Wilfred McClay’s American history textbook Land of Hope (LOH) is one of my 103 Top Picks. Shortly after I published my list of Top Picks, the publisher came out with A Young Reader’s Edition of Land of Hope (YRLOH), a two-volume, abridged version of LOH. YRLOH can be used as a textbook for students in junior and senior high.
YRLOH covers the same material plus more recent events that have occurred in the three years since LOH was published in 2019. The content has been changed slightly to make it more manageable for those below college level. Much of the language in YRLOH is verbatim from LOH, but some sentences have been shortened, and many paragraphs and chapters have been split. For example, the material in the chapter titled “From Boom to Bust” in LOH appears across three chapters in YRLOH and has been slightly rewritten. Breaking the content down into more chapters makes the material seem more manageable.
Please read my review of LOH for more details about the content.
A teacher’s guide and a student workbook for this two-volume set should be available in July of 2023. It would be challenging, but not impossible, to use the ancillary materials for LOH in the meantime because the chapter divisions are so different.
While I think LOH is excellent, I believe that the Young Reader’s Edition of Land of Hope will work better for students in junior and senior high since it is easier to digest.
