American History: eBooks

Defining Documents offers a broad range of historical documents on important authors and subjects in American history, with primary source documents, in-depth analysis, and comprehensive lesson plans. Defining Documents offers a broad range of historical documents on important authors and subjects in American history. Each two-volume title, designed in consultation with an expert in the field, contains approximately 80 primary source documents with an in-depth critical analysis. Articles begin by introducing readers to the historical context, followed by a description of the author's life and circumstances in which the document is written. A document analysis, written by professional writers and historians, guides readers in understanding key elements of language, rhetoric, and social and political meaning that define the significance of the author and document in American history. Each title is organised by chapter themes, highlighting major ideas in the period. The series begins with a collection of exploration and colonial documents, and continues to cover every time period in American history. This collection will introduce students and educators to a diverse range of genres, including journals, letters, speeches, government legislation, and court opinions. Documents represent the diversity of ideas and contexts that define social, political and cultural subjects throughout American history. An important supplement to each historical document is a carefully designed lesson plan, which follows national history standards for learning, to guide students and educators in document analysis and historical comprehension. Study questions, activities, and suggested author pairings will establish the legacy of documents and authorship for readers today. In addition, comparative analysis highlights how every document emerges from a myriad of social and political influences. A historical timeline and bibliography of important supplemental readings will support readers in understanding the broader historical events and subjects in the period. An introduction for each of the major subjects covered in the title considers the significance of document analysis for students and educators.

One hundred and fifty years after the first shots were fired on Fort Sumter, the Civil War still captivates the American imagination, and its reverberations continue to be felt throughout the nation's social and political landscape. Louis P. Masur's The Civil War: A Concise History is a masterful and eminently readable overview of the war's multiple causes and catastrophic effects. Masur begins by examining the complex origins of the war, focusing on the pulsating tensions over states rights and slavery. He then proceeds to cover, year by year, the major political, social, and military events, highlighting two important themes: how the war shifted from a conflict over restoring the Union to an all-out war that would transform Southern society, and the process by which the war ultimately became a battle to abolish slavery. Masur explains how the war turned what had been a loose collection of fiercely independent states into a nation with new political, cultural, and social institutions. But he also focuses on the soldiers themselves, both Union and Confederate, whose stories constitute nothing less than the American Iliad. In the final chapter Masur considers the aftermath of the South's surrender at Appomattox and the clash over the policies of reconstruction that would divide President and Congress, conservatives and radicals, Southerners and Northerners, for years to come. In 1873, Mark Twain and Charles Dudley wrote that the war had "wrought so profoundly upon the entire national character that the influence cannot be measured short of two or three generations." From the vantage of the war's sesquicentennial, this concise history of the Civil War era offers an invaluable introduction to the dramatic events whose effects resonate even today.

Defining Documents offers a broad range of historical documents on important authors and subjects in American history, with primary source documents, in-depth analysis, and comprehensive lesson plans. Defining Documents offers a broad range of historical documents on important authors and subjects in American history. Each two-volume title, designed in consultation with an expert in the field, contains approximately 80 primary source documents with an in-depth critical analysis. Articles begin by introducing readers to the historical context, followed by a description of the author's life and circumstances in which the document is written. A document analysis, written by professional writers and historians, guides readers in understanding key elements of language, rhetoric, and social and political meaning that define the significance of the author and document in American history. Each title is organised by chapter themes, highlighting major ideas in the period. The series begins with a collection of exploration and colonial documents, and continues to cover every time period in American history. This collection will introduce students and educators to a diverse range of genres, including journals, letters, speeches, government legislation, and court opinions. Documents represent the diversity of ideas and contexts that define social, political and cultural subjects throughout American history. An important supplement to each historical document is a carefully designed lesson plan, which follows national history standards for learning, to guide students and educators in document analysis and historical comprehension. Study questions, activities, and suggested author pairings will establish the legacy of documents and authorship for readers today. In addition, comparative analysis highlights how every document emerges from a myriad of social and political influences. A historical timeline and bibliography of important supplemental readings will support readers in understanding the broader historical events and subjects in the period. An introduction for each of the major subjects covered in the title considers the significance of document analysis for students and educators.

