<p>I kinda hate the apush textbook. It has a great source of information, but it has some useless information, such as Eisenhower being such and such (personality-wise) and annoying metaphors. One metaphor in the book that really annoys me is the quarterback one during FDR’s during his first Hundred days.</p>
<p>It has its strong suits… But there’s just so much crap, like you mentioned – the pages and pages of personality descriptions.</p>
<p>I <3 The American Pageant. It does go on and on about presidential personalities but it’s also full of hilarious quotes. </p>
<p>“‘Tyler too’ rhymed with ‘Tippecanoe,’ but there the harmony ended.”</p>
<p>I don’t hate it but those metaphors and personality/physical appearance descriptions can get annoying [especially when you have other work to get to after reading]</p>
<p>It’s a textbook written so that you love the Elites.</p>
<p>Oh gosh, all the seemingly useless information is what I love about the American Pageant. It makes it really interesting and you can beast at Jeopardy when they ask which president enjoyed skinny dipping in the Potomac. I think it is really funnily written and I feel like I’m learning at the same time, as corny as that sounds.</p>
<p>I love the Pageant. This is my second time round reading it, and the funny wording makes me recall everything</p>
<p>Pageant is a textbook that entertains while teaching. Unfortunately, every once in awhile, it has very vague language or gets the causes/effects of an event wrong. However, this is what using outside information is for. I enjoy using it as my textbook.</p>
<p>Its a textbook like anything else. Its designed to teach us history at a college level, likewise, it contains lots of information that is superfluous in regards to the APUSH exam.</p>
<p>There’s so much useless stuff in the book that it’s almost impossible to take good notes, you end up adding a few dumb things “Lincoln had an incredibly tall stature, that is why people liked him” blah blah. I prefer AMSCO, but for my APUSH class, the teacher goes off of Pageant, so I’m forced to read it:(</p>
<p>I agree with the above posts. The metaphors get really annoying. My favorite one is:
“Leading the invading force was the grossly overweight General William R. Shafter, a would-be warrior so blubbery and gout-stricken that he had to be carried about on a door”</p>
<p>Is anyone else annoyed by the painful alliteration in each section title?</p>
<p>Oh my God, there’s so many pointless things in there. I don’t need a whole paragraph on how this president looked like or where they were born. Just give me the important things! But at least the Pageant has a lot of quirkiness so that you don’t get bored.</p>
<p>C’mon guys!! If anyone of you has taken AP World History with the Stearns book, you would know how TERRIBLY boring it is compared to the Pageant. I can knock off Pageant chapters in 30 minutes whereas it took me…let’s just say, quite a bit longer for Stearns.</p>
<p>I have taken AP World History and I read The Earth and Its People. The textbook is dry, but at least it’s more straightforward than the American Pageant. If the American Pageant does not have those metaphors and trivial information, so much time could have been saved reading each chapter.</p>
<p>^^ I agree. The Stearns book was a nightmare.</p>
<p>@ jerry4445 Yea, I see what you mean. I guess that’s where AMSCO comes in handy!</p>
<p>I enjoy reading the American Pageant when I have time, but if I’m pressed for time or have other assignments, I’ll just use AMSCO.</p>
<p>i personally dont mind the APUSH book… i mean sometimes the book can get annoying and is way to broad… but i do find some of the quotes funny</p>
<p>Our AP class reads American Pageant along with 3 other American history textbooks including A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn (recently passed away :(. I hate the Pageant because those damn Republican authors that glorify the racist elite and leave out critical information about the people. It (along with other high school and below history textbooks) are feeding the youth of America with a load of s***. They either should write a new textbook that covers the entire story and leaves out the superfluous jibberish, or take the Pageant off of mandatory reading lists and have students read Zinn (or something). Overall, though, I guess the Pageant isn’t as bad as some.</p>
<p>On a separate note, check out apnotes.net for clear, concise chapter summaries of the American Pageant. I find them sufficient enough to pass tests if I’m too lazy to read. Also, if your teacher bumps your grade for a 5 just don’t read Pag and get Barron’s or something.</p>
<p>At first it was kinda humorous (I remember something about tickling the soil with a hoe), but now the metaphors are just stupid. Often the metaphors are so vague I cannot even understand what their point is.</p>
<p>AP World kids, don’t even complain about Stearns. You didn’t have to use the worst textbook possible for the class, World History by Duiker and Spielvogel. The textbook was full of interesting information - for pleasure reading. (I’m not sure how much pleasure could be gained from reading this horribly-written treatise, however.) For an AP textbook, it falls astronomically short. There was a not a single bit of analysis or trends in the textbook. It was literally nothing but random, detailed historical facts to learn. Seeing as the county stuck us with the book, the teacher would assign reading from it and then give us tests of nothing but former AP questions. The result? Astronomically low scores. (The only reason that people even had a minutia of success was because of the teacher, who was amazing but obviously could not cover everything that the textbook lacked.) After the first quarter, I started using Barron’s to study for the tests. The result? Better test grades and a 5 on the exam.</p>
<p>^Agree!</p>
<p>I liked Pageant. It has a sense of humor - well sort of. Anyway, from a practical point of view, I used Pageant and Crash Course and scored a 5.</p>