Synopses & Reviews
MAKING AMERICA: A HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES, BRIEF FIFTH EDITION, presents history as a dynamic process shaped by human expectations, difficult choices, and often the surprising consequences. With this focus on history as a process, MAKING AMERICA encourages students to think historically and to develop into citizens who value the past. The clear chronology, straightforward narrative, and strong thematic structure emphasize communication over intimidation, and appeal to students of varied learning levels. The Brief Fifth Edition retains a hallmark feature of the MAKING AMERICA program: pedagogical tools that allow students to master complex material and enable them to develop analytical skills. Every chapter has chapter outlines, chronologies, focus questions, and in-text glossaries to provide guidance throughout the text. A new feature called Investigating America gets to the heart of learning history: reading and analyzing primary sources. The text's new open, inviting design allows students to access and use pedagogy to improve learning.
Synopsis
MAKING AMERICA: A HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES, BRIEF FIFTH EDITION, presents history as a dynamic process shaped by human expectations, difficult choices, and often the surprising consequences. With this focus on history as a process, MAKING AMERICA encourages users to think historically and to develop into citizens who value the past. The clear chronology, straightforward narrative, and strong thematic structure emphasize communication over intimidation, and appeal to users of varied learning levels.
Synopsis
With an accessible reading style abundant pedagogy, and reasonable price tag, MAKING AMERICA, BRIEF, is the perfect choice for inexperienced students and cost-conscious professors. The Second Edition features chapter-opening maps, timelines, and chronology charts that emphasize key developments, enhance geographical awareness, and highlight political events.
About the Author
Born in Mobile, Alabama, Carol Berkin received her undergraduate degree from Barnard College and her Ph.D. from Columbia University. Her dissertation won the Bancroft Award. She is now presidential professor of history at Baruch College and the Graduate Center of City University of New York. She has written JONATHAN SEWALL: ODYSSEY OF AN AMERICAN LOYALIST (1974); FIRST GENERATIONS: WOMEN IN COLONIAL AMERICA (l996); A BRILLIANT SOLUTION: INVENTING THE AMERICAN CONSTITUTION (2002); and REVOLUTIONARY MOTHERS: WOMEN IN THE STRUGGLE FOR AMERICA'S INDEPENDENCE (2005). She has edited WOMEN OF AMERICA: A HISTORY (with Mary Beth Norton, 1979); WOMEN, WAR AND REVOLUTION (with Clara M. Lovett, 1980); WOMEN'S VOICES, WOMEN'S LIVES: DOCUMENTS IN EARLY AMERICAN HISTORY (with Leslie Horowitz, 1998); and LOOKING FORWARD/LOOKING BACK: A WOMEN'S STUDIES READER (with Judith Pinch and Carole Appel, 2005). She was contributing editor on southern women for THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF SOUTHERN CULTURE and has appeared in the PBS series "Liberty! The American Revolution; Ben Franklin; and Alexander Hamilton" and The History Channel's "Founding Fathers." Professor Berkin chaired the Dunning Beveridge Prize Committee for the American Historical Association, the Columbia University Seminar in Early American History, and the Taylor Prize Committee of the Southern Association of Women Historians. She served on the program committees for both the Society for the History of the Early American Republic and the Organization of American Historians. She has served on the Planning Committee for the U.S. Department of Education's National Assessment of Educational Progress, and she chaired the CLEP Committee for Educational Testing Service. She serves on the Board of Trustees of The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History and The National Council for History Education. Born and raised in Portland, Oregon, Christopher L. Miller received his Bachelor of Science degree from Lewis and Clark College and his Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is currently associate professor of history at the University of Texas-Pan American. He is the author of PROPHETIC WORLDS: INDIANS AND WHITES ON THE COLUMBIA PLATEAU (1985), which in 2003 was republished as part of the "Columbia Northwest Classics Series" by the University of Washington Press. His articles and reviews have appeared in numerous scholarly