Pathways of Learning: Essays in American and European History

With the intent to present history as it really was, author David B. Kier offers a diverse collection of nineteen essays that address major and minor issues in both American and European history. Delivered from a traditional—as opposed to post-modernist—point of view, Pathways of Learning explores a wide array of topics. Continuity and change is a familiar theme in Kier’s work, as exemplified by the essay “TJ and TR: A Tale of Two ‘Revolutionaries,’” which compares and contrasts Thomas Jefferson and Theodore Roosevelt. Politics and ideology are the subjects of the essay “The Nasty Nineties,” which focuses on America at the end of the twentieth century. Intellectual currents are highlighted in essays about farmers in “Populism as Parable” and writers in “The Impact of ‘the Lost Generation.’” The influence of popular culture is featured in “Another Side of War: the Home Front in World War II.” Informative, entertaining, and frequently provocative, Pathways of Learning communicates the important role history plays in the world through varied and descriptive essays.