The American promise

School Library Journal

Gr 10-12-- Many of the societal changes of the last 45 years have come about as a result of minority groups demanding, and in many cases receiving, more egalitarian treatment. Other changes reflect an altered national concept of various issues. Covering the cold war, the Korean and Vietnam conflicts, the civil rights and women's movements, immigration, poverty, and the environmental movement, Meltzer gives adherents and observers of these times their own say. The use of primary-source material is particularly laudable, granting immediacy and clarity to the subjects and capturing the feelings behind the issues. It is unfortunate that the prose connecting the first-person accounts of involvement is not more animated; Meltzer's comments are curiously inert. Another aspect that bears mentioning is the relentlessly liberal slant of the presentation; no voices from the conservative camp are represented. The book introduces young adults to the works of Betty Friedan, the Berrigans, Rachel Carson, Howell Raines, and many others. Interested readers may be encouraged to go on to Studs Terkel's The Great Divide: Second Thoughts on the American Dream (1988) and American Dreams: Lost and Found (1980, both Pantheon). The American Promise will serve as an effective teaser. --Ann Welton, University Child Development School, Seattle