We who savor the history of Illinois and its astounding metropolis, Chicago, need from time to time to brush up on our national history and world history as well. Except for an excessive number of minor errors which, one hopes, will be corrected in later printings, the English historian-economist-journalist Paul Johnson (b. 1928) has given us one of the most readable and instructive single-volume histories of the United States ever written. Breaking free of the tradition of elegantly illustrated textbooks for high school and college courses, he proves that a single profound thinker can be far more original and profound than the committees and rewriters who have dominated our large histories for two generations.

Johnson has an extraordinary record of writing large books on vast subjects, including his Modern Times (the world from the 1920s to the 1980s), History of Christianity, A History of the Jews, History of the English People, Birth of the Modern (the world, 1815-1830), and the iconoclastic Intellectuals. This gives him a long-term and worldwide perspective by means of which he interprets and judges the American people; he does not judge us, as most U.S. histories have done, in terms of some abstract and Utopian standard. None of our great national errors or shortcomings has escaped his attention, nevertheless he endorses the United States, even in the 1990s, in terms entirely consistent with Abraham Lincoln's in 1863, "the last best hope on earth." In other words, he gives mostly positive answers to questions posed on the first page of his story: "Can a nation rise above the injustices of its origins and, by its moral purpose and performance, atone for them? ...In the process of nation-building, can ideals and altruism-the desire to build the perfect community-be mixed with acquisitiveness and ambition, without which no dynamic society can be built at all? ...Have [the Americans] proved exemplars for all humanity?"

Johnson pays respectful, indeed enthusiastic, attention to the historical roles and tribulations of African-Americans, women, and various other immigrant and native minorities, but even more prominent are his deftly detailed characterizations of political leaders, businessmen, architects, graphic artists, inventors, and creative people in general. His emphasis is pre-eminently on a nation of creators and high achievers rather than a nation of victims and intellectual critics. By deft use of historical anecdotes, he brings to life characters who, in race, class, and gender-conscious current academic textbooks, go unnamed or merely labeled. Johnson aims at individual qualities; a striking example is his discussion of William Randolph Hearst's hiring "Julia Morgan (1872-1857) America's greatest woman architect" to design his spectacular estate San Simeon: "A rare photograph shows the two together-the enormous, genial, and sinister Hearst, and the tiny (five foot) Morgan, in her neat, severely tailored suit and expensive silk blouse, the epitome of fierce proto-lesbianism," (p. 685).

Here are two of Johnson's errors, typical in that they are inaccurate about a minor character and a bit of geography: Sir William Phips, the first Royal Governor of Massachusetts under the new charter of 1691, appears here as "the temporary governor, William Philips" (p. 86); and, 240 years later on the other side of the continent, the waters of the Columbia River system are harnessed by a great dam "at Boulder Canyon, Nevada." (p. 689).

Johnson's genuine love of responsible free speech and democratic government informs his vigorous discussion of the American Revolution; one must go back to George Bancroft to match this Englishman's enthusiasm for the Founding Fathers and their achievements, yet far more than Bancroft he notes how most of the Founders strove to better their personal conditions while risking much or all for the public good. Johnson's belief in free markets and individual economic opportunity also allows him to see more sunshine and less darkness in the growth of American capitalism than most historians. Conversely, he is more critical of the continuous growth of government in the twentieth century. Thus he applauds our last small-government president, Calvin Coolidge, and endorses his contemptuous labeling of big-government Herbert Hoover as "wonder boy." Johnson is merciless to dangerous charlatans like Senator Joe McCarthy, but he also denounces as witch-hunts the Watergate paranoia that drove Richard Nixon from office and the less successful but longer playing Iran-gate investigations that plagued Ronald Reagan's and George Bush's presidencies. The combination of free-market economics and criticism of recent left-liberalism (especially "judicial activism") will prevent this book from being assigned in most of our colleges and universities. Paradoxically, the same qualities that will keep it outside the academic palisade should especially commend it to the larger reading public that welcomes fresh perspectives on our national problems.

Copies of Paul Johnson's 1088-page A History of the American People (New York: Harper Collins, 1997) may be found at most bookstores and public libraries. The list price is $35.00. Robert McColley assures our readers that the opinions detailed above are those of the author and the reviewer and not necessarily those of The Illinois State Historical Society.