Edited by four history professors, this multi-volume set purports to cover the grand sweep of American History, from the establishment of the Jamestown colony to the present. Yet the stated intent is not to give a grand, overall view, but rather a sharply focused one on “the daily habits and doings of people” (xiii). The primary resources used to present this angle are the usual suspects: letters, diaries, memoirs, newspaper articles, and speeches. There is great diversity in the voices heard here, including colonizers and colonized, immigrants and natives, slaves and free people, young and old, men and women. The four volumes are arranged chronologically, and within each volume there are chapters on domestic, economic, intellectual, political, recreational, and religious life. These chapters all contain a few pages of helpful background information before the excerpts from the featured primary sources. These source selections vary in size, but tend to be about a page in length, and are followed by a bibliographic citation for readers who may wish to further pursue investigation. Each individual volume also contains a “Historical Overview” of 15-20 pages that is well-written, accessible, and provides an excellent introduction to the time period covered.

A real strength of this set is the broad range of people, events, places, and time periods covered. Entries are quite entertaining as well as diverse. For example, the first volume, The Colonial Period through the American Revolution, contains “Dancing and Racial Mixing in the Taverns,” “Benjamin Franklin, ‘The Morals of Chess’,” “Arguments over a Smallpox Vaccine,” and “An Essay on Monarchy and Liberty.” The supplementary chronology in each volume provides a helpful context in which to place these wide-ranging entries. While there is no cumulative bibliography anywhere in the set, there is a rather extensive list of “Suggested Readings” at the end of Volume Four.

Although there are no glaring deficiencies with this set, some entries do appear in unexpected places. For example, while one would expect to find entries on cornhusking and sleigh rides in the chapter on “Recreational Life,” the entry on “A Public Execution of Pirates” in the same section is surprising. Also, the inclusion of some entries, such as the “Star Spangled Banner” and “Yankee Doodle” seems unnecessary. The sources themselves in this case are simply the words to these well-known songs, and the complete lyrics of each are easily accessible via an Internet search. The provided background material offered on these entries is scant and does not justify their inclusion here. Also, there are no cross references, though each volume is individually indexed, allowing users to quickly see which pages mention certain individuals or ideas. The problem is that sometimes the entire entry on an item in the index is not mentioned. For example, users looking up the aforementioned “Star Spangled Banner” and “Yankee Doodle” in the index will only find a one-page reference for each to the volume’s introductory “Historical Overview,” where a brief reference is made to each song, but no reference to the full entries. If users miss these entries in the table of contents—entirely possible for reasons mentioned earlier—they may never find them. Despite these relatively minor issues, this is an excellent set overall for researchers looking for a sampling of primary resources in American History, and would be appropriate for public, academic, and high school libraries.