The American Past

by Conlin, Joseph R.

• ISBN13: 9780155074279
• ISBN10: 015507427X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-07-01
• Publisher: Thomson Learning

Summary

Now in its Sixth Edition, this text continues to offer a colorful and engaging look at the individuals, events, and ideas that make up our nation's past. Accessible and lively, Conlin includes a comprehensive treatment of political, economic, social, intellectual, constitutional, diplomatic, and military history. Consistent scholarship and a unique organization make this book comprehensive and manageable, while new chronologies offer students quick reference and easy review of the major events and movements covered in each chapter.

Table of Contents

When Worlds Collide
America and Europe Before 10,000 B.C.-A.D. 1550	3	(20)
Discovery	4	(1)
Meso-American Civilization	5	(3)
Europe: Driven, Dynamic, Expansive	8	(2)
Portugal and Spain: The Vanguard of Exploration	10	(3)
The Spanish Empire	13	(1)
Locked in a Circle of Time	14	(5)
The Columbian Exchange	19	(2)
Chronology	21	(1)
For Further Reading	21	(2)
England in America
The Struggle to Plant a Colony 1550-1624	23	(20)
England's Problems	24	(2)
The Elizabethan Age	26	(3)
Beginnings of Empire	29	(1)
Common Seamen	30	(5)
Jamestown, Virginia	35	(3)
Other Beginnings	38	(2)
Chronology	40	(1)
For Further Reading	41	(2)
Puritans and Proprietors
Colonial America 1620-1732	43	(20)
New England Colonies	44	(6)
How the Puritans Worshiped	50	(2)
The Expansion of New England	52	(2)
Royal and Proprietary Colonies	54	(6)
Chronology	60	(1)
For Further Reading	61	(2)
Colonial Society
English Legacies, American Facts of Life	63	(18)
Trade Laws	64	(2)
The Southern Colonies	66	(4)
How They Crossed the Ocean	70	(3)
The New England Colonies	73	(5)
The Middle Colonies	78	(1)
Chronology	79	(1)
For Further Reading	79	(2)
Other Americans
The Indians, French, and Africans of Colonial North America	81	(22)
The Indians of North America	82	(2)
The Indians of the Eastern Woodlands	84	(2)
Confrontation	86	(4)
The French in North America	90	(3)
Americans from Africa	93	(1)
Enslavement	94	(4)
The Slave Trade	98	(3)
Chronology	101	(1)
For Further Reading	101	(2)
British America
The Colonies at the Equinox	103	(20)
Society and Economy	105	(4)
World Wars, Colonial Wars	109	(1)
William Byrd (1674-1744)	110	(2)
The Long Peace, 1713-1739	112	(5)
The Wars Resume	117	(3)
Chronology	120	(1)
For Further Reading	121	(2)
Years of Tumult
The Quarrel with Great Britain 1763-1770	123	(18)
The Problems of Empire	124	(4)
At Home among the Iroquois	128	(3)
The Stamp Act Crisis	131	(3)
The British Constitution	134	(1)
British Policies and Policymakers	135	(3)
Chronology	138	(1)
For Further Reading	139	(2)
Riot to Rebellion
The Road to Independence 1770-1776	141	(20)
Storms within the Lull	142	(3)
The March toward War	145	(4)
The Revolution Begins	149	(3)
Two Blacks of the Revolutionary Era	152	(3)
Letting Go	155	(3)
Chronology	158	(1)
For Further Reading	159	(2)
War For Independence
Winning the Revolution 1776-1781	161	(18)
The Imbalance of Power	162	(2)
``The Times That Try Men's Souls''	164	(2)
Daniel Boone (1734-1820)	166	(5)
The Tide Turns	171	(6)
Chronology	177	(1)
For Further Reading	177	(2)
Inventing a Country
American Constitutions 1781-1789	179	(22)
The Revolution on Paper	180	(3)
America under the Articles of Confederation	183	(5)
Difficulties and Failings	188	(2)
The American Constitution	190	(2)
James Madison (1751-1836)	192	(5)
Ratifying the Constitution	197	(2)
Chronology	199	(1)
For Further Reading	199	(2)
We the People
Putting the Constitution to Work 1789-1800	201	(22)
The First Presidency	202	(5)
Troubles Abroad	207	(4)
Western Problems	211	(1)
How They Tamed the Forest	212	(2)
