Major Problems in American History Since 1945

by Griffith, Robert; Baker, Paula; Paterson, Thomas

• ISBN13: 9780395868508
• ISBN10: 0395868505
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-01-18
• Publisher: Wadsworth Publishing

Summary

This text presents a carefully selected group of readings--on topics such as the Cold War and Watergate--organized to allow students to evaluate primary sources, test the interpretations of distinguished historians, and draw their own conclusions.

Table of Contents

Preface	xv
World War II and the Origins of Postwar America	1	(35)
Essays
The Origins of the Postwar International System	3	(13)
Thomas G. Paterson
The Roots of Postwar Politics	16	(10)
Alan Wolfe
The Legacies of World War II	26	(8)
Alan Brinkley
Further Reading	34	(2)
From World War II to the Cold War: The Atomic Bombing of Japan	36	(34)
Documents
President Harry S Truman's Advisers Discuss the Atomic Bomb, May 1945	37	(1)
Atomic Scientists Urge an Alternative Course, June 1945	38	(2)
U.S. Science Advisers Endorse Dropping the Bomb, June 1945	40	(1)
Undersecretary of the Navy Ralph Bard Urges Alternatives, June 1945	41	(1)
General Leslie Groves Reports on a Successful Test, July 1945	41	(2)
President Truman Discusses the Bomb at Potsdam, July 1945	43	(2)
The U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey Concludes That the Bomb Was Unnecessary, 1946	45	(5)
Essays
The Biggest Decision: Why We Had to Drop the Atomic Bomb	50	(7)
Robert James Maddox
Hiroshima: Historians Reassess	57	(11)
Gar Alperovitz
Further Reading	68	(2)
The Cold War Begins	70	(51)
Documents
President Harry S Truman and His Advisers Debate U.S. Policy Toward the U.S.S.R., April 1945	71	(3)
Russian Premier Joseph Stalin Defends Soviet Policy in Eastern Europe, April 1945	74	(1)
Secretary of Commerce Henry A. Wallace Urges a Conciliatory Approach, July 1946	75	(1)
White House Aide Clark M. Clifford Summarizes the Case for the Hard Line, September 1946	76	(4)
Soviet Ambassador Nikolai Novikov Reports on the U.S. Drive for World Supremacy, September 1946	80	(6)
The Truman Doctrine, March 1947	86	(2)
Undersecretary of State Dean Acheson Calls for Economic Aid to Europe, May 1947	88	(2)
The President's Advisers Urge Military Expansion, April 1950	90	(3)
President Truman and His Advisers Determine the United States' Response to the Invasion of South Korea, June 26, 1950	93	(3)
Essays
Soviet Unilateralism and the Origins of the Cold War	96	(12)
John Lewis Gaddis
An Exaggerated Threat and the Rise of American Globalism	108	(10)
Thomas G. Paterson
Further Reading	118	(3)
Affluence and Discontent in the 1950s	121	(37)
Documents
Life Magazine Identifies the New Teen-age Market, 1959	122	(2)
Newsweek Decries the Problem of Dangerous Teens, 1955	124	(3)
U.S. News and World Report Assesses the Perils of Mass Culture and the Evils of Television, 1955	127	(4)
Congress Investigates Homosexuals as Subversives, 1950	131	(4)
Graphic Illustrations of How to Respond to a Nuclear Attack, 1950	135	(2)
Essays
Rebels Without a Cause? Teenagers in the 1950s	137	(6)
Beth Bailey
Visions of Classlessness	143	(13)
Roland Marchand
Further Reading	156	(2)
the Cuban Revolution, and the Cold War	158	(57)
John F. Kennedy
Documents
Fidel Castro Denounces U.S. Policy Toward Cuba, 1960	160	(3)
President John F. Kennedy Calls for an Alliance for Progress, 1961	163	(2)
A Board of Inquiry Reports on the Bay of Pigs, 1961	165	(5)
President Kennedy and His Advisers Debate Options in the Missile Crisis, October 16, 1962	170	(7)
Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev Appeals to President Kennedy, October 26, 1962	177	(3)
Anastas I. Mikoyan and Fidel Castro Review the Crisis, November 3-4, 1962	180	(3)
Essays
Spinning Out of Control: Kennedy's War Against Cuba and the Missile Crisis	183	(13)
Thomas G. Paterson
Aftermath	196	(16)
Ernest R. May
Philip D. Zelikow
Further Reading	212	(3)
the Great Society, and American Liberalism	215	(34)
Lyndon B. Johnson
Documents
Michael Harrington Describes the ``Other America,'' 1962	216	(3)
President Lyndon B. Johnson Declares War on Poverty, 1964	219	(2)
President Ronald Reagan Warns of the Dangers of the Welfare State, 1964	221	(2)
A Liberal Cartoonist Worries That Johnson Has Abandoned the Great Society, 1965	223	(1)
Two White House Aides Report the Achievements of the Great Society, 1966	224	(2)
Poverty in America, 1959-1997: A Graphic	226	(1)
Essays
Was the Great Society a Lost Opportunity?	227	(13)
Ira Katznelson
From Opportunity to Entitlement	240	(6)
Gareth Davies
Further Reading	246	(3)
Martin Luther King Jr. and the Struggle for African American Equality	249	(32)
Documents
The New York Times Reports a Murder in Georgia, 1946	250	(1)
Malcolm X Recalls Getting a ``Conk,'' 1964	251	(1)
Brown v. Board of Education, 1954	252	(2)
