America Firsthand: Readings from Reconstruction to the Present

by Marcus, Robert D.; Burner, David; Marcus, Robert D.; Burner, David

• ISBN13: 9780312245979
• ISBN10: 0312245971
• Edition: 5th
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-10-01
• Publisher: Bedford/st Martins

Summary

The fifth edition of this best-selling survey reader continues to capture, through lively first-person accounts, the diverse individual experiences that comprise the American past and present. Six art portfolios help students assess the visual record as well.

Table of Contents

Preface	iii
Part One After the War: New South and New West	1	(60)
Points of View: Dilemmas of Reconstruction (1865-1877)
African Americans During Reconstruction	2	(6)
Felix Haywood
In interviews conducted in the 1930s, Felix Haywood and other former slaves tell about their lives immediately following the Civil War.
White Southerners' Reactions To Reconstruction	8	(9)
Caleb G. Forshey
Reverend James Sinclair
Testimony by Caleb Forshey and Reverend James Sinclair before a Congressional Joint Committee shows reactions of Southern whites to Reconstruction policies.
For Critical Thinking	16	(1)
The Murder of Jim Williams	17	(10)
Rosy Williams et al.
Testimony of Rosy Williams, John Caldwell, and Dr. James R. Bratton describes the banging of Jim Williams by the Ku Klux Klan in Yorkville, South Carolina.
Vengeance Against ``Long Hair'' She Walks with Her Shawl and One Bull	27	(10)
Lakota and Cheyenne Indians remember the Little Big Horn encounter in which more than four thousand warriors defeated Custer and his regiment in southern Montana.
Work Under Sharecropper and Labor Contracts
Grimes Family and Swindell Brothers	33	(4)
Grimes family and Swindell Brothers contracts provide examples of new economic arrangements from Reconstruction through the 1880s.
School Days of an Indian Girl	37	(7)
Zitkala-Sa (Gertrude Simmons Bonnin)
A South Dakota Sioux, Zitkala-Sa (Gertrude Simmons Bonnin), recalls her experiences at a boarding school for Native American children and later at college.
Rails Across the Continent	44	(17)
Samuel Bowles
Samuel Bowels writes about the great ``iron horse race.''
Visual Portfolio: The Western Landscape	51	(10)
Part Two The Gilded Age: A New Industrial Commonwealth	61	(54)
Points of View: Industrialism and Progress (1882)
The Decline of the Independent Craftsman	62	(8)
Joseph T. Finnerty
Joseph T. Finnerty, a brass worker, criticizes the growing scale of industry before a Senate Committee.
Workers Prosper as Industry Grows	70	(10)
William Steinway
William Steinway, a piano manufacturer, defends industrial growth before a Senate Committee.
For Critical Thinking	79	(1)
George Rice Loses Out to Standard Oil	80	(7)
George Rice
George Rice exposes the business practices of Standard Oil, a trust that destroyed his refining business.
The Gospel of Wealth	87	(7)
Andrew Carnegie
In a widely read essay, Andrew Carnegie mounts an influential defense of great fortunes and their contributions to society.
Honest and Dishonest Graft	94	(8)
George Washington Plunkitt
Tammany Hall politician George Washington Plunkitt reflects on the meaning of political corruption in the Gilded Age.
Antilynching Campaign in Tennessee	102	(6)
Ida B. Wells
Ida B. Wells, an African American journalist, remembers the lynching of three Memphis friends who owned a grocery store in her community.
Teddy Roosevelt Becomes a National Hero	108	(7)
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt describes his experiences in the Spanish-American War.
Part Three An Age of Reform: Responses to Industrial America	115	(56)
Points of View: The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire (1911)
Conditions at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company	116	(5)
Paulien Newman
Pauline Newman and four other women describe the fire that broke out in the Triangle Shirtwaist Company and the working conditions that led to it.
A Fire Trap	121	(7)
William Gunn Shephered
A special morning edition of the New York World, March 26, 1911, recounts the tragedy in which over 140 people died.
For Critical Thinking	127	(1)
Part of the Working Class	128	(7)
Rose Pastor Stokes
Rose Pastor Stokes describes the hardships of her immigrant childhood in Cleveland, Ohio.
A Bintel Brief	135	(7)
Abraham Cahan
Letters to the Jewish Daily Forward and Abraham Cahan's answers express the concerns of new immigrants adjusting to American life.
Conditions at the Slaughterhouse	142	(8)
