"This reader-friendly encyclopedia provides a comprehensive and informative look at the U.S.'s early history. Though the coverage is standard fare–the 219 articles address such material as the Pilgrims, the Salem witch trials, the Alamo, Daniel Boone, and the Civil War–the arrangement, presentation, and accessibility of the material make the set exemplary. The alphabetical volumes are written in a clear, easy-to-read style. Excellent use is made of sidebars and subheadings, as well as primary-source documents. The illustrations, which include engravings, woodcuts, paintings, newspaper caricatures, and black-and-white and color photographs, work beautifully to advance the text. A thematic table of contents is subdivided into "Culture, Society, and Economy"; "Government, Politics, War, and Foreign Affairs"; "Laws, Treaties, Cases, and Documents"; "People"; and "Places," with articles color coded according to these topics. Cross-references are provided at the end of each article. The final volume contains a cumulative time line as well as several more access points, including a comprehensive index and set glossary, a map index, a thematic index that corresponds to the table of contents, and resources for further study. The multivolume format and limited temporal scope of this work sets it apart from more comprehensive single-volume works such as John Mack Faragher's The American Heritage Encyclopedia of American History (Holt, 1998), which covers this period in addition to more recent history."