Franklin McCain Remembers the First Sit-In, 1960	254	(2)
Martin Luther King Jr., ``I Have a Dream,'' 1963	256	(3)
Stokely Carmichael Explains ``Black Power,'' 1967	259	(4)
A Senate Committee Reports on the FBI's Campaign Against Martin Luther King Jr., 1976	263	(3)
Essays
King as Disturber of the Peace	266	(6)
Vincent Gordon Harding
The Continuing Racial Crisis	272	(6)
Thomas J. Sugrue
Further Reading	278	(3)
Vietnam and the Crisis of American Empire	281	(42)
Documents
The Vietnamese Declare Their Independence, 1945	282	(2)
State Department Advisers Debate U.S. Support for the French in Vietnam, 1949	284	(2)
President Dwight D. Eisenhower Explains the Domino Theory, 1954	286	(1)
Final Declaration of the Geneva Conference on Indochina, 1954	287	(2)
Nguyen Tan Thanh, a South Vietnamese Peasant, Explains Why He Joined the Vietcong (1961), 1986	289	(1)
The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, 1964	290	(1)
President Lyndon Johnson's Advisers Debate Expanding the War, 1965	291	(5)
Lieutenant Marion Lee Kempner, a Young Marine, Explains the War, 1966	296	(2)
Wrong, Rambo! A Vietnam Veteran Looks Back, 1985	298	(2)
Essays
The Cold War and American Intervention in Vietnam	300	(10)
George McT. Kahin
The Meaning of Vietnam	310	(10)
George C. Herring
Further Reading	320	(3)
The New Left and the Politics of the 1960s	323	(44)
Documents
The Port Huron Statement, 1963	324	(4)
The Sharon Statement, 1960	328	(1)
The Weathermen's Call for Revolution: ``You Don't Need a Weatherman to Know Which Way the Wind Blows,'' 1969	329	(2)
Raymond Mungo Searches for a New Age at Total Loss Farm, 1970	331	(2)
Two Disillusioned Ex-Radicals Bid Good-bye to the Sixties, 1985	333	(6)
Tom Hayden Recalls a Time of Greatness and Wonder, 1988	339	(4)
Essays
The Contradictory Legacy of the Sixties	343	(15)
Maurice Isserman
Michael Kazin
Who Owns the Sixties?	358	(7)
Rick Perlstein
Further Reading	365	(2)
From the Feminine Mystique to the New Feminism	367	(47)
Documents
Betty Friedan on the Problem That Has No Name, 1963	368	(3)
NOW Statement of Purpose, 1966	371	(2)
Feminists Analyze the Welfare System, 1970	373	(6)
Redstockings Manifesto, 1970	379	(2)
A Redbook Magazine Reader Discovers Consciousness-Raising, 1973	381	(3)
Phyllis Schlafly Proclaims the Power of the Positive Woman, 1977	384	(5)
Essays
Welfare Rights and Women's Rights in the 1960s	389	(11)
Martha F. Davis
Women's Liberation and Sixties Radicalism	400	(12)
Alice Echols
Further Reading	412	(2)
Richard M. Nixon, Watergate, and the Crisis of the ``Imperial'' Presidency	414	(35)
Documents
Richard M. Nixon on Being President, 1972	415	(3)
White House Counsel John W. Dean III Presents the ``Enemies List,'' 1971	418	(1)
President Nixon Discusses the Watergate Break-in with Aide H. R. Haldeman, 1972	419	(2)
Senator Sam J. Ervin on Watergate, 1974	421	(4)
President Nixon's Farewell, 1974	425	(3)
Essays
Escaping Watergate: A Revisionist View of the Nixon Presidency	428	(12)
James A. Nuechterlein
The Inescapability of Watergate	440	(7)
Stanley I. Kutler
Further Reading	447	(2)
The Reagan Revolution and After: Politics and Political Economy in the New Era	449	(49)
Documents
President Jimmy Carter and the Crisis of the American Spirit, 1979	451	(3)
Presidential Candidate Ronald Reagan Calls for New Economic Policies, 1980	454	(3)
President George Bush Seeks a Kinder, Gentler Nation, 1989	457	(2)
The Republican ``Contract with America,'' 1994	459	(2)
President Bill Clinton Signs a Bill ``To End Welfare as We Know It,'' 1996	461	(1)
A Liberal Postmortem on the 1996 Election, 1997	462	(2)
Essays
The Mobilization of American Business	464	(13)
Thomas Byrne Edsall
Democrats and Republicans Forge a New Political Economy	477	(19)
Daniel Yergin
Joseph Stanislaw
Further Reading	496	(2)
The Empire Strikes Back: Ronald Reagan and the End of the Cold War	498	(33)
Documents
President Ronald Reagan Denounces the Soviet Union as an ``Evil'' Empire, 1982	499	(4)
U.S. Military Spending, 1980-1990: A Graphic	503	(1)
A Congressional Committee Reports on ``Irangate,'' 1987	504	(5)
Soviet Leader Mikhail Gorbachev Charts a New Direction for the U.S.S.R., 1988	509	(1)
The New York Times Announces the End of the Cold War, 1989	510	(2)
President George Bush Proclaims a New World Order, 1990	512	(2)
Essays
Ronald Reagan's Cold War Victory	514	(5)
John Lewis Gaddis
Reagan and the Russians	519	(2)
Richard Ned Lebow
Janice Gross Stein
Reagan and Central America	521	(8)
William M. LeoGrande
Further Reading	529	(2)
Brave New World: The United States and the Global Era	531	(3)
Essays
The ``New Economy'' of the 1990s	534	(8)
Robert D. Atkinson
Randolph H. Court
Jihad vs. McWorld	542	(9)
Benjamin R. Barber
America as a New World ``Borderland''	551	(11)
Ronald Takaki
A Gathering of Citizens	562	(10)
Michael Schudson
Further Reading	572