Book Review: Our Nation's Archive: A History of the US in Documents

This article is a review of the book 'Our Nation's Archive' The History Of The United States In Documents.The book was edited by Eric Bruun and Jay Crosby and published by Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers. ISBN 978-1-60376-161-1

I purchased the hard cover edition of this book several months ago. Since then I've read large portions of the book and used it as a reference. As expected, the book is not a contiguous history of the US. The documents are presented in chronological order. The format of the book is to give an introduction followed by the relevant document.

The book contains a wide variety of documents that gives real insight to some parts of history. Here is a list of some of the documents within the book

The first document in this book describes the Cherokee Nation's vision of how the world was made.

The book contains letters written by George Washington upon accepting the position as Commander of the Army.

The book contains important historical documents such as the Articles of Confederation.

The book contains Thomas Paine's pamphlet Common Sense.

The book includes the written decision of Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall's 1803 decision regarding the Marbury vs Madison case.

One document expresses General Grant's personal thoughts and feelings when he met General Lee to accept Lee's surrender. This document is followed by Lee's final farewell to his soldiers.

Many other documents are presented in this wonderful history book.

The book ends with President Obama's speech to Congress on February 24, 2009.

This history book is written like every history book should be written. The author does not take sides. The author simply gives an introduction to each document followed by the text of the document. The book is very readable. It serves as an excellent companion to my other history books. I highly recommend this book.