The Unfinished Nation: A Concise History of the American People

by Alan Brinkley

Known for its clear narrative voice, impeccable scholarship, and affordability, Alan Brinkleyâ s The Unfinished Nation offers a concise but comprehensive examination of American History. Balancing social and cultural history with traditional political and diplomatic themes, it tells the story of the diversity and complexity of the United States and the forces that have enabled it to survive and flourish despite division. This fifth edition features eight new essays and enhanced coverage of recent events and developments in the continuing American story.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Textbooks, American History, School, American, English Literature

1184 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Alan Brinkley was an American political historian who has taught for over 20 years at Columbia University. He was the Allan Nevins Professor of History until his death. From 2003 to 2009, he was University Provost.

Reviews

[Mel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book for one of my history courses. The book is very informative and for the most part well structured and easy to follow.

[Nyssa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely informative, but at times the quality of info was uneven between the topics discussed.

The biggest complaint is actually the quality of the physical book itself. It is very delicate for a textbook; the pages tear away from the spine too easily. One must be very careful not to open the book to widely, or drop it, or manhandle it in any way, really.

[Kevin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unfinished Nation to be sure is an excellent survey of American history from our most tentative explorations of this new continent to the War on Terror and invasion of Iraq. Written as a textbook for US History honors and even entry level college courses it's full of impeccable research and clear narrative voice that makes the tread over familiar ground both enjoyable and informative. What sets Unfinished Nation apart from its counterparts is that it's mostly a social and political history, rather than the one great man and time-place histories that we are all so familiar with. As a result the narrative is told through movements and periods rather than a chronological trudge through history from one event to the next, which isn't for everyone. Also, dispersed throughout the chapters are some asides of important events like the civil rights movement, examining different historical perspectives and showing that history isn't something written stone, but is actively debated and altered when new data and ideas become more readily accepted. At the end of each chapter is a summary and an extensive reading list covering the topics mentioned in the chapter, sure to balloon an history buffs wishlist.

I originally picked this book up as a quick and easy way to familiarize myself with the early American history topics I hope to cover soon, but I found myself unable to stop reading into the events I thought I had little or no interest in and to learn more. The one negative I have is that the last chapters cover the last twenty years or so, which isn't as big a problem for the early 90's, but I think it's still too early to tell what the real impacts of the information age and what the 21st century has reaped so far. History too close to the actual event stinks of bias. Other than that I really enjoyed this somewhat extended survey of American history.

[Megan Gurney · Rating 5 out of 5]

yes it destroyed my mental health but i got a 5 on the test so i guess it deserves a 5 star rating too

[allie · Rating 5 out of 5]

edit: 5 STARS BC I GOT A 5 RAHHH 🦅🦅


manifesting a 5 on the apush exam 😭😭😭

[Стефан Петков · Rating 4 out of 5]

Това е дефакто стандартният учебник за щатските колежи в обучението по история. Родният превод на изданието е добър - само някои лични имена са преведени неправилно. Инак Бринкли си е свършил работата по максимално неутрално/обективно презентиране на американската история. Препоръчвам.

[Madeleine Nicole]

Don't ask me how much of this I actually read

[Grace · Rating 3 out of 5]

Honestly, I gave this book 3 stars because I am not a fan of APUSH and not a big history geek in general.

Brinkley is clearly an expert in his field and he acknowledges many perspectives while getting the important points across as well. He does not always talk about things in chronological order, and although that can get confusing, it really demonstrates how many things are going along in the same time and the nature of history. If you like history, you should definitely give this book a shot.

However, I don’t think this book was that great for APUSH and I think a study guide would be better instead because of the American education system.

[Annelisa Burns · Rating 5 out of 5]

For a history textbook, it's not bad. We actually read it cover to cover in APUSH so yeah I'm marking it as read. Thanks Mr. Luedtke!

[Bookshire Cat · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a compulsory reading for our course on the USA history. As an introduction, the book is quite good, well arranged and easy to follow. However, it is also biased and brimming with pathos.

[Hasnain Abro · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the best book on US history i've ever read.

[🐞 · Rating 4 out of 5]

love apush with all my heart but i would rather eat a bug than read this book again…

i’m going to have to for exam review 🥲

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good, but I personally kinda lost it after the Civil War.

[Alan Winter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazing online textbook.

[Suhail · Rating 5 out of 5]

Concisely writen. A master piece.

