Synopses & Reviews
American Portraits is a two-volume collection of biographical profiles designed to supplement American History survey texts. Biography personalizes history in a unique and profound way for students, lending a sense of immediacy to the study of the past. All of the essays selected for this anthology profile the life of a given individual and explore how that person influenced and was influenced by broader historical forces. Introductions begin each part, placing the biographies in topical and chronological perspective. Supporting documents, headnotes, and discussion questions help students place the biographies in context.
About the Author
Stephen Weisner received his B.A. from Richmond College of the City University of New York and his Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He is currently Professor of History and the Honors Programs at Springfield Technical Community College. He is the author of Embattled Editor: The Life of Samuel Bowles (1986), Samuel Bowles and the Springfield Republican in Springfield, 1636-1986 (1987), "Biographical Portraits of Samuel Bowles I and II" in American National Biography (1999), "Governor Rueben Fenton" in The Encyclopedia of the American Civil War (2000), and the forthcoming Horace Greeley: 19th Century Newspaper Editor. He was the recipient of a Distinguished Service Award at S.T.C.C. in 1982, the Outstanding Faculty Member of the Year Award in 1988, and a National Excellence in Teaching Award in 1989.William Hartford received his B.A. and his Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Currently, he is a Project Editor at National Evaluations Systems in Amherst, MA as well as a professional writer. He is the author of the article "Unions, Labor Markets, and Deindustrialization: The Holyoke Textile Industry," in Labor in Massachusetts: Selected Essays (1990), the books, Working People of Holyoke: Class and Ethnicity in a Massachusetts Mill Town, 1860-1960 (1996), Where is our Responsibility? Unions and Economic Change in the New England Textile Industry, 1870-1960 (1996), and co-author of Commonwealth of Toil: Chapters in the History of Massachusetts Workers and Their Unions (1996).
Table of Contents
Part One
Introduction
John Smith by Norman K. Risjord
Anne Hutchinson by Elizabeth Anticaglia
Mary Rowlandson by Nancy Woloch
William Penn by Norman K. Risjord
Part Two
Introduction
Benjamin Franklin by Walter Isaacson
Daniel Boone by Jo Tice Bloom
Tecumseh by Alvin M. Josephy
Phillis Wheatley by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
John Marshall by Brian McGinty
Part Three
Introduction
Andrew Jackson by Albert Castel
Sarah Bagley by Teresa Murphy
Nat Turner by Stephen B. Oates
Mary Richardson Walker by Patricia Horner
Elizabeth Blackwell by Margaret Forster
Part Four
Introduction
Harriet Beecher Stowe by David McCullough
John Brown by Stephen B. Oates
William T. Sherman by Stephen E. Ambrose
Emily Lyles Harris by Philip N. Racine
James T. Rapier by Loren Schweninger