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American History ~ Saddleback
Before the Civil War 1830-1860
1830-1860; Fast-paced and easy-to-read, these graphic U.S. history titles teach students about key historical events in American history from 1500 to the present. Dramatic and colorful graphics highlight the text with easy transitions, which avoids a choppy narrative. These history titles offer a variety of rich materials to support teaching to the standards. Graphic Biographies series. Fast-paced and easy-to-read, these softcover 25-page graphic biographies teach students about historical those who lead us into a new territory; pursued scientific discoveries; battled injustice and prejudice; and broke down creative and artistic barriers. These biographies offer a variety of rich primary and secondary source material to support teaching to the standards.
56 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 2008
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
May 22, 2025
Strong start. They do rush through the history. Americans settle Mexico's Texas state. The Spanish are indeed not overly keen on this pro-slavery group and it takes a long time to negotiate terms for settlements. There were a few settlements not just 1, but they don't have time to go over them all. They fought in the Mexican civil war to put Anna in power - also not shown. When Stephen Austin went to Mexico city to negotiate with Anna he actually was fully against a war with Mexico/Spain. Not just trying to negotiate, but trying to never take up arms. As Anna imprisoned him for 2 years instead it made him furious and finally he took up arms. Here this background info is not given as we are rushing. We just see it happen without telling us what else is going on making his imprisonment seem a tad pointless.
The Alamo battle is also presented weirdly. They say they want to hold back the Spanish army no matter what it takes. This is misleading, they wanted to hold a strong fort they themselves took after very hard fighting. And they did call for extra material and manpower, but the men never arrived as a wagon broke down on the way. They were too optimistic, their plan was not to just stay and die. It became the plan of last resort once the main plan of a successful defense failed as no one wanted to help them.
Sam Houston didn't outwit the whole Mexican army to defeat them. He did run away from the army. But that was his whole tactic there was no great army leadership in him. The Mexican army was just tired and far from home fighting for a clueless murderous dictator leading them into battle. They were not eager to fight hard and gave up easily once the Texans didn't have anywhere to run and had to fight. Losing this way was a good outcome for these soldiers.
After this I read about the Mormons, cotton production, and women in education. But it's all very shallow and rushed. You don't quite get the details. Still, this is proper history. They don't seem to make stuff up, they just remove too much and simplify events to a degree where you won't even recall what you read. Some historical events are rewritten a bit to fit into a comic book story format. But frankly this is a very impressive project just a shame it's individual books you kinda need to get them all which is a lot.
I strongly recommend Texas History Movies over this book, by far. But this is a series so this would likely be stronger if you read all. It will also take you a month.
The Alamo battle is also presented weirdly. They say they want to hold back the Spanish army no matter what it takes. This is misleading, they wanted to hold a strong fort they themselves took after very hard fighting. And they did call for extra material and manpower, but the men never arrived as a wagon broke down on the way. They were too optimistic, their plan was not to just stay and die. It became the plan of last resort once the main plan of a successful defense failed as no one wanted to help them.
Sam Houston didn't outwit the whole Mexican army to defeat them. He did run away from the army. But that was his whole tactic there was no great army leadership in him. The Mexican army was just tired and far from home fighting for a clueless murderous dictator leading them into battle. They were not eager to fight hard and gave up easily once the Texans didn't have anywhere to run and had to fight. Losing this way was a good outcome for these soldiers.
After this I read about the Mormons, cotton production, and women in education. But it's all very shallow and rushed. You don't quite get the details. Still, this is proper history. They don't seem to make stuff up, they just remove too much and simplify events to a degree where you won't even recall what you read. Some historical events are rewritten a bit to fit into a comic book story format. But frankly this is a very impressive project just a shame it's individual books you kinda need to get them all which is a lot.
I strongly recommend Texas History Movies over this book, by far. But this is a series so this would likely be stronger if you read all. It will also take you a month.
April 14, 2023
Not as good as the rest of the series, does a strange detour in the middle of the Mexican-American War to Joseph Smith being murdered, and the background on the Mormon trek west in order to get to the Mormon Battalion and its activities in the Mexican-American War. The detour was too jarring and didn’t fit with the rest of the book.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews