Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Pages: 502
Trim: 6½ x 9¼
978-0-7425-1191-0 • Paperback • March 2004 • $60.00 • (£46.00)
William J. Rorabaugh is professor of history at the University of Washington, Seattle. He is the author of The Alcoholic Republic: An American Tradition, The Craft Apprentice: From Franklin to the Machine Age, Berkeley at War: The 1960s and Kennedy and the Promise of the Sixties. Donald T. Critchlow is professor of history at Saint Louis University. He is the founding editor of the Journal of Policy History, and the author of a number of books, including Intended Consequences: Birth Control, Abortion, and the Federal Government and Studebaker: The Life and Death of an American Corporation. Paula Baker is associate professor of history at the Ohio State University and is the author of The Moral Framework of Public Life: Gender, Politics, and the State in Rural New York, 1870–1930, editor of Money and Politics, and co-editor of Major Problems in American History since 1945.
Chapter 15: Reconstruction, 1863–1877
Chapter 16: The Frontier and Westward Expansion
Chapter 17: Industry and Labor in the Gilded Age
Chapter 18: The Structure of Gilded Age Politics
Chapter 19: Immigrants and the City Transform American Society
Chapter 20: Depression, Protest, and Politics
Chapter 21: America Acquires an Empire
Chapter 22: The Progressive Years
Chapter 23: Global Power and World War
Chapter 24: The Paradox of the 1920s
Chapter 25: The Great Depression and the New Deal
Chapter 26: A Global Nation: World War II and the Origins of the Cold War
Chapter 27: The Cold War Haunts the "Fabulous Fifties"
Chapter 28: Decade of Illusion, 1960–1969
Chapter 29: The Tumultuous Years: Nixon-Ford-Carter, 1968–1980
Chapter 30: The Reagan Revolution and its Aftermath
Chapter 31: America Enters the Twenty-first Century
Appendix I: The Declaration of Independence
Appendix II: The Constitution of the United States of America
Appendix III: U.S. Population Characteristics
Appendix IV: Population for Selected Large Cities
Appendix V: Presidential Elections
Appendix VI: Chronology
Glossary
America's Promise offers a well-written and insightful account of American history. Students will find it highly engaging and informative. Unlike most textbooks, the authors blend political, social, cultural, and economic history into a synthetic account of where our country came from, where it has been, and where it might be going.
— Julian E. Zelizer, associate professor and director of the Undergraduate Program in Public Policy at SUNY Albany
America's Promise is a model textbook: Concise, inexpensive, and filled with anecdotes that make it interesting to read. It is a book that students will actually purchase and read—no small accomplishment in an era of overpriced, bloated textbooks often left unused on store shelves. The authors have turned the history textbook from a 'necessary evil' into a 'positive good.' Two thumbs up. Way up!
— Jonathan Bean, professor of history, Southern Illinois University Carbonale
Balanced approach to American history
Seamlessly blends social, cultural, and political history in an engaging narrative
Written with today's students in mind
Focuses on how key events and individuals have shaped American history and allows instructors and students to develop their own interpretations
Inclusive in coverage
Particular attention is focused on the history of women and minorities in the American experience
NEW! Chapter on the "globalization" of America that looks specifically at how biomedical and technological revolutions have expanded the borders of America
Reading lists suggest primary and secondary sources to encourage further study
A comprehensive glossary defines important terms and concepts
Carefully selected illustrations and maps portray, pinpoint, and illuminate important episodes in American history