American Issues A Primary Source Reader in United States History, Volume 2

by Unger, Irwin; Tomes, Robert R.

• ISBN13: 9780205803446
• ISBN10: 020580344X
• Edition: 5th
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-11-14
• Publisher: Pearson

Summary

In this popular two-volume anthology of primary documents, letters, and articles participants and contemporary observers express their opinions, make observations, and reach conclusions about events and issues that affected the nation and American society.

Author Biography

Pulitzer Prize winning historian Irwin Unger has been teaching American history for over forty years on both coasts. Born and largely educated in New York, he has lived in California, Virginia, and Washington State. He is married to Debi Unger and they have five children, now all safely past their college years. Professor Unger formerly taught at California State University at Long Beach, the University of California at Davis, and New York University. He is now professor emeritus at NYU.  Professor Unger’s professional interests have ranged widely within American history. He has written on Reconstruction, the Progressive Era, and on the 1960s. His first book, The Greenback Era, won a Pulitzer Prize in 1965. Since then he has written The Movement: The New Left and (with Debi Unger) The Vulnerable Years, Turning Point: 1968, The Best of Intentions (about the Great Society), LBJ: A Life, The Guggenheims, A Family History. He has just completed a book on the 1960s and he and Debi Unger are working on a biography of General George C. Marshall.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1   Reconstruction

1. 1  Harsh Versus Lenient Victors

         Abraham Lincoln, Reconstruction Must Be Gradual and Careful (1865)

         Andrew Johnson, Amnesty Proclamation (1865)

         Thaddeus Stevens, We Must Have a Radical Reconstruction (1865)

1.2   The White South Responds

         Mississippi Black Code (1865)

          James W. Hunnicutt, Johnson’s Policies Criticized (1866)

         White People Must Regain Control of Their States (1868)

         Organization and Principles of the Ku Klux Klan (1874)

1.3   The Black Response

         Frederick Douglass, What the Black Man Wants (1865)

         The Ex-Slaves Should Have Land (1868)

         The Ex-Slaves Crave Education (1866)

         An Appeal for Protection from the KKK (1871)

Chapter 2    Industrial Growth and the Last Frontier

2.1   The Industrial Status Quo Defended

         Andrew Carnegie, Wealth (1889)

         Rutherford B. Hayes on Concentrated Wealth (1886)

2.2    The Industrial Worker

          Report on Illinois Sweatshops (1893)

          Emma Lazarus, The New Colossus (1886)

2.3    Labor Unrest

          Preamble to the Constitution of the Knights of Labor (1889)

          Henry Demarest Lloyd, The Railroad Strike of 1877 (1881)

2.4    The Cities Acclaimed

          Frederic C. Howe,The Hope of Democracy (1905)

2.5    The Cities Deplored

          Charles Loring Brace, The Dangerous Classes of New York (1872)

          Songs of New York

                  The Bowery

                  Sidewalks of New York

2.6    City Government 

          William L. Riordan, Strenuous Life of the Tammany District Leader (1905)

Chapter 3  The Final Frontier

3.1    Settling the Final Frontier

          Hamilton S. Wicks, The Great Race for Land (1889)

3.2    Agrarian Hardship

          Washington Gladden, Embattled Farmers (1890)

          The Preamble of the Platform of the People’s Party (1892)

3.3    The Buffalo Destroyed

          W. Skelton Glenn, The Destruction of the Plains Buffalo (1876–1877)

3.4     Native Americans

           Sitting Bull Tells How He Defeated Custer (1877)

           Chester A. Arthur,The Indians Must Be Assimilated (1881)

Chapter 4   Outward Thrust

4.1     Racial Destiny

            Josiah Strong, Why the Anglo-Saxons Will Triumph (1885)

4.2      Race and Power

           W.E.B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk (1903)

4.3     Manhood and Imperialism

           Theodore Roosevelt, Manhood and Foreign Policy(1899)

4.4      Trade and Markets

            Albert Beveridge, Why We Must Keep the Philippines (1900)

4.5      The Anti-Imperialists

            Charles Eliot Norton on American Ideals (1899)

          Morrison I. Swift views Imperialism as a Threat to Liberty (1899)

Chapter 5   The Progressive Impulse

5.1     The Danger of Concentrated Wealth

           Theodore Roosevelt, Republican Anti-Trust (1912)

            Woodrow Wilson, Democratic Anti-Trust (1913)

            The “Monopolists” Respond:  John D. Rockefeller Defends Standard Oil (1899)

5.2      Conservation and Efficiency

           Conservation Statement (1908)

             John Muir, Hetch Hetchy (1912)

5.3      Social Justice Progressivism

            Jane Addams, Hull House, Chicago: An Effort toward Social Democracy (1892)

           The Social Creed of the Churches Statement Adopted by the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church (1908)

Chapter 6    Race and Ethnicity

6.1     The Great Migration: The Dark Side

           Ray Stannard Baker, What Is a Lynching? A Study of Mob Justice, South and North (1905)

           Fannie Barrier Williams, Social Bonds in the “Black Belt” of Chicago: Negro Organizations and

                        the New Spirit Pervading Them (1919)

           Chicago Commission on Race Relations: Causes of the Race Riot (1919)

6.2     The Ku Klux Klan

           Statements from the Ku Klux Klan (1924)

6.3      Black Americans Respond    

            W.E.B. Du Bois, What Black Americans Want (1905)

            Marcus Garvey, Black Pride (1923)

6.4      The New Immigration and American Toleration

            Madison Grant, The Passing of the Great Race (1916)

            Mary Antin, The Promised Land (1912)

Chapter 7   World War I

7.1      The Submarine Dimension  

            William Jennings Bryan, Protesting Unrestricted U-Boat Warfare (1915)

            Gottlieb Von Jagow, The Germans Defend Their Submarine Policy (1915)

7.2       Voices for Intervention

             Ambassador James Bryce, British Report on German Atrocities in Belgium (1915)

             Robert Lansing, Germany Must Not Be Allowed to Win the War (1915)

             Robert Lansing, Lending the Allies Money (1915)

7.3       Opponents of Intervention

            Socialist Party Convention: The Socialists Protest the War (1917)

            Robert La Follette, A Progressive Opposes the Declaration of War (1917)

7.4       Making the World Safe for Democracy

            Wilson’s War Address (1917)

             Nativist Hysteria Challenges Democracy at Home (1925)

7.5       Idealism and Disillusionment

             The Fourteen