A First Book in American History

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History, especially for children, is meant to be told as a coherent story and, like any story, includes the perspective of the author. It is precicely the author's selection and coherent integration of the facts that he deems most important that makes history interesting. A more objective understanding of the past is achieved by reading multiple perspectives and integrating an understanding of each author's bias with their work.

Modern history books that try to present history without judgement, assessment, or character succeed only in compiling a confusing, politically correct menagerie of cluttered facts that bores and confuses the reader.

A simple example: Thanksgiving is a celebration originating from the discovery that private property ownership lead to plentiful harvest. The preceding commonwealth experiments of the Plymouth and Jamestown collonists where all production was shared and divided equally lead to "the starving time" that lasted multiple years. No modern textbook has the honesty to present these simple facts as they actually happened, thus confusing the true meaning of American Thanksgiving and distorting the valuable lesson that was learned by our forefathers. Eggleston does.