The Louisiana Purchase

Gr 9 Up—Books in this set share a common focus on American territorial or economic expansion, with uneven results. Gold Rush and Mexican War are the best of the group, with comprehensive overviews of events and analysis of their enormous impact on the U.S., but sometimes use stilted or old-fashioned language. Puerto Rico concentrates on American imperialism and the Spanish American War, mentioning Puerto Rico on only 13 pages. Erie Canal describes the political and technical challenges of building the canal, but its engineering explanations aren't clear and the illustrations don't clarify them. Louisiana spends a lot of time on Thomas Jefferson and his political and private lives. Alaska is somewhat dry. None of the material is documented, all of the books feature long blocks of text, and the maps are inadequate. As a group, they don't improve on the many extant titles about these topics.