Federalists versus Republicans	214	(6)
Chronology	220	(1)
For Further Reading	221	(2)
The Age of Jefferson
Expansion and Frustration 1800-1815	223	(22)
The Sage of Monticello	224	(1)
Jefferson as President	225	(3)
Giving Birth	228	(1)
The Louisiana Purchase	228	(6)
Foreign Woes	234	(4)
The War of 1812	238	(4)
Chronology	242	(1)
For Further Reading	243	(2)
Beyond the Appalachian Ridge
The West in the Early Nineteenth Century	245	(22)
The First American West	246	(3)
Patterns of Settlement	249	(3)
Problems and Programs	252	(4)
How They Socialized	256	(4)
The Transportation Revolution	260	(5)
Chronology	265	(1)
For Further Reading	265	(2)
Nation Awakening
Political, Diplomatic, and Economic Developments 1815-1824	267	(22)
The Era of Good Feelings	268	(2)
How They Navigated the Erie Canal	270	(4)
America's Industrial Revolution	274	(4)
A Country Made for Industry	278	(3)
The South at the Crossroads	281	(5)
Chronology	286	(1)
For Further Reading	287	(2)
Hero of the People
The Age of Andrew Jackson 1824-1830	289	(20)
The Skewed Election of 1824	290	(3)
The Age of the Common Man	293	(3)
The Revolution of 1828	296	(4)
How They Dueled...and Brawled	300	(2)
Issues of Jackson's First Term	302	(4)
Chronology	306	(1)
For Further Reading	307	(2)
In the Shadow of Old Hickory
Personalities and Politics 1830-1842	309	(18)
Van Buren versus Calhoun	310	(2)
The War with the Bank	312	(3)
The Second American Party System	315	(5)
How They Went to College	320	(3)
Chronology	323	(2)
For Further Reading	325	(2)
Sects, Utopias, Visionaries, Reformers
Popular Culture in Antebellum America	327	(22)
As Others Saw Us	328	(2)
Religion in the Early Nineteenth Century	330	(3)
Utopian Communities	333	(2)
Transcendentalism	335	(2)
Evangelical Reformers	337	(2)
Moral Uplift	339	(1)
Notable Feminists	340	(5)
The Women's Movement	345	(1)
Chronology	346	(1)
For Further Reading	347	(2)
A Different Country
The South	349	(14)
Southern Antislavery	350	(2)
The Republic of Porkdom	352	(2)
Threats to the Southern Order	354	(3)
Southerners Close Ranks	357	(4)
Chronology	361	(1)
For Further Reading	361	(2)
The Peculiar Institution
Slavery as It Was Perceived and as It Was	363	(18)
Images of Slavery	364	(4)
Frederick Douglass	368	(1)
What Slavery Was Like	369	(3)
Life in the Quarters	372	(2)
Modes of Protest	374	(4)
Chronology	378	(1)
For Further Reading	379	(2)
From Sea to Shining Sea
American Expansion 1820-1848	381	(18)
Mexico: So Close to the United States	382	(2)
Zorro and the Californios	384	(4)
The Oregon Country	388	(9)
Chronology	397	(1)
For Further Reading	397	(2)
Apples of Discord
The Poisoned Fruits of Expansion 1844-1854	399	(18)
The Sectional Split Takes Shape	400	(3)
California, Here I Come	403	(3)
The Compromise of 1850	406	(2)
How They Mined the Gold	408	(2)
The Territories and Slavery	410	(5)
Chronology	415	(1)
For Further Reading	415	(2)
The Collapse of the Old Union
The Road to Secession 1854-1861	417	(20)
Bleeding Kansas	418	(2)
Rapping from the Great Beyond	420	(2)
A Hardening of Lines	422	(4)
The Election of 1860	426	(4)
How the Union Broke	430	(5)
Chronology	435	(1)
For Further Reading	435	(2)
Tidy Plans, Ugly Realities
The Civil War: 1861-1862	437	(20)
The Art and Science of War	438	(3)
The Sobering Campaign of 1861	441	(5)
1862 and Stalemate	446	(4)
How They Fought	450	(5)
Chronology	455	(1)
For Further Reading	455	(2)
Driving Old Dixie Down
General Grant's War of Attrition 1863-1865	457	(20)
The Campaigns of 1863	458	(6)
Marching Through Georgia	464	(1)
Total War	464	(5)
The American Tragedy	469	(3)
Consequences of the Civil War	472	(3)
Chronology	475	(1)
For Further Reading	475	(2)
Reconstruction
Rebuilding the Shattered Union: 1863-1877	477	(20)
The Reconstruction Debate	478	(4)