[CrowElCamarada · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 stars because I got an 5 on the AP exam :)

[vera · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lo leí para clase, might as well count it

[Ashley Ellsworth · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was one of the two required books that I was to read while taking US History over the summer. Now, as someone who isn't a "history buff" I definitely wouldn't have read this book if it wasn't necessary.
But surprisingly I found the contents of this book to be quite interesting. The chapters were well written in a sense that they stated the facts in a clear and well organized way. Each chapter was formatted with a new bolded heading at the beginning of each subtopic making it easy to separate the subjects. At the beginning of each chapter there was a small timeline focusing on what happened during that period of which the chapter focused on. Throughout the chapters there were also many pictures which were often used for reference by my teacher, making it easier to depict what the scenario was like back then.
One thing that I did not like though was how lengthy the chapters were. They do contain plenty of useful information, but to me they pack in TOO much information, overwhelming the reader. The information is interesting, but like anything else it can get boring if overdone making it easy for the readers mind to wander off into more interesting thoughts.

[Eva Hogue · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was required for me to read in my US History course over the summer at Cuesta College. Interestingly, I actually enjoyed sections that I read. Time lines were posted at the beginning of every chapter, which clearly stated important events mentioned through out the chapter. Also, each small subtitle included within sections were thoroughly defined and explained. Multiple pictures with expansive explanations were included as well. For me, one of the most useful sections was the Appendix, where presidential elections were charted. The year, the candidates, the winner, the parties, the popular vote, the percentage of the popular vote, the electoral vote, and the percentage of voter participation were all mentioned. I was easily able to refer to this section, and piece together parts of history according to election dates. This was one of the most interesting history textbooks I have been required to read.

[Levi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read the first 15 chapters of this book for a US History course. It's definitely a better read than your typical dry textbooks. Each chapter is broken up into sections and subsections that make it easier to grasp the important details of events. When a key term comes up, it is highlighted in green and set off to the side of the paragraph, making it simpler to find important information while reviewing. Details unnecessary to the regular material are put in boxes set aside from the main text, like a side note in the Civil War chapter about the birth of baseball. It's focused on the most essential and interesting parts of history without being too heavy, and two tear-out timelines make it easy to find important dates at a glance. Like I said, I only finished the first 15 chapters because that's all that was assigned, but they were enjoyable. It's a good book for school or for reference.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very good survey for the general reader like myself who wants to review our country's history. It's very readable, with 25 page chapters or so, covering a specific period and it does that well. It's illustrated with helpful charts, maps and graphs. At the end of each chapter is a good reading list for those who want to explore further aspects of the period just covered. The appendix includes the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. It's a good foundation and reference book for any student of US history and should be a welcome addition to the bookshelves of all of us.

[Kelsey · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is alright. It is a textbook, so that means that it's not the most interesting thing you could read, but as far as books about all of our nation's history go, it wasn't that bad. There were even some sections that I found myself enjoying. Maybe other readers will even get more out of it than I did, so I would encourage people interested in history to at least give it a chance (I know for a fact that at least one person I know really liked it).

[Shruthika · Rating 2 out of 5]

AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

wow all of my memories with this book were traumatic

emotional distress aside, this was actually not bad as far as textbooks go

like the info was fairly palatable but that doesn't mean i was able to actually do well on apush tests :')))

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent survey text book, using a narrative format similar to the Tindall books. I think it does one of the better jobs of conceptually organizing the material, and provides a helpful list of further reference at the end of each chapter (including film and internet sources). On the down side, the single volume edition is exceedingly cursory.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a book required for my US History course at Cuesta. I actually enjoyed what I had to read, but maybe that's because I like history. The text was to the point and factual, although sometimes I noticed some slight biases by the author. There were very good diagrams throughout, and a nice appendix that was helpful when studying for tests. Definitely better than an average textbook.

[Shhhhh Ahhhhh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dry AF but fascinating nonetheless. I definitely learned a lot. It occurred to me while listening to the last chapter, that text-to-speeching a textbook was strangely remiscent of the science fiction movie trope of people abosrbing information in mass quantities very quickly. It also reminded me of the Animatrix shorts documenting the history of the human-robot war.

[Lionel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This text book was way more readable and clear than most I've read. And my paper back was a good physical size. I enjoyed the writing style.

[Samantha]

For AP US History...

this honestly has to be one of the worst textbooks I have ever read!

[Stefani · Rating 5 out of 5]

What you learn in primary school is a bunch of propaganda. This book gives a very insightful view of America's history as a nation.

[Dolly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book for my U.S. History discovery through current classes in college. Overall good overview of history that was easy to understand and read.