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American History: A Very Short IntroductionStock informationGeneral Fields
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DescriptionThis brief history of America will span the earliest migrations to the present, reflecting Paul S. Boyer's interests in social, intellectual, and cultural history, including popular culture and religion. It will reflect his personal view of American history, in which a sense of paradox and irony loom large. While noting positive achievements--political, economic, social, and cultural--he will also discuss the United States's failures to live up to its oft-stated ideals; although America has figured in the world's imagination (and its own self-image) as a "land of opportunity" offering "liberty and justice for all," the reality has often fallen short. For example, the establishment of the North American colonies had very different meanings for colonists from the British Isles and Europe, for Native peoples, and for enslaved Africans brought against their will. The late nineteenth century saw not only impressive industrial expansion and the creation of vast fortunes but also appalling conditions in urban-immigrant slums and a degraded, exploited labor force. Reviews"Paul Boyer, a scholar's scholar and a teacher's teacher, has here encompassed the entirety of American history in an account that testifies on every page to his lifetime of deep and thoughtful learning, and to his remarkable powers of synthesis, concision, balance, and trenchantly lucid writing."--David M. Kennedy, author of Freedom From Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929-1945 Table of contentsLIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS; PREFACE; CHAPTER 1: BEGINNINGS: PREHISTORY TO 1763; CHAPTER 2: 1763-1789: REVOLUTION, CONSTITUTION, A NEW NATION; CHAPTER 3: 1789-1850: THE PROMISE AND PERILS OF NATIONHOOD; CHAPTER 4: 1850-1865: SLAVERY AND CIVIL WAR; CHAPTER 5: 1866-1899: INDUSTRIALIZATION AND ITS CONSEQUENCES; CHAPTER 6: 1900-1920: REFORM AND WAR; CHAPTER 7: 1920-1945: FROM CONFLICT TO GLOBAL POWER; CHAPTER 8: 1945-1968: AFFLUENCE AND SOCIAL UNREST; CHAPTER 9: TO THE PRESENT; REFERENCES; FURTHER READING; INDEX |