The Critical Year	482	(2)
Reconstruction Realities and Myths	484	(4)
Blacks in Congress	488	(2)
The Grant Administration	490	(3)
The Twilight of Reconstruction	493	(1)
Chronology	494	(1)
For Further Reading	495	(2)
Parties, Patronage, and Pork
Politics in the Late Nineteenth Century	497	(22)
How the System Worked	498	(6)
Presidents and Personalities	504	(2)
James Abram Garfield (1831-1881)	506	(3)
Issues	509	(3)
Politics in the City	512	(4)
Chronology	516	(1)
For Further Reading	517	(2)
Big Industry, Big Business
Economic Development in the Late Nineteenth Century	519	(22)
A Land Made for Industry	520	(4)
The Field Brothers	524	(1)
The Railroad Revolution	525	(3)
The Transcontinental Lines	528	(5)
The Organizers	533	(5)
Chronology	538	(1)
For Further Reading	539	(2)
Living With Leviathan
Americans React to Big Business and Great Wealth	541	(20)
Regulating the Railroads and Trusts	542	(2)
The Last Dance of the Idle Rich: The Bradley Martin Ball of 1897	544	(5)
Critics of the New Order	549	(2)
Defenders of the Faith	551	(4)
How the Very Rich Lived	555	(3)
Chronology	558	(1)
For Further Reading	559	(2)
We Who Made America
Factories and Immigrant Ships	561	(22)
A New Way of Life	562	(2)
Who Were the Workers?	564	(3)
Organize!	567	(3)
The Immigration Experience	570	(3)
The Nation of Immigrants	573	(4)
Ethnic America	577	(4)
Chronology	581	(1)
For Further Reading	581	(2)
Bright Lights and Squalid Slums
The Growth of Big Cities	583	(18)
Cities as Alien Enclaves	584	(3)
Of the Growth of Great Cities	587	(1)
Big City Sweatshops	588	(7)
The Evils of City Life	595	(3)
Chronology	598	(1)
For Further Reading	599	(2)
The Last Frontier
Winning the Rest of the West 1865-1900	601	(20)
The Last Frontier	602	(4)
Punching Cows	606	(5)
The Cattle Kingdom	611	(4)
The Wild West in American Culture	615	(2)
The Mining Frontier	617	(1)
Chronology	618	(1)
For Further Reading	619	(2)
Stressful Times Down Home
The Crisis of American Agriculture 1865-1896	621	(20)
Best of Times, Worst of Times	622	(6)
The New South: The Prophet and the Builder	628	(2)
Protest and Organization	630	(1)
The Money Question	631	(3)
The Populists	634	(4)
Chronology	638	(1)
For Further Reading	639	(2)
In the Days of McKinley
The United States Becomes a World Power 1896-1903	641	(22)
Watershed	642	(4)
American Imperialism	646	(3)
The Spanish-American War	649	(1)
Remembering the Maine: Soldiers in the Spanish-American War	650	(4)
Empire Confirmed	654	(7)
Chronology	661	(1)
For Further Reading	661	(2)
Theodore Roosevelt and the Good Old Days
American Society in Transition 1890-1917	663	(20)
Middle America	664	(4)
Nellie Bly	668	(4)
A Lively Culture	672	(4)
Americans at Play	676	(3)
Sports	679	(2)
Chronology	681	(1)
For Further Reading	681	(2)
Age of Reform
The Progressives after 1900	683	(20)
The Progressives	684	(3)
Progressivism down Home	687	(5)
Victor L. Berger (1860-1929)	692	(2)
The Fringe	694	(5)
Chronology	699	(2)
For Further Reading	701	(2)
Victors at Armageddon
The Progressives in Power 1901-1916	703	(18)
T. R. Takes Over	704	(2)
The President as Reformer	706	(4)
A Conservative President in a Progressive Era	710	(4)
Democratic Party Progressivism	714	(2)
Coney Island: Amusement Democratized	716	(3)
Chronology	719	(1)
For Further Reading	719	(2)
Over There
The United States and the First World War 1914-1918	721	(22)
Wilson, the World, and Mexico	722	(2)
The Great War	724	(4)
William D. Haywood (1869-1927)	728	(5)
America Goes to War	733	(7)
Chronology	740	(1)
For Further Reading	741	(2)
Over Here
World War I at Home 1917-1920	743	(20)
The Progressive War	744	(2)
Social Changes	746	(3)
Conformity and Repression	749	(4)
Wilson and the League of Nations	753	(1)
``They Dropped Like Flies'': The Great Flu Epidemic of 1918	754	(7)
