Synopses & Reviews
This popular and classic text chronicles America's roller-coaster journey through the decades since World War II. Considering both the paradoxes and the possibilities of postwar America, William H. Chafe portrays the significant cultural and political themes that have colored our country's past and present, including issues of race, class, gender, foreign policy, and economic and social reform. He examines such subjects as the Vietnam War, the civil rights movement, the origins and the end of the Cold War, the culture of the 1970s, the rise of the New Right, the events of September 11th and their aftermath, and various presidencies.
Now thoroughly revised and updated, the seventh edition of The Unfinished Journey combines and reorganizes several chapters. The former Chapter 14, "New Rules, Old Realities," is now divided into two chapters. The new Chapter 14, "An Era of Political Malaise," covers the political history of the 1970s. It is followed by Chapter 15, "A Divided Culture, A Divided Society," which assesses the shifting cultural landscape of the 1970s and the emergence of major fissures in the social system of the nation. The final chapter contains substantial new material on the administration of George W. Bush, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the election of 2008, and the first year of Barack Obama's presidency. Brilliantly written by a prize-winning historian, The Unfinished Journey, Seventh Edition, is an essential text for all students of recent American history.
Review
"Still the best-written text on the period."--Paul Barrett, Illinois Institute of Technology
"Beautifully written. . . . Unquestionably the finest history of the post-World War Two era."--Lewis H. Carlson, Western Michigan University
"The Unfinished Journey still makes our students feel the history of the postwar era and is unsurpassed in its civil rights coverage."--Mollie C. Davis, Queens College
About the Author
William H. Chafe is Alice Mary Baldwin Professor of History at Duke University. He is the author or coeditor of several books, including
Remembering Jim Crow: African Americans Tell About Life in the Segregated South (2008),
The Rise and Fall of the American Century: The United States from 1890-2009 (OUP, 2007),
A History of Our Time: Readings on Postwar America, Seventh Edition (OUP, 2007),
Private Lives/Public Consequences: Personality and Politics in Modern America (2005), and
Never Stop Running: Allard K. Lowenstein and the Struggle to Save American Liberalism (1998). He is a former president of the Organization of American Historians and his books have been recognized with the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award (1981), the Sidney Hillman Book Award (1994), and the Lillian Smith Book Award (2003).
Table of Contents
1. The War Years
2. Origins of the Cold War
3. Truman and the Cold War
4. "The Other Half of the Walnut"
5. The Paradox of Change
6. The Civil Rights Movement
7. John F. Kennedy
8. LBJ
9. Vietnam - The Early Years
10. "Lyndon's War"
11. Coming Apart at Home
12. 1968
13. "Bringing Us Together"
14. An Era of Political Malaise
15. A Divided Culture, A Divided Society
16. The Reagan Years
17. The 1990s
18. 2000 and Beyond
Epilogue
Bibliographic Essay
Index