A SHORT HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES

How do you cover all of U.S. history in around 10 hours? Oliver Wyman adopts a brisk, breathless style for Remini's primer. Remini crams a lot of facts into his brief history. Although Wyman provides meaningful inflection as he narrates, there's hardly any new material or insight. Wyman's narration is lively, and he delivers a lot of information as clearly as possible. Given the fast pace, though, listeners aren't likely to retain much. Recent events get more coverage—as well as Wyman's impressions of figures like Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan. The history takes listeners up to the beginning of 2008, and the looming recession. History buffs are likely to crave more specialized books. J.A.S. © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine [Published: FEBRUARY 2009]