Chronology	761	(1)
For Further Reading	761	(2)
In The Days of Harding
Time of Uncertainty 1919-1923	763	(20)
The Worst President	764	(1)
A Decent Man	765	(1)
How They Played the Game	766	(3)
Social Tensions: Labor, Radicals, Immigrants	769	(5)
Social Tensions: Race, Moral Codes, Religion	774	(6)
Chronology	780	(1)
For Further Reading	781	(2)
Calvin Coolidge and the New Era
When America Was a Business 1923-1929	783	(18)
The Coolidge Years	784	(4)
The Lone Eagle: Charles A. Lindbergh (1902-1974)	788	(3)
Prosperity and Business Culture	791	(5)
Get Rich Quick	796	(3)
Chronology	799	(1)
For Further Reading	799	(2)
National Trauma
The Great Depression 1930-1933	801	(16)
The Face of Catastrophe	802	(2)
The Failure of the Old Order	804	(3)
Americans React to the Crisis	807	(3)
The Election of 1932	810	(2)
Weeknights at Eight	812	(2)
Chronology	814	(1)
For Further Reading	815	(2)
Rearranging America
Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal 1933-1938	817	(20)
The Pleasant Man Who Changed America	818	(2)
The Hundred Days	820	(3)
The New Deal Threatened; The New Deal Sustained	823	(4)
The Spellbinders	827	(1)
How the Wealthy Coped	828	(3)
The Legacy of the New Deal	831	(4)
Chronology	835	(1)
For Further Reading	835	(2)
Headed For War Again
Foreign Relations 1933-1942	837	(22)
New Deal Foreign Policy	838	(3)
The World Goes to War	841	(4)
The United States and the War in Europe	845	(4)
America Goes to War	849	(1)
Rationing and Scrap Drives	850	(6)
Chronology	856	(1)
For Further Reading	857	(2)
America's Great War
The United States at the Pinnacle of Power 1942-1945	859	(22)
Stopping Japan	860	(2)
Studying a New Kind of War	862	(4)
Defeating Germany First	866	(5)
The Twilight of Japan, the Nuclear Dawn	871	(6)
Chronology	877	(2)
For Further Reading	879	(2)
Anxiety Time
The United States in the Early Nuclear Age 1946-1952	881	(22)
The Shadow of Cold War	882	(4)
Jehovah's Witnesses	886	(2)
Domestic Politics under Truman	888	(4)
Containment in China	892	(4)
Years of Tension	896	(4)
Chronology	900	(1)
For Further Reading	901	(2)
Eisenhower Country
American Life in the 1950s	903	(20)
Leadership	904	(2)
Fashion and the Fifties	906	(5)
Suburbia and Its Values	911	(5)
Against the Grain	916	(4)
Chronology	920	(1)
For Further Reading	921	(2)
Consensus and Camelot
The Eisenhower and Kennedy Administrations 1953-1963	923	(22)
Ike's Domestic Compromise	924	(1)
The Cold War Continues	925	(3)
Suburban Landscape	928	(4)
1960: A Changing of the Guard	932	(3)
Camelot	935	(2)
Kennedy's Foreign Policy	937	(5)
Chronology	942	(1)
For Further Reading	943	(2)
Years of Turbulence
Conflict at Home and Abroad 1961-1968	945	(24)
Lyndon Baines Johnson	946	(2)
The Great Society	948	(2)
Earl Warren (1891-1974)	950	(3)
Vietnam! Vietnam!	953	(2)
Mr. Johnson's War	955	(2)
Troubled Years	957	(5)
The Election of 1968	962	(3)
Chronology	965	(2)
For Further Reading	967	(2)
Presidency in Crisis
Policies of the Nixon, Ford, and Carter Administrations 1968-1980	969	(24)
The Nixon Presidency	970	(3)
Nixon's Vietnam	973	(3)
Nixon-Kissinger Foreign Policy	976	(3)
Watergate and Gerald Ford	979	(6)
Quiet Crisis	985	(3)
The Typical American of the 1980s: A Statistical Portrait	988	(1)
Chronology	989	(2)
For Further Reading	991	(2)
Morning In America
The Reagan Era 1980-1993	993	(20)
The Ayatollah and the Actor	995	(1)
The Reagan Revolution	996	(5)
Foreign Policy in the Eighties	1001	(3)
The Bush Presidency	1004	(5)
Chronology	1009	(2)
For Further Reading	1011	(2)
Millennium
Frustration, Anger, Division, Values	1013	(2)
Foreign Policy under Clinton	1015	(3)
Politics Not as Usual	1018	(6)
Scandal + Prosperity = Postitive Ratings	1024	(6)
Millennial Society	1030
Appendixes	A-1
Photo Credits	C-1
Index	I-1