AMERICA'S HISTORY

Kids explore the rise of political and economic freedom in America in Boyack’s illustrated primer.

In this latest installment of the Tuttle Twins series, Ethan and Emily Tuttle, who look to be about 11 years old, get lessons in American history, mostly from Fred, a neighbor who engages them in seminars augmented with costumes and skits (he dons a Pilgrim outfit to discuss the Mayflower Compact, for example). The dialogues elaborate on broad historiographical themes, including the irrepressible search for trade routes to Asia that brought Europeans to the Americas; the growth of the English tradition of individual rights; the colonists’ development of institutions of self-government an ocean away from the king; their chafing against arbitrary royal power, taxation and economic regulation in the 1760s and 1770s; and the turn from protest to revolution (Fred simulates the Redcoats’ ordeal at Lexington and Concord by having the twins run a backyard obstacle course while he pelts them with chestnuts). In the book’s climax, demonstrators at an Independence Day celebration hand out leaflets spotlighting slavery, the Trail of Tears, and “American fascism”; Fred, portraying Thomas Jefferson, replies with a speech that acknowledges these darker aspects of American history—including Jefferson’s ownership of slaves—but argues that America’s founding principles eventually brought the world freedom and prosperity. The author, founder of the Libertas Institute think tank, infuses libertarian ideas into the narrative: war is bad; free trade is good; coercive government is the main threat to freedom and happiness. With so much to cover in a slender text, some topics receive a sketchy, garbled treatment (“With feudalism, the peasants had to be slaves for the king, or else!”). Still, Boyack manages to give this history a coherent and pointed philosophical framework, conveyed in lively, kid-friendly prose: “Locke wrote about an idea that was pretty new and radical at the time—that the government’s job was to protect everyone’s right to life, liberty, and property.” Illustrations by Stanfield and Cariello contribute colorful visual pizzazz.

An entertaining children’s history that pays rich and systematic attention to the meaning of liberty.