Upton Sinclair
An excerpt from Upton Sinclair's book The Jungle graphically describes deplorable practices in the meat-packing industry.
Letters from the Great Migration	150	(4)
Emmett J. Scott
Letters collected by Emmett J. Scott document the ``great migration'' of African Americans looking for new opportunities in Northern cities.
Over the Top	154	(17)
Arthur Guy Empey
Arthur Guy Empey wrote the most popular of all first-person accounts of an American's participation in World War I.
Visual Portfolio: Urban Industrial America	161	(10)
Part Four A New Society: Between the Wars	171	(44)
Points of View: The Scopes Trial (1925)
In Defense of the Bible	172	(7)
William Jennings Bryan
Clarence Darrow
William Jennings Bryan testifies against the theory of evolution during the famous Tennessee ``monkey trial.''
An Odd Eulogy for William Jennings Bryan	179	(5)
H. L. Mencken
H. L. Mencken lambastes Bryan for his role in the Scopes trial.
For Critical Thinking	183	(1)
The Harlem Renaissance	184	(10)
Langston Hughes
Langston Hughes remembers Harlem in the 1920s.
My Fight for Birth Control	194	(15)
Margaret Sanger
Margaret Sanger describes a tragic incident that inspired her Renowned crusade to offer contraceptive information to women.
Down and out in the Great Depression
Anonymous	201	(8)
Ordinary citizens describe their plight in anonymous letters to Franklin D. and Eleanor Roosevelt and to various government officials.
The Sit-Down Strikes	209	(6)
Henry Kraus
The ``Battle of Bull's Run'' became a legendary moment in the history of the American labor movement.
Part Five Global Reach: War, Affluence, and Uncertainty	215	(68)
Points of View: Building an Atomic Bomb (1942-1945)
Letters From Los Alamos	216	(6)
Phyllis Fisher
Phyllis Fisher, wife of a nuclear physicist working with J. Robert Oppenheimer, writes to her parents between 1944 and 1945.
To Build a Bomb	222	(10)
J. Robert Oppenheimer
J. Robert Oppenheimer recounts the drive to recruit almost four thousand scientists for the Manhattan Project.
For Critical Thinking	230	(2)
Rosie The Riveter	232	(8)
Fanny Christina Hill
Fanny Christina Hill, an African American, remembers her employment as a defense worker during World War II.
Memories of the Internment Camp	240	(7)
Ben Yorita
Philip Hayasaka
Ben Yorita and Philip Hayasaka, Japanese Americans, recall their lives at a ``relocation center'' during World War II.
The Bataan Death March	247	(8)
Blair Robinett et al.
Private First Class Blair Robinett and fellow soldiers relate gruesome details of survival and death during this infamous World War II event
Post-World War II ``Red Scare''	255	(6)
Mark Goodson
CBS executive Mark Goodson recalls entertainment industry blacklisting during the McCarthy era.
Betty Friedan Starts a Revolution	261	(6)
Betty Friedan et al.
Betty Friedan writes about and readers respond to The Feminine Mystique.
Launching the Montgomery Bus Boycott	267	(16)
Jo Ann Gibson Robinson
A leading political activist, Jo Ann Gibson Robinson describes fighting segregation on city buses in her hometown.
Visual Portfolio: Faces of War	277	(6)
Part Six New Boundaries: Discontent and the Yearning for Security	283
Points of View: The My Lai Incident (1968-1970)
Disbelief and Corroboration	284
Ronald L. Ridenhour
A letter from a former infantryman, Ronald L. Ridenhour, asks for an investigation into the My Lai Massacre, and testimony and army reports examine the slaughter.
Cover-Up and Outcome	291
General Westmoreland
More testimony and reports coupled with reflections by General Westmoreland and President Nixon shed light on how the incident could have happened and why public reaction was so explosive.
For Critical Thinking	300
Agenda for a Generation Students for a Democratic Society.	301
Selections from The Port Huron Statement drafted by Students for a Democratic Society.
Mississippi Summer Freedom Project Student Workers	306
Student workers document their despair over the murders of three fellow volunteers in their letters home.
Woodstock Remembered	314
Chip Monck
Richie Havens
Eyewitnesses recall how the Woodstock Festival skirted disaster but achieved moments of glory.
Crossing The Rio Grande	322
Al Santoli
The lives and dreams of two illegal immigrants living in El Paso, Texas, in the 1980s are revealed in their first-person narratives.
Homegrown Terror	330
Clark C. Peterson
Clark C. Peterson, Sergeant Jerry Flowers, and other eyewitnesses tell of the bombing of the Oklahoma City Federal Building and its aftermath.