America Past and Present: Brief Edition, Volume I (Chapters 1-16)

by Divine, Robert A.; Breen, T.H.; Fredrickson, George M.; Williams, R. Hal; Roberts, Randy

• ISBN13: 9780321084620
• ISBN10: 0321084624
• Edition: 5th
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-01-01
• Publisher: Longman

Summary

America Past and Present, Brief presents a balanced and manageable overview of the United States as an unfolding story of national development, blending the best in past historical interpretation with new scholarship. This edition features all the strengths of the successful parent text: a compelling narrative, clear organization, and exceptional pedagogy. An attractive four-color design highlighted with numerous maps and photos will engage students and instructors alike.

Table of Contents

1. New World Encounters.
Native American Cultures.
West Africa: People and History.
Europe on the Eve of Conquest.
Europeans' New World.
French Exploration and Settlement.
The English New World.
Rehearsal in Ireland for American Colonization.
England Turns to America.

2. England's Colonial Experiments: The Seventeenth Century.
Leaving Home.
The Chesapeake: Dreams of Wealth.
Reinventing England in America.
Diversity in the Middle Colonies.
Quakers in America.
Planting the Carolinas.
The Founding of Georgia.
Rugged and Laborious Beginnings.

3. Putting Down Roots: Families in an Atlantic Empire.
Sources of Stability: New England Colonies of the Seventeenth Century.
The Planters' World.
Race and Freedom in British America.
Commercial Blueprint for Empire.
Colonial Gentry in Revolt, 1676-1691.
Common Experiences, Separate Cultures.

4. Frontiers of Empire: Eighteenth-Century America.
Experiencing Diversity.
Forced Migration.
Ethnic Cultures of the Backcountry.
Spanish Borderlands of the Eighteenth Century.
British Colonies in an Atlantic World.
Religious Revivals in Provincial Societies.
Clash of Political Cultures.
Century of Imperial War.
Rule Britannia?
WE AMERICANS: LEARNING TO LIVE WITH DIVERSITY IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY: WHAT IS AN AMERICAN?

5. The American Revolution: From Gentry Protest to Popular Revolt, 1763-1783.
Contested Meanings of Empire.
Challenge and Resistance: Eroding the Bonds of Empire.
Decision for Independence.
Fighting for Independence.
The Loyalist Dilemma.
Winning the Peace.
Post-Colonial Challenge.

6. The Republican Experiment.
Living in a Revolutionary Society.
The States: The Lessons of Republicanism.
Stumbling Toward a New National Government.
Strengthening Federal Authority.
“Have We Fought for This?”
Whose Constitution? Struggle for Ratification.
A New Beginning.

7. Democracy in Distress: The Violence of Party Politics, 1788-1800.
Power of Public Opinion.
Principle and Pragmatism: Establishing a New Government.
Conflicting Visions: Jefferson and Hamilton.
Hamilton's Plan for Prosperity and Security.
Charges of Treason: The Battle over Foreign Affairs.
Popular Political Culture.
The Adams Presidency.
The Peaceful Revolution: The Election of 1800.
WE AMERICANS: COUNTING THE PEOPLE: THE FEDERAL CENSUS OF 1790.

8. Jeffersonian Ascendancy: Theory and Practice of Government.
Defining Identity in a New Republic.
Republicans in Power.
Jefferson's Critics.
Embarrassments Overseas.
The Strange War of 1812.
Republican Legacy.

9. Nation Building and Nationalism.
Expansion and Migration.
Transportation and the Market Economy.
The Politics of Nation Building After the War of 1812.

10. The Triumph of White Men's Democracy.
Democracy in Theory and Practice.
Jackson and the Politics of Democracy.
The Bank War and the Second Party System.
Heyday of the Second Party System.
Tocqueville's Wisdom.

11. The Pursuit of Perfection.
The Rise of Evangelicalism.
Domesticity and Changes in the American Family.
Institutional Reform.
Reform Turns Radical.

12. An Age of Expansionism.
Movement to the Far West.
Manifest Destiny and the Mexican-American War.
Internal Expansionism.
WE AMERICANS: THE IRISH IN BOSTON, 1845-1865.

13. Masters and Slaves.
Slavery and the Southern Economy.
The Slaveholding Society.
The Black Experience Under Slavery.
A Divided Society.

14. The Sectional Crisis.
The Compromise of 1850.
Political Upheaval, 1852-1856.
The House Divided, 1857-1860.
Explaining the Crisis.
WE AMERICANS: HISPANIC AMERICA AFTER 1848: A CASE STUDY IN MAJORITY RULE.

15. Secession and the Civil War.
The Storm Gathers.
Adjusting to Total War.
Fight to the Finish.

16. The Agony of Reconstruction.
The President Versus Congress.
Reconstruction in the South.
The Age of Grant.
Reunion and the New South.