Most of our frequent readers know, by now, that I am a lawyer.  I am also a fervent student of United States history devouring what my wife calls, “boring books about people who have been dead for hundreds of years.”  In both of those pursuits, I am always referring to the documents which helped create the United States.  This includes the usual suspects: the Constitution, Declaration of Independence, and the Bill of Rights, of course.  But my interests also branch further to include numerous historical texts, Supreme Court opinions, and more.  In addition to these historical documents, I also have a frequent need for current information, such as the names and addresses of Members of Congress, or high ranking officials in the Executive Branch.  Of course, while all of this information, and plenty more is readily available, it also fills tens of thousands of pages (or more) in hundreds of books.  not exactly easily accessible.  But now, you can have all this and more with two new programs on your iPhone and iPod Touch. Let’s take a closer look at Manual for the United States of America and U.S. Historical Documents.

Which one of these programs is best for you really depends upon what you need.  Manual for the United States of America offers a quick snapshot of our government.  How we got here and where we are today.  I think it does a good job of providing the important historical underpinnings of the United States in a quick and accessible format.  It starts in 1776 with the Declaration of Independence, and continues through the 1700’s with the Constitution (including the bill of Rights as Amendments 1-10), and the Federal Papers defending the new constitution.  It also takes you through modern times with:

• List of all 44 Presidents
• List of States
• Current Supreme Court Justices (but not historic)
• Landmark Supreme Court cases
• The U.S. Flag Code and Images

Finally, USA Manual offers a few additional documents which more indirectly helped shape our country.  These include, for example:

• The Articles of Confederation (which predated the Constitution)
• Washington’s Farewell Address
• The Gettysburg Address
• The U.S.Patriot Act

I thought Manual for the United States of America did a fantastic job of providing the necessary historical context for our society, as well as a good overview of where we are today.  This is really a fantastic at-a-glance type of reference manual for anyone with a need to know what makes our government work.

Far more robust is the newer U.S. Historical  Documents.  Its litany of hundreds of documents begins well before the United States was even colonized by the Europeans with the Magna Carta and letters from Christopher Columbus to the King and Queen of Spain.  It proceeds through the colonial era, with numerous documents chronicling the rise of the British colonies in America, including early attempts at self governance.  It proceeds through the important documents of every era and administration In U.S history, all the way through the inauguration of President Obama, just weeks ago.   In fact, I had a hard time finding any document which was not included (I did come up with two: James Madison’s notes on the Constitutional Convention and the Diaries of Lewis and Clark  — and I am sure there are others, but that is neither here nor there).  In the end, this is simply the most complete collection of American historical documents I have ever seen.

In terms of reading, I felt that Manual for the United States of America did a much nicer job with the text layout.  Here you can see a comparison, looking at the Preamble to the Constitution.  That is the Manual for the United States of America on the left and U.S. Historical Documents on the right.  The Manual for the United States of America was very menu oriented, allowing you to jump to the passage or chapter you needed, like the scene selector on a DVD.  U.S. Historical Documents was much more text oriented, dropping you straight into the document itself.  

U.S. Historical Documents felt much less designed for the casual reader, and more for the scholar or researcher using these materials for reference.  The font felt very confining, as though it did not fit quite right on page.  It was just not easy to look at or to read.  I hope that in a future release, they will fix this problem and adjust the margins and layouts of the documents.  These remain extremely important historical documents, and it would be nice to make them more accessible to all readers. 

Another really cool thing that Manual for the United States of America did was provide images of the original historic documents.  It can be extremely impressive to see things like the United States Constitution in its original form.  I thought these images really helped bring the documents to life, and wish more had been included.  What a fantastic resource.

The one thing I would have liked from both of these apps was more information about the current government.  Manual for the United States of America does some of this, with information about the current government, and the Judiciary (including some select Supreme Court opinions), but there is an awful lot more that could be done.  These apps could significantly increase their usefulness to the millions of government officials by including the Federal Yellow Book series.  I would also like to see the inclusion of the United States Code and Code of Federal Regulations.  Finally, neither includes a lot of information about the Judiciary, which would be awfully nice.  A list of all Supreme court justices throughout history would be a great start, as would an expanded assortment of Supreme Court cases.   I do realize, however, that some of these suggestions (or all of them) would require a separate app, which would work as well.

Looking at both of these together, I think it is clear that Manual for the United States of America is the better app for casually reading documents.  But that is all it is good for…reading.  It has no advanced features, like U.S. Historical Documents.  The latter program first includes a bookmark tool, so you can save your spot and return to pick up where you left off. 

More importantly, however, it gives you the tools you need for more serious research.  You can annotate throughout the documents, making notes as you go, and even highlighting text.  Additionally, it has an extremely nice search feature, which allows you to hone in on the documents and sections which are most relevant to your work.

Finally, while both programs allow you to use the standard iPhone style finger scrolling, U.S. Historical Documents also features options on the side which allow you to jump directly to the century you need.  Additionally, not only can you scroll with your finger, you can also swap to tilt scroll.  when activated, just tilt your iPhone and watch as the lines of text slowly crawl up your screen.  Alas, none of these documents are preceded by the words, “A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away…”

In the end, I have to say I loved both of these apps.  I felt like USA Manual is better for the casual user, who just wants to learn more about the government and our shared history.   U.S. Historical Documents, believe it or not, is going to be better for the serious researcher who wants to do something like compare John Adams’ and Thomas Jeffersons’ inaugural addresses.  I am still not a fan of doing serious reading on my iPod Touch, however, apps like these make me seriously think about reconsidering that opinion.

Both Manual for the United States of America ($0.99) and U.S. Historical Documents ($1.99)are available from the iTunes App Store.

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