100 Turning Points in American History

by Alan Axelrod author of How America Won World War I

100 Turning Points in American History is the first in a series of books about the critical decisions, events, inventions, and discoveries that shaped our nation, our world, and our civilization. Each volume presents the stories of 100 decisions/events/ breakthroughs in chronological order and includes, as a special feature, a list of the “Top Ten” ranked in order of impact, with a discussion justifying the ranking. Each decision/event/breakthrough includes sidebar features (“boxes”) highlighting relevant key personalities. Each volume is illustrated with (public domain) photos, images and maps.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, American History

392 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 1, 2019

Reviews

[Tony Laplume · Rating 3 out of 5]

His myopic obsession with the last hundred years (half the book covers this period) becomes a real problem when he diverges completely from an objective pretext in the final selections. I’m sure he’s been very pleased with the prospects for a new edition since the most recent presidential election.

[Vanessa Olson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a good read. While it's true these are essentially just quick hits about each of the 100 events, I felt it was informative and well-researched. The closer to present day we got, the more the author tiptoed into making the book more political, which is the reason this wasn't a 5 star for me.

I made note of a few things I want to read more comprehensive books on, and that's a win for me! It would have been helpful in the audiobook if the events were numbered.

[Robert G. · Rating 1 out of 5]

Too shallow to have any depth

A quick read of 200 years of history does a disservice to the complexities and subtleties of actual events.

Relying on this book as the “Cliffs Notes” of American History leaves one poorly prepared for the “final exam” of maintaining a functional democracy.

[Bruce Steinheiser · Rating 2 out of 5]

Political rag from a leftist author

Every segment of the book has a left leaning view of history. I give it two stars only because the author was able to get the dates correct and had relatively few spelling issues

[Thomas Orsini · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extremely informative, hopefully will help me in APUSH

[Mark Anderson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definite left-leaning narrative in the telling of current events especially. Overall, very informative and easy to read given the short 2-4 page chapters for each “turning point”.