The history books of my youth

So, anonymous told us his or her favorite kid's book and I had to find out what it was. Published in 1950 and written by Morrell Gipson. She tells the story of a bear who sits on all the other animals' houses until karma catches up with him. Apparently, Gary Larsen, creator of The Far Side, is a big fan, too.

I need to find this book, if only because I had never heard of it.

Does anyone remember the series of American history books published back in the 1960s and written by Earl Schenck Meiers? It was the Golden Book History of the United States. It was in 10 volumes with an additional two volume bibliographic index. My mother bought them one at a time from either Kroger or some other store. For the longest time, we were missing volume 12, but my cousin had it, so I finally was able to read about great Americans M-Z. I'll never forget Vladimir Zworykin and how confused I was that he was considered a famous American. But these books were published in 1963 and the Cold War was raging as strongly as it ever would, so claiming this guy and his incredible invention (which is still in use today, but is slowly being replaced by better technology) was pretty important, especially because he was born in Russia.

I read and reread these books. I learned more basic American history from these than I ever would in school. When I think about it, most of my knowledge on the topic is rooted and framed by these books. They served as a guide for all the history books that I would consume as a kid. This is when I first learned that not all history books agree on all of the facts. This is probably the time I developed a taste for lists and organizing information.

I learned about Bjarni Herjulfsson and Leif Erikson and the naming of Greenland and Iceland, Columbus, DeSoto, Cortez, and LaSalle; Plymouth and Jamestown and how each colony was formed; Bunker Hill, Benedict Arnold, and the Declaration of Independence; the Barbary pirates, Aaron Burr, and the building of canals; the lopsided Mexican War and the despicable Dred Scott case (which jumped into my mind unannounced when Kansas played Missouri a couple of weeks ago in college football); Shiloh, Gettysburg and "...with malice toward none..." & "Now he belongs to the ages"; Custer's Last Stand, the Haymarket riot, and the Johnstown flood; the rise of labor, the busting of monopolies and Teddy Roosevelt; Pancho Villa, John J. Pershing and Wilson's Fourteen Points; Teapot Dome, Prohibition and the Crash of '29; World War II; nucear bombs, the Marshall Plan, and the space race...

There it ends because we hadn't even made it to the moon by this point.

These books were loaded with paintings (by Alton S. Tobey) and photographs. They were the prototypes for Dorling Kindersley and other similar publishers. Most, if not all, books had a large fold out painting. I used to leaf through the books just to look at the art. Geez, do I miss these books. I think my mother still has them. I know that I've asked for them before, but she hasn't wanted to part with them. I don't blame her. But wasn't I the primary reader of these books? (Click on the link above to take you to the artist's website and the covers of all 12 volumes, plus some samples from the volumes.)

Anyone else read these?