journals and anthologies as well as standard reference works. Dr. Miller is also active in contemporary Indian affairs. He served, for example, as a participant in the American Indian Civics Project funded by the Kellogg Foundation. He has been a research fellow at the Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History at Harvard University and was the Nikolay V. Sivachev Distinguished Chair in American History at Lomonosov Moscow State University (Russia). Professor Miller has also been active in projects designed to improve history teaching, including programs funded by the Meadows Foundation, the U.S. Department of Education, and other agencies. Robert W. Cherny is a professor of history at San Francisco State University. He has served as an NEH Fellow, Distinguished Fulbright Lecturer at Lomonosov Moscow State University (Russia), and Visiting Research Scholar at the University of Melbourne (Australia). He is also a former president of H-Net (an association of more than 100 electronic networks for scholars in the humanities and social sciences), the Society for Historians of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, and the Southwest Labor Studies Association. He has served as treasurer of the Organization of American Historians and as a member of the council of the American Historical Association, Pacific Coast Branch. A respected author, his books include AMERICAN POLITICS IN THE GILDED AGE, 1868-1900 (1997); SAN FRANCISCO, 1865-1932: POLITICS, POWER, AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT (with William Issel, 1986); A RIGHTEOUS CAUSE: THE LIFE OF WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN (1985, 1994); and POPULISM, PROGRESSIVISM, AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF NEBRASKA POLITICS, 1885-1915 (1981). He also is co-editor of AMERICAN LABOR AND THE COLD WAR: UNIONS, POLITICS, AND POSTWAR POLITICAL CULTURE (with William Issel and Kieran Taylor, 2004). In addition, his articles on politics and labor in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries have appeared in journals, anthologies, and historical dictionaries and encyclopedias. In 2000, he and Ellen Du Bois co-edited a special issue of the "Pacific Historical Review" that surveyed women's suffrage movements in nine locations around the Pacific Rim. Cherny received his B.A. from the University of Nebraska and his M.A. and Ph.D. from Columbia University. Born in Riverside, California, James L. Gormly received a B.A. from the University of Arizona and his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Connecticut. He is now professor of history and chair of the history department at Washington and Jefferson College. He has written THE COLLAPSE OF THE GRAND ALLIANCE (1970) and FROM POTSDAM TO THE COLD WAR (1979). His articles and reviews have appeared in DIPLOMATIC HISTORY, THE JOURNAL OF AMERICAN HISTORY, THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL REVIEW, THE HISTORIAN, THE HISTORY TEACHER, and THE JOURNAL OF INTERDISCIPLINARY HISTORY. Born and raised in Phoenix, Arizona, Douglas R. Egerton received his undergraduate degree from Arizona State University and his M.A. and Ph.D. from Georgetown University. He is professor of history at Le Moyne College. His books include YEAR OF METEORS: THE ELECTION OF 1860 AND THE SECESSION WINTER (2010); DEATH OR LIBERTY: AFRICAN AMERICANS AND REVOLUTIONARY AMERICA (2009); THE ATLANTIC WORLD: A HISTORY, 1400-1888 (with Alison Games, Kris Lane, and Donald R. Wright, 2007); REBELS, REFORMERS and AND REVOLUTIONARIES: COLLECTED ESSAYS AND SECOND THOUGHTS (2002); HE SHALL GO OUT FREE: THE LIVES OF DENMARK VESEY (1999); GABRIEL'S REBELLION: THE VIRGINIA SLAVE CONSPIRACIES OF 1800 and 1802 (1993); and CHARLES FENTON MERCER AND THE TRIAL OF NATIONAL CONSERVATISM (1989). He was script consultant and on-camera commentator for two PBS series, "Africans in America" (1998) and "This Far By Faith: Stories of African American Religion" (2003). His articles on race and politics in early America have appeared in journals, anthologies, and encyclopedias. Professor Egerton served on the dissertation prize committee for the Southern Historical Association, and the book and article prize committees for the Society of Historians of the Early Republic. He has served on the editorial boards of the JOURNAL OF THE EARLY REPUBLIC and THE HISTORIAN, and he was awarded the John Adams Chair (Netherlands) Fulbright Scholar Distinguished Lecturing Award.
