"In this deeply researched book, Harvard University professor of education and African American studies Jarvis R. Givens locates 1819 as a "crossroads" in the history of education in the United States. That year, Congress passed the Civilization Fund Act, providing funding for assimilative boarding schools for Native American children, and the governor of Virginia signed an anti-literacy law that made it a crime to teach enslaved people to read and write in schools."
"I've been eagerly waiting years for this book! This is the second volume of Rick Atkinson's trilogy on the American Revolution. Atkinson makes good use of letters and diaries. You feel like you're in the middle of a battle, with all the sights, sounds and tragedy. Harrowing tales of hand-to-hand fighting, scalping and desperate evacuations. Fine detail: the waxed mustaches of the Hessian forces, the number of rum barrels distributed to weary and ill-clad troops, the dull thud of cannonballs smacking into ships."
Ten U.S.-focused history books examine pivotal moments and institutions that shaped the nation. Jarvis R. Givens traces 1819 as a crossroads in American education, noting the Civilization Fund Act and Virginia's anti-literacy law, and links race, power, and schooling. The law funded assimilative boarding schools for Native children while criminalizing literacy for enslaved people. Rick Atkinson recreates Revolutionary War battles using letters and diaries, delivering vivid sensory detail, accounts of hand-to-hand fighting, scalping, evacuations, rum distribution, cannon fire, and the stench of makeshift hospitals. The selections illuminate policy, race, and military experience in U.S. history.
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