American Stories: A History of The United States, Combined Volume Book

Maps, Figures, and Tables

A Note to My Fellow Teachers

A Personal Welcome to Students

Acknowledgments

Supplements

About the Authors

CHAPTER 1: NEW WORLD ENCOUNTERS, PRECONQUEST-1608.

Diverse Cultures: De Vaca’s Journey Through Native America

Native Americans Before the Conquest.

Conditions of Conquest.

West Africa: Ancient and Complex Societies.

Europe on the Eve of Conquest.

Spain in the Americas.

The French Claim Canada.

The English Take Up the Challenge.

Conclusion: Campaign to Sell America.

CHAPTER 2: ENGLAND’S NEW WORLD EXPERIMENTS 1607-1732.

Profit and Piety: Competing Visions for English Settlement.

Breaking Away: Decisions to Move to America

A “New” England in America.

Diversity in the Middle Colonies.

Planting the Southern Colonies.

Conclusion: Living with Diversity.

CHAPTER 3: PUTTING DOWN ROOTS: OPPORTUNITY AND OPPRESSION IN COLONIAL SOCIETY, 1619-1692.

Families in an Atlantic Empire.

Social Stability: New England Colonies of the Seventeenth Century.

The Challenge of the Chesapeake Environment.

Race and Freedom in British America.

Blueprint for Empire.

Colonial Political Revolt.

Conclusion: Foundations of an Atlantic Empire.

CHAPTER 4: EXPERIENCE OF EMPIRE: EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA, 1680-1763.

Constructing an Anglo-American Identity: The Journal of William Byrd.

Tensions in the Backcountry.

Spanish Borderlands of the Eighteenth Century.

The Impact of European Ideas on American Culture.

Religious Revivals in Provincial Societies.

Clash of Political Cultures.

Century of Imperial War.

Conclusion: Rule Britannia?

CHAPTER 5: THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION: FROM ELITE PROTEST TO POPULAR REVOLT, 1763-1783.

Moment of Decision: Commitment and Sacrifice.

Structure of Colonial Society.

Eroding the Bonds of Empire.

Steps Toward Independence.

Fighting for Independence.

Conclusion: Preserving Independence.

CHAPTER 6: THE REPUBLICAN EXPERIMENT, 1783-1788.

A New Political Morality.

Defining Republican Culture.

Stumbling Toward a New National Government.

“Have We Fought for This?”

Whose Constitution? Struggle for Ratification.

Conclusion: Success Depends on the People.

CHAPTER 7: DEMOCRACY AND DISSENT: THE VIOLENCE OF PARTY POLITICS, 1788-1800.

Force of Public Opinion.

Principle and Pragmatism: Establishing a New Government.

Hamilton's Plan for Prosperity and Security.

Charges of Treason: The Battle over Foreign Affairs.

Popular Political Culture.

The Adams Presidency: Politics of Mistrust.

Conclusion: Danger of Political Extremism.

CHAPTER 8: REPUBLICAN ASCENDANCY: THE JEFFERSONIAN VISION, 1800-1814.

Limits of Equality.

The Republic Expands.

Jefferson as President.

Race and Dissent Under Jefferson.

Embarrassments Overseas.

The Strange War of 1812.

Conclusion: The “Second War of Independence.”

CHAPTER 9: NATION BUILDING AND NATIONALISM, 1815-1825.

A Revolutionary War Hero Revisits America in 1824.

Expansion and Migration.

Transportation and the Market Economy.

The Politics of Nation Building after the War of 1812.

Conclusion: The End of the Era of Good Feeling.

CHAPTER 10: THE TRIUMPH OF WHITE MEN'S DEMOCRACY, 1824-1840.

Democratic Space: The New Hotels.

Democracy in Theory and Practice.

Jackson and the Politics of Democracy.

The Bank War and the Second Party System.

Heyday of the Second Party System.

Conclusion: Tocqueville's Wisdom.

CHAPTER 11: SLAVES AND MASTERS, 1793-1861.

Nat Turner's Rebellion: A Turning Point in the Slave South.

The World of Southern Blacks.

White Society in the Antebellum South.

Slavery and the Southern Economy.

Conclusion: Worlds in Conflict.

CHAPTER 12: THE PURSUIT OF PERFECTION, 1800-1861.

Redeeming the Middle Class.

The Rise of Evangelicalism.

Domesticity and Changes in the American Family.

Reform Turns Radical.

Conclusion: Counterpoint on Reform.

CHAPTER 13: AN AGE OF EXPANSIONISM, 1830-1861.

The Spirit of Young America.

Texas, Manifest Destiny, and the Mexican-American War.

Internal Expansionism and the Industrial Revolution.

Conclusion: The Costs of Expansion.

CHAPTER 14: THE SECTIONAL CRISIS, 1846-1861.

Brooks Assaults Sumner in Congress.

The Compromise of 1850.

Political Upheaval, 1852-1856.

The House Divided, 1857-1860.

Conclusion: Explaining the Crisis.

CHAPTER 15: SECESSION AND THE CIVIL WAR, 1860-1865.

The Emergence of Lincoln.

The Storm Gathers.

Adjusting to Total War.

Fight to the Finish.

Effects of the War.

Conclusion: An Organizational Revolution.

CHAPTER 16: THE AGONY OF RECONSTRUCTION, 1863-1877.

Robert Smalls and Black Politicians During Reconstruction.

The President versus Congress.

Reconstructing Southern Society.

Retreat from Reconstruction.

Reunion and the New South.

Conclusion: Henry McNeal Turner and the “Unfinished Revolution.”

CHAPTER 17: THE WEST: EXPLOITING AN EMPIRE, 1849-1902.

Lean Bear's Changing West.

Beyond the Frontier.

Crushing the Native Americans.

Settlement of the West.

The Bonanza West.

Conclusion: The Meaning of the West.

CHAPTER 18: THE INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY, 1850-1901.

A Machine Culture.

Industrial Development.

An Empire on Rails.

An Industrial Empire.

The Sellers.

The Wage Earners.

Culture of Work.

Conclusion: Industrialization's Benefits and Costs.

CHAPTER 19: TOWARD AN URBAN SOCIETY, 1877-1900.

The Overcrowded City.

The Lure of the City.

Social and Cultural Change, 1877-1900.

The Spread of Jim Crow

The Stirrings of Reform.

Conclusion: The Pluralistic Society.

CHAPTER 20: POLITICAL REALIGNMENTS, 1876-1901.

Hardship and Heartache.

Politics of Stalemate.

Republicans in Power: The Billion-Dollar Congress.

The Rise of the Populist Movement.

The Crisis of the Depression.

Changing Attitudes.

The Presidential Election of 1896.

The McKinley Administration.

Conclusion: A Decade's Dramatic Changes.

CHAPTER 21: TOWARD EMPIRE, 1865-1902.

Roosevelt and the Rough Riders.

America Looks Outward.

War with Spain.

Acquisition of Empire.

Conclusion: Outcome of the War with Spain.

CHAPTER 22: THE PROGRESSIVE ERA, 1895-1917.

Muckrakers Call for Reform.

The Changing Face of Industrialism.

Society's Masses.

Conflict in the Workplace.

A New Urban Culture.

Conclusion: A Ferment of Discovery and Reform.

CHAPTER 23: FROM ROOSEVELT TO WILSON IN THE AGE OF PROGRESSIVISM, 1900-1920.

The Republicans Split.

The Spirit of Progressivism.

Reform in the Cities and States.

The Republican Roosevelt.

Roosevelt Progressivism at Its Height.

The Ordeal of William Howard Taft.

Woodrow Wilson's New Freedom.

Conclusion: The Fruits of Progressivism.

CHAPTER 24: THE NATION AT WAR, 1901-1920.

The Sinking of the Lusitania .

A New World Power.

Foreign Policy Under Wilson.

Toward War.

Over There.

Over Here.

The Treaty of Versailles.

Conclusion: Post-War Disillusionment.

CHAPTER 25: TRANSITION TO MODERN AMERICA, 1919-1928.

Wheels for the Millions.

The Second Industrial Revolution.

City Life in the Roaring Twenties.

The Conservative Counterattack.

Republican Politics.

Conclusion: The Old and the New.

CHAPTER 26: FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT AND THE NEW DEAL, 1929-1939.

The Struggle Against Despair.

The Great Depression.

Fighting the Depression.

Reforming American Life.

The Impact of the New Deal.

The New Deal's End.

Conclusion: The New Deal and American Life.

CHAPTER 27: AMERICA AND THE WORLD, 1921-1945.

A Pact Without Power.

Isolationism.

The Road to War.

Turning the Tide Against the Axis.

The Home Front.

Victory.

Conclusion: The Transforming Power of War.

CHAPTER 28: THE ONSET OF THE COLD WAR, 1945-1960.

The Potsdam Summit.

The Cold War Begins.

Containment.

The Cold War Expands.

The Cold War at Home.

Conclusion: The Continuing Cold War.

CHAPTER 29: AFFLUENCE AND ANXIETY, 1945-1960.

Levittown: The Flight to the Suburbs.

The Postwar Boom.

The Good Life?

The Struggle over Civil Rights.

Conclusion: Restoring National Confidence.

CHAPTER 30: THE TURBULENT SIXTIES, 1960-1968.

Kennedy v. Nixon: The First Televised Presidential Candidate Debate.

Kennedy Intensifies the Cold War.

The New Frontier at Home.

LBJ’s Great Society.

Johnson Escalates the Vietnam War.

Years of Turmoil.

The Return of Richard Nixon.

Conclusion: The End of an Era.

CHAPTER 31: TO A NEW CONSERVATISM, 1969-1988.

Reagan and America’s Shift to the Right.

The Tempting of Richard Nixon.

Oil and Inflation.

Private Lives, Public Issues.

Politics and Diplomacy after Watergate.

The Reagan Revolution.

Reagan and the World.

Conclusion: Challenging the New Deal.

CHAPTER 32: INTO THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY, 1989-2010

"This Will Not Stand”: Foreign Policy in the Post-Cold War Era.

The First President Bush.

The Changing Faces of America.

The New Democrats

Republicans Resurgent.

Barack Obama’s Triumph and Trials

Conclusion: The End of the American Future—or Not?

Appendix

Glossary

Credits Index