Table of Contents
Note: Each chapter concludes with Suggested Readings. 15. RECONSTRUCTION: HIGH HOPES AND BROKEN DREAMS, 1865-1877. Presidential Reconstruction. Freedom and the Legacy of Slavery. Congressional Reconstruction. Black Reconstruction. The End of Reconstruction. 16. SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST: ENTREPRENEURS AND WORKERS IN INDUSTRIAL AMERICA, 1865-1900. Foundation for Industrialization. Railroads and Economic Growth. Entrepreneurs and Industrial Transformation. Workers in Industrial America. The Varieties of Labor Organization and Action. Individual Choices: Mother Jones. The Nation Transformed. 17. CONFLICT AND CHANGE IN THE WEST, 1865-1902. War for the West. Mormons, Cowboys, and Sodbusters: The Transformation of the West, Part I. Individual Choices: Sitting Bull. Railroads, Mining, Agribusinesses, Logging, and Finance: The Transformation of the West, Part II. Ethnicity and Race in the West. The West in American Thought. 18. THE NEW SOCIAL PATTERNS OF URBAN AND INDUSTRIAL AMERICA, 1865-1917. The New Urban Environment. Poverty and the City. New Americans from Europe. New South, Old Issues. New Patterns of American Social and Cultural Life. Making History: New Choices for Women. 19. POLITICAL STALEMATE AND POLITICAL UPHEAVAL, 1868-1900. Parties, Voters, and Reformers. Political Stalemate. Agricultural Distress and Political Upheaval. Economic Collapse and Political Upheaval. Individual Choices: Grover Cleveland. 20. BECOMING A WORLD POWER: AMERICA AND WORLD AFFAIRS, 1865-1913. The United States and World Affairs, 1865-1889. Stepping Cautiously in World Affairs, 1889-1897. Striding Boldly: War and Imperialism, 1897-1901. "Carry a Big Stick": The United States and World Affairs, 1901-1913. 21. THE PROGRESSIVE ERA, 1900-1917. Individual Choices: W.E.B. DuBois. The Reform of Politics, the Politics of Reform. Roosevelt, Taft, and Republican Progressivism. Wilson and Democratic Progressivism. Progressivism in Perspective. 22. AMERICA AND THE WORLD, 1913-1920. Inherited Commitments and New Directions. From Neutrality to War: 1914-1917. The Home Front. Americans "Over There". Wilson and the Peace Conference. Trauma in the Wake of War. Making History: The Choice to Declare War. 23. THE 1920S, 1920-1928. Prosperity Decade. The "Roaring Twenties". Individual Choices: Langston Hughes. Race, Class, and Gender in the 1920s. The Politics of Prosperity. 24. FROM GOOD TIMES TO HARD TIMES, 1920-1932. The Diplomacy of Prosperity. The Failure of Prosperity. Government and Economic Crisis. Individual Choices: Milo Reno. Depression America. 25. THE NEW DEAL, 1933-1940. A New President, a New Deal. The Second Hundred Days. The New Deal and Society. Individual Choices: Frances Perkins. The New Deal Winds Down. 26. AMERICA'S RISE TO WORLD LEADERSHIP, 1933-1945. Roosevelt and Foreign Policy. The Road to War. America Responds to War. Waging World War. Making History: The Decision to Drop the Atomic Bomb. 27. TRUMAN AND COLD WAR AMERICA, 1945-1952. The Cold War Begins. The Korean War. Homecomings and Adjustments. Cold War Politics. Individual Choices: Paul Robeson. 28. QUEST FOR CONSENSUS, 1952-1960. The Best of Times. Individual Choices: Allen Ginsberg. Politics of Consensus. Seeking Civil Rights. Eisenhower and a Hostile World. 29. GREAT PROMISES, BITTER DISAPPOINTMENTS, 1960-1968. Kennedy and the New Frontier. Flexible Response. Beyond the New Frontier. New Agendas. Making History: The Debate over Black Power. 30. AMERICA UNDER STRESS, 1963-1975. Johnson and the World. Expanding the American Dream. Nixon and the Balance of Power. Nixon and Politics. 31. FACING LIMITS, 1974-1992. Politics of Uncertainty. Carter's Foreign Policy. Enter Ronald Reagan--Stage Right. Individual Choices: Bill Gates. Asserting World Power. In Reagan's Shadow. 32. MAKING NEW CHOICES, 1992-1999. An Anxious Society Grows More Confident. The Politics of Morality. Calls for Change. APPENDIX. Bibliography. Documents: Declaration of Independence; Constitution of the United States. Tables: Territorial Expansion of the United States; Admission of States into the Union; Presidential Elections. Index.