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America's History: Concise Edition, Volume 2
Tenth Edition ©2021
Praised for its focus on turning points and engines of change, the Concise Edition of America’s History explains the why behind events. The tenth edition presents a greater variety of tools to engage todays students. This edition includes new part opener features to help students study cha...
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A brief text that helps students understand not just what happened in America’s history, but why
Praised for its focus on turning points and engines of change, the Concise Edition of America’s History explains the why behind events. The tenth edition presents a greater variety of tools to engage todays students. This edition includes new part opener features to help students study change and continuity in key periods, new coverage of capitalism and the economy, and an enhanced primary and secondary source program designed to develop historical thinking skills.
Available at a steep discount when packaged with the print book, the popular digital assignment options for this text bring skill building and assessment to a new and highly effective level. The greatest active learning options come in LaunchPad, Macmillan’s comprehensive and customizable learning platform, which combines an accessible, full-color e-book with LearningCurve, an adaptive and automatically graded learning tool that—when assigned—helps ensure students read the book; the complete companion reader with quizzes on each source; and many other study and assessment tools. For instructors who want the easiest and most affordable way to ensure students come to class prepared, Achieve Read & Practice pairs LearningCurve adaptive quizzing and our mobile, accessible, two-color Value Edition e-book, in one easy-to-use product.
"Americas History offers something for every student and instructor. There is a wealth of extra opportunities to read and ‘do’ history with the various sections like ‘Thinking Like a Historian.’ The text is straightforward and easy for students to understand, and it is inclusive of many points of view. I have used a lot of history textbooks in 25 years, and by far, this text is my favorite."
-- Lynne Nelson Manion, Eastern Maine Community College"I have always liked America’s History because of its engaging, readable story of people. It is also nicely presented with well-chosen images and historical voices. It is the most student friendly text that I have ever used."
-- Nancy Rosenbloom, Canisius College"This text offers a variety of ways to engage students and incorporates novel ways to engage them with primary sources to promote critical thinking."
-- Scott Seagle, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga"Im impressed with the quantity and quality of primary sources and diverse voices in this collection. I think it would save time for me because I wouldnt have to search out as many primary sources or historians interpretations. The narrative flows well."
-- Karen Auman, Brigham Young University"It provides the essentials to make the study of American History inviting and exciting."
-- James P. Beil, Luna Community College
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Table of Contents
CHAPTER 14 Reconstruction, 1865–1877
Why did freedpeople, Republican policymakers, and ex-Confederates all end up dissatisfied with Reconstruction or with its aftermath? To what degree did each group succeed in fulfilling its goals?
The Struggle for National Reconstruction
Presidential Approaches: From Lincoln to Johnson
Congress Versus the President
Radical Reconstruction
Women’s Rights Denied
The Meaning of Freedom
The Quest for Land
Republican Governments in the South
Building Black Communities
The Undoing of Reconstruction
The Republicans Unravel
Counterrevolution in the South
Reconstruction Rolled Back
The Political Crisis of 1877
Lasting Legacies
SUMMARY
CHAPTER 14 REVIEW
America in the World Labor Laws After Emancipation: Haiti and the United States
Thinking Like a Historian The South’s "Lost Cause"
CHAPTER 15 Conquering a Continent, 1860–1890
Why and how did the United States build a continental empire, and how did this affect people living in the West?
The Republican Vision
The New Union and the World
Integrating the National Economy
Incorporating the West
Mining Empires
From Bison to Cattle on the Plains
Homesteaders
The First National Park
A Harvest of Blood: Native Peoples Dispossessed
The Civil War and Indians on the Plains
Grant’s Peace Policy
The End of Armed Resistance
Strategies of Survival
Western Myths and Realities
SUMMARY
CHAPTER 15 REVIEW
Comparing Interpretations How Rational Were the Great Railroad Empires?
Thinking Like a Historian Representing Indians
PART 6 Industrializing America: Upheavals and Experiments, 1877–1917
CHAPTER 16 Industrial America: Corporations and Conflicts, 1877–1911
Why did large corporations emerge and thrive in late nineteenth century America and how did they reshape trade, work, and politics ?