Here is a brisk, accessible, and vivid introduction to arguably the most important event in the history of the United States--the American Revolution. Between 1760 and 1800, the American people cast off British rule to create a new nation and a radically new form of government based on the idea that people have the right to govern themselves. In this lively account, Robert Allison provides a cohesive synthesis of the military, diplomatic, political, social, and intellectual aspects of the Revolution, paying special attention to the Revolution's causes and consequences. The book recreates the tumultuous events of the 1760s and 1770s that led to revolution, such as the Boston Massacre and the Boston Tea Party, as well as the role the Sons of Liberty played in turning resistance into full-scale revolt. Allison explains how and why Americans changed their ideas of government and society so profoundly in these years and how the War for Independence was fought and won. He highlights the major battles and commanders on both sides--with a particular focus on George Washington and the extraordinary strategies he developed to defeat Britain's superior forces--as well as the impact of French military support on the American cause. In the final chapter, Allison explores the aftermath of the American Revolution: how the newly independent states created governments based on the principles for which they had fought, and how those principles challenged their own institutions, such as slavery, in the new republic. He considers as well the Revolution's legacy, the many ways its essential ideals influenced other struggles against oppressive power or colonial systems in France, Latin America, and Asia. Sharply written and highly readable, The American Revolution offers the perfect introduction to this seminal event in American history.

This comprehensive and highly readable collection of essays highlights 50 important events that changed the course of American history. What Happened? An Encyclopedia of Events That Changed America Forever is designed to introduce beginning U.S. history students and lay readers to the most significant events in the nation's history. More than that, it also will give readers insight into why a particular event is important. This book consists of 50 chapters in four volumes, each dealing with a critically important event in American history from the 17th century to the present. Each chapter includes a factual essay on the subject prepared by John Findling or Frank Thackeray. The factual material is augmented with an interpretive essay on the same subject, written by a specialist in the field. Through this juxtaposition, readers can learn not only about the who, what, and where of an event, but also why it is important in the sweep of American history. Chronological organization of events starting in the 17th century Interpretive essays offering scholarly assessment of why each event was chosen Selected ready-references attached to each event, including bios, events, places, organizations, ideas, and more Illustrations and primary documents relative to chapter content A selected bibliography after each interpretive essay Timelines in each volume

This book, originally published in 1919, is a telling of U.S. history from colonial times to Reconstruction. Written by a British soldier mostly from the battlefields of World War One, it provides a British perspective of U.S. history that was reflective of the authors time. Modern scholars take issue with this telling and have proven many inaccuracies in its pages, but the text still stands as a reflection of the sometimes rich and inspiring and sometimes base and unfortunate attitudes and perspectives of Americas birth and rise.

The Oxford History of the United States is by far the most respected multi-volume history of our nation. The series includes three Pulitzer Prize winners, two New York Times bestsellers, and winners of the Bancroft and Parkman Prizes. Now, in the newest volume in the series, one of America's most esteemed historians, Gordon S. Wood, offers a brilliant account of the early American Republic, ranging from 1789 and the beginning of the national government to the end of the War of 1812. As Wood reveals, the period was marked by tumultuous change in all aspects of American life--in politics, society, economy, and culture. The men who founded the new government had high hopes for the future, but few of their hopes and dreams worked out quite as they expected. They hated political parties but parties nonetheless emerged. Some wanted the United States to become a great fiscal-military state like those of Britain and France; others wanted the country to remain a rural agricultural state very different from the European states. Instead, by 1815 the United States became something neither group anticipated. Many leaders expected American culture to flourish and surpass that of Europe; instead it became popularized and vulgarized. The leaders also hope to see the end of slavery; instead, despite the release of many slaves and the end of slavery in the North, slavery was stronger in 1815 than it had been in 1789. Many wanted to avoid entanglements with Europe, but instead the country became involved in Europe's wars and ended up waging another war with the former mother country. Still, with a new generation emerging by 1815, most Americans were confident and optimistic about the future of their country. Named a New York Times Notable Book, Empire of Liberty offers a marvelous account of this pivotal era when America took its first unsteady steps as a new and rapidly expanding nation.

"The best single-volume history of the Revolution I have read." --Howard Zinn   Upon its initial publication, Ray Raphael's magisterial A People's History of the American Revolution was hailed by NPR's Fresh Air as "relentlessly aggressive and unsentimental." With impeccable skill, Raphael presented a wide array of fascinating scholarship within a single volume, employing a bottom-up approach that has served as a revelation.   A People's History of the American Revolution draws upon diaries, personal letters, and other Revolutionary-era treasures, weaving a thrilling "you are there" narrative--"a tapestry that uses individual experiences to illustrate the larger stories". Raphael shifts the focus away from George Washington and Thomas Jefferson to the slaves they owned, the Indians they displaced, and the men and boys who did the fighting (Los Angeles Times Book Review).   This "remarkable perspective on a familiar part of American history" helps us appreciate more fully the incredible diversity of the American Revolution (Kirkus Reviews).   "Through letters, diaries, and other accounts, Raphael shows these individuals--white women and men of the farming and laboring classes, free and enslaved African Americans, Native Americans, loyalists, and religious pacifists--acting for or against the Revolution and enduring a war that compounded the difficulties of everyday life." --Library Journal    "A tour de force . . . Ray Raphael has probably altered the way in which future historians will see events." --The Sunday Times