I found the book The American
Revolution, a History by Gordon S. Wood to be an interesting, but less
engaging book than Joy Hakim's text. The book by Wood certainly went into much
more detail than the Hakim text, but the thing that was missing for me was the
actual photo, illustration, or trivia that Hakim used. I compared the section
in Wood's text where he discussed the writing of the state constitutions. This
section was very engaging and interesting, but I felt much more connected to
the Hakim text, which shows actual pictures of the New York State Constitution
and the North Carolina Constitution, as well as important details about the
information shared.
I feel that the Wood text is much more appropriate to be
used as a background text for teachers to use to build their base knowledge on
this period in American history. The Hakim text is a book that I would actually
use with my students to show them primary sources to help them to understand
the facts that are given.
An interesting "sidebar" to the Wood text
was that while I was reading it, the movie "The Patriot" came on AMC
on cable. Of course, I just happened to be reading the Wood text and could add
commentary about Cornwallis at the end of the movie to my husband based on what
I had read.I guess the point is made that we as teachers need to build our base
knowledge about historical events. We can then help our students discern what
is fact and what is fiction in the movies and other media that they often rely
on to build their knowledge of our nation's past.