The Rise of Big Business
Innovators in Enterprise
The Corporate Workplace
On the Shop Floor
Immigrants, East and West
Newcomers from Europe
Asian Americans and Exclusion
Labor Gets Organized
The Emergence of a Labor Movement
The Knights of Labor
Farmers and Workers: The Cooperative Alliance
Another Path: The American Federation of Labor
SUMMARY
CHAPTER 16 REVIEW
Thinking Like a Historian Poverty and Food
America in the World Emigrants and Destinations, 1881–1915
CHAPTER 17 Making Modern American Culture, 1880–1917
Why and how did Americans’ identities, beliefs, and culture change in the early industrial era?
Science and Faith
Darwinism and Its Critics
Religion: Diversity and Innovation
Realism in the Arts
Commerce and Culture
Consumer Spaces
Masculinity and the Rise of Sports
The Great Outdoors
Women, Men, and the Solitude of Self
Changing Families
Expanding Opportunities for Education
Women’s Civic Activism
SUMMARY
CHAPTER 17 REVIEW
America in the World Christianity in the United States and Japan
Thinking Like a Historian WCTU Women "Do Everything"
CHAPTER 18 "Civilization’s Inferno": The Rise and Reform of Industrial Cities, 1880–1917
Why and how did the rise of big cities shape American society and politics?
The New Metropolis
The Landscape of the Industrial City
Newcomers and Neighborhoods
City Cultures
Governing the Great City
Urban Political Machines
The Limits of Machine Government
Crucibles of Progressive Reform
Fighting Dirt and Vice
The Movement for Social Settlements
Cities and National Politics
SUMMARY
CHAPTER 18 REVIEW
Thinking Like a Historian The Power and appeal of the Ward Boss
Comparing Interpretations How Did Urban Progressive Reformers Approach Environmentalism?
CHAPTER 19 Whose Government? Politics, Populists, and Progressives, 1880–1917
Why and how did Progressive Era reformers seek to address the problems of industrial America, and to what extent did they succeed?
Reform Visions, 1880–1892
Electoral Politics After Reconstruction
The Populist Program
The Political Earthquakes of the 1890s
Depression and Reaction
Democrats and the "Solid South"
Republicans Retake National Control
Reform Reshaped, 1901–1912
Theodore Roosevelt as President
Diverse Progressive Goals
The Election of 1912
Wilson’s Reforms, 1913–1917
Economic Reforms
Progressive Legacies
SUMMARY
CHAPTER 19 REVIEW
Thinking Like a Historian Making Modern Presidents
Comparing Interpretations Were the "Gilded Age" and "Progressive Era" Separate Periods?
PART 7 Global Ambitions and Domestic Turmoil, 1890–1945
CHAPTER 20 An Emerging World Power, 1890–1918
Why did the United States become a major power on the world stage by the 1910s, and what impact did this have at home and abroad?
From Expansion to Imperialism
Foundations of Empire
The War of 1898
Spoils of War
A Power Among Powers
The Open Door in Asia
The United States and Latin America
The United States in World War I
From Neutrality to War
"Over There"
War on the Home Front
Catastrophe at Versailles
The Fate of Wilson’s Ideas
Congress Rejects the Treaty
SUMMARY
CHAPTER 20 REVIEW
America in the World The Human Cost of World War I
Thinking Like a Historian German Americans in World War I
CHAPTER 21 Unsettled Prosperity: From War to Depression, 1919–1932
Why did cultural and political conflict erupt in the 1920s, and what factors lead to the Great Depression?
Resurgent Conservatism
The Red Scare
Racial Backlash
American Business at Home and Abroad
Government Businesses Entangled
Making a Modern Consumer Economy
Postwar Abundance
Consumer Culture
The Automobile and Suburbanization
The Politics and Culture of a Diversifying Nation
Women in a New Age
Culture Wars
The Harlem Renaissance
The Coming of the Great Depression
From Boom to Bust
The Depression’s Early Years
SUMMARY
CHAPTER 21 REVIEW
Thinking Like a Historian The Automobile Transforms America
Comparing Interpretations How Did Immigrants Experience America at the Turn of the Century?
CHAPTER 22 Managing the Great Depression, Forging the New Deal, 1929–1938
What new roles did the American government take on during the New Deal, and how did these roles shape the economy and society?
