The Essential American
A Patriots Resource; 25 Documents and Speeches Every American Should Own

Given the limits in publishing a book of speeches and documents, choices had to be made, and in this case, I can't say I agreed with all the choices. Part of what rubbed me wrong on this was that some of the choices were of historic interest, but the speeches or documents were given in their entiret......more

I loved this book a great read for a anyone who loves history......more

I found this book down at Half Price Books on accident. It is really a great book. There are some excellent speeches in here, many of which I have never read, and a couple I have never even heard of. I always find the fact that I have not been exposed to these pieces of American history when I have......more

So this is not the kind of book I would typically buy, but a (Republican) friend of mine gave it to me as a present. I didn't find the commentary particularly insightful (although in a few cases it did have interesting background information), so generally the value was in the texts themselves. The se......more

Hypocrisy is rife throughout the analysis. The quality of the historical Documents earned this book an extra point for me, but all men created equal stands out without a single word of slavery or of the lack of equality for women (despite the fact that the author is a woman). I agree with the main p......more