Local Author Randolph Russell spoke to the club about his new book American history in no time. Randolph G. Russell has written an easily digestible history of America from before Columbus to the present day. American History in No Time lays out the basics of our culture, or the “big picture,” in around a hundred pages. It provides a complete and highly informative summation of the key things we all need to know about our past.
American History in No Time is a unique overview divided into short sections that can be read in around five minutes each. The entire book can be read in just one sitting. Even though it is short, nothing major has been left out. In just a few hours, anyone can know the key events, people, places, and principles.
A quick look at the table of contents gives one a feel for its breadth, from the indigenous cultures populating America anciently, through the early colonies and the Continental Congresses, the Declaration of Independence, and the Revolutionary War. Randolph explains the Constitution, the push westward across the continent, slavery, the Civil War, and Reconstruction. The storyline continues through the rest of the 19th and 20th centuries with the growth of industry, the Great Depression, both world wars, the civil rights movement, the advent of space travel, and into the current century, including 9/11 and the election of Donald Trump.
All of this is presented in segments, each averaging a page and a half packed with the salient details that will give the reader an understanding of how we as a people arrived at this point. And that understanding fosters something else. “All of us want our children and grandchildren and everyone else we care about to love this country,” Russell said, “but you can’t love what you don’t know.”