Early Responses to the Depression, 1929–1932
Enter Herbert Hoover
Rising Discontent
The 1932 Election
The New Deal Arrives, 1933–1935
Roosevelt and the First Hundred Days
The New Deal Under Attack
The Second New Deal and the Redefining of Liberalism, 1935–1938
The Welfare State Comes into Being
From Reform to Stalemate
The New Deal and American Society
A People’s Democracy
Reshaping the Environment
The New Deal and the Arts
The Legacies of the New Deal
SUMMARY
CHAPTER 22 REVIEW
America in the World Economic Nationalism in the United States and Mexico
Thinking Like a Historian The New Deal and Public Works
CHAPTER 23 The World at War, 1937–1945
How did World War II transform the United States domestically and change its relationship with the world?
The Road to War
The Rise of Fascism
War Approaches
The Attack on Pearl Harbor
Organizing for a Global War
Financing the War
Mobilizing the American Fighting Force
Workers and the War Effort
Politics in Wartime
Life on the Home Front
"For the Duration"
Migration and the Wartime City
Japanese Removal
Fighting and Winning the War
Wartime Aims and Tensions
The War in Europe
The War in the Pacific
The Atomic Bomb and the End of the War
The Toll of the War
SUMMARY
CHAPTER 23 REVIEW
America in the World The Scales of War: Losses and Gains During World War II
Thinking Like a Historian Mobilizing the Home Front
PART 8 The Modern State and the Age of Liberalism, 1945–1980
CHAPTER 24 Cold War America, 1945–1963
In the first two decades of the Cold War, how did competition on the international stage and a climate of fear at home affect politics, society, and culture in the United States?
Containment in a Divided Global Order
Origins of the Cold War
The Containment Strategy
Containment in Asia
Cold War Liberalism
Truman and the End of Reform
Red Scare: The Hunt for Communists
The Politics of Cold War Liberalism
Containment in the Postcolonial World
The Cold War and Colonial Independence
John F. Kennedy and the Cold War
Making a Commitment in Vietnam
SUMMARY
CHAPTER 24 REVIEW
Comparing Interpretations Why Was There a Cold War?
Thinking Like a Historian The Global Cold War
CHAPTER 25 Triumph of the Middle Class, 1945–1963
Why did consumer culture become such a fixture of American life in the postwar decades, and how did it affect politics and society?
Postwar Prosperity and the Affluent Society
Economy: From Recovery to Dominance
A Nation of Consumers
Youth Culture
Religion and the Middle Class
The American Family in the Era of Containment
The Baby Boom
Women, Work, and Family
Challenging Middle-Class Morality
A Suburban Nation
The Postwar Housing Boom
Rise of the Sunbelt
Two Societies: Urban and Suburban
SUMMARY
CHAPTER 25 REVIEW
Thinking Like a Historian The Suburban Landscape of Cold War America
America in the World Postwar Capitalism
CHAPTER 26 Walking into Freedom Land: The Civil Rights Movement, 1941–1973
How did the civil rights movement evolve over time, and how did competing ideas and political alliances affect its growth and that of other social movements?
The Emerging Civil Rights Struggle, 1941–1957
Life Under Jim Crow
Origins of the Civil Rights Movement
World War II: The Beginnings
Cold War Civil Rights
Mexican Americans and Japanese Americans
Fighting for Equality Before the Law
Forging a Protest Movement, 1955–1965
Nonviolent Direct Action
Legislating Civil Rights, 1963–1965
Beyond Civil Rights, 1966–1973
Black Nationalism
Urban Disorder
Rise of the Chicano Movement
The American Indian Movement
SUMMARY
CHAPTER 26 REVIEW
Comparing Interpretations Was Martin Luther King Jr. a Radical or a Reformer?
Thinking Like a Historian Civil Rights and Black Power: Strategy and Ideology
CHAPTER 27 Uncivil Wars: Liberal Crisis and Conservative Rebirth, 1961–1972
What were liberalism’s social and political achievements in the 1960s, and how did debates over liberal values contribute to conflict at home and reflect war abroad?
Liberalism at High Tide
John F. Kennedy’s Promise
Lyndon B. Johnson and the Great Society
Rebirth of the Women’s Movement
The Vietnam War Begins
Escalation Under Johnson
Public Opinion and the War
The Student Movement
Days of Rage, 1968–1972
War Abroad, Tragedy at Home
The Antiwar Movement and the 1968 Election
The Nationalist Turn
Women’s Liberation and Black and Chicana Feminism
Stonewall and Gay Liberation
Rise of the Silent Majority
Nixon in Vietnam
The Silent Majority Speaks Out
The 1972 Election
SUMMARY
CHAPTER 27 REVIEW
Comparing Interpretations What Are the Origins of 1960s Feminism?
Thinking Like a Historian Debating the War in Vietnam
CHAPTER 28 The Search for Order in an Era of Limits, 1973–1980
How did the legacy of social changes in the 1960s—such as civil rights, shifting gender roles and challenges to the family—continue to reverberate in the 1970s, lead to both new opportunities and political clashes?
An Era of Limits
Energy Crisis
Environmentalism
Economic Transformation
Urban Crisis and Suburban Revolt
Politics in Flux, 1973–1980
Watergate and the Fall of a President
Jimmy Carter: The Outsider as President
Reform and Reaction in the 1970s
Civil Rights in a New Era
The Women’s Movement and Gay Rights
After the Warren Court
The American Family on Trial
Working Families in the Age of Deindustrialization
Navigating the Sexual Revolution
Religion in the 1970s: The New Evangelicalism
SUMMARY
CHAPTER 28 REVIEW
Thinking Like a Historian The Environmental Movement: Reimagining the Human-Earth Relationship
America in the World Economic Malaise in the Seventies
PART 9 Globalization and the End of the American Century, 1980 to the Present
CHAPTER 29 Conservative America in the Ascent, 1980–1991
What factors made the rise of the New Right possible, and what ideas about freedom and citizenship did conservatives articulate in the 1980s?
The Rise of the New Right
Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan: Champions of the Right
Free-Market Economics and Religious Conservatism
The Carter Presidency
The Dawning of the Conservative Age
The Reagan Coalition
Conservatives in Power
Morning in America
The End of the Cold War
U.S.-Soviet Relations in a New Era
A New Political Order at Home and Abroad
SUMMARY
CHAPTER 29 REVIEW
Thinking Like a Historian Personal Computing: A Technological Revolution
Comparing Interpretations How Conservative Was the Reagan Presidency?
CHAPTER 30 Confronting Global and National Dilemmas, 1989 to the Present
How has the post-Cold War era of globalization affected American politics, economics, and society?
America in the Global Economy
The Rise of the European Union and China
A New Era of Globalization
Revolutions in Technology
Politics and Partisanship in a Contentious Era
An Increasingly Plural Society
Clashes over "Family Values"
Bill Clinton and the New Democrats
Post–Cold War Foreign Policy
Into a New Century
The Ascendance of George W. Bush
Violence Abroad and Economic Collapse at Home
Reform and Stalemate in the Obama Years
SUMMARY
CHAPTER 30 REVIEW
Thinking Like a Historian Globalization: Its Proponents and Its Discontents
America in the World Global Trade, 1960–2009
Authors
Rebecca Edwards
Rebecca Edwards is Eloise Ellery Professor of History at Vassar College, where she teaches courses on nineteenth-century politics, the Civil War, the frontier West, and women, gender, and sexuality. She is the author of, among other publications, Angels in the Machinery: Gender in American Party Politics from the Civil War to the Progressive Era; New Spirits: Americans in the “Gilded Age,” 1865–1905; and the essay “Women's and Gender History” in The New American History. She is currently working on a book about the role of childbearing in the expansion of America's nineteenth-century empire.
Eric Hinderaker
Robert O. Self
James Henretta
James A. Henretta  is Professor Emeritus of American History at the University of Maryland, College Park, where he taught Early American History and Legal History. His publications include “Salutary Neglect”: Colonial Administration under the Duke of Newcastle; Evolution and Revolution: American Society, 1600–1820; and The Origins of American Capitalism. His most recent publication is a long article, “Magistrates, Lawyers, Legislators: The Three Legal Systems of Early America,” in The Cambridge History of American Law.
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