Dana Lindaman

I love the concept, but since it is a collection of excerpts from history textbooks, it is a rather dry read. I can't fully fault the author for this problem, because it's not her words, and I think she's done a fine job of selecting different passages and introducing them. The book presents specially collected periods of history--for instance, a recounting of a battle from the Vietnam war--and presents chapter excerpts from several different texts on the same subject with an introduction show more about how they differ and what they focus on, and we're given an example from American textbooks for comparison. It's interesting, if not riveting, reading. show less

This was disappointing. The concept is smart...let's see how other countries teach the role of the United States in the world. Unfortunately, there is one common factor that unites all textbooks...they are universally dry. This book will offer a small amount of context and then reprint pages of textbooks from other countries, which makes for a rather boring book, even if some of the ideas presented by the textbook excerpts are fascinating. It might have been more interesting if the authors show more had done more analysis and used less of the actual text from other countries, although one could argue that then they would have been accused of adding their own bias and this way the textbooks can speak for themselves. Its a dilemma, but this just doesn't quite work. show less

I was hopeful that this would be interesting - the topic certainly is. But it turns out that reading other countries' textbooks is about as fascinating as you remember reading your own was. Which is to say, it's a good sleep aid.

Americans in general are fairly ignorant of how the world views them. Absent actually living in another country, this might help a few understand.