends up happening as a result is that things such as causations and analysis are frequently left out. Advanced students will likely become frustrated over knowing the basic facts but not getting anywhere deeper - why did they happen? What historical debates have been had over the facts?

Ironically, my lower level students also hate the book and find it difficult to understand. Boorstin's review questions vary in difficulty between amusingly easy to impossibly hard - making many students apathetic about doing homework (even more than normal). In addition, Boorstin occasionally asks questions that are not referred to in the chapter. The editing in the book is seriously flawed.

The use of Boorstin's book puts the emphasis and burden of knowledge squarely on the teacher. Student-centered activities using the text become significantly harder (or, in the case of some new teachers, impossible) because there simply is not enough information provided to allow for students' opinions or creativity. Critical events in American history are left out - Bacon's rebellion for example is nowhere to be found. Other events, when covered, are woefully out of place - the Middle Passage is covered only two chapters before the Civil War!

Overall, Boorstin's text tries very hard to be a jack-of-all- trades, but fails to really satisfy anyone in the classroom. Avoid it.