Reference Reviews

Doug’s Student Reference Room

Milestone Documents of American Leaders: Exploring the Primary Sources of Notable Americans, edited by Paul Finkelman. 4 vols., 2,300 pgs. Dallas, TX: The Schlager Group, 2009. ISBN: 978-0-9797758-5-7. $385.

This second work in the outstanding Milestone Documents series offers primary source documents from 120 of the most important figures of American history from colonial times to the 21^st century. Like Milestone Documents in American History, this set helps readers establish a context for documents and provides critical analysis that illuminates the importance of documents against the backdrop of the nation's entire history. Organized alphabetically, entries follow a consistent format beginning with a biographical overview of the primary source author, explanation and analysis of documents and the impact and legacy of the both the author and the documents. Questions for further study can be used by history teachers to further probe the significance of the documents. Each entry also includes a page highlighting a half-dozen “essential quotes” that represent the author's ideas, which may also be useful for teachers to build lessons around. Key sources of the author's works are described and a short list of books, articles and websites provides a starting point for additional research. Primary source documents are set within a thick gray border to easily distinguish them from other text; these documents are accompanied by a glossary of terms to help readers through the text. The final volume includes a list of documents by category and a general index. A chronological list of authors and documents would be helpful, but this omission could easily be remedied in a subsequent edition. This set will make an excellent companion to Milestone Documents in American History and is recommended for both high school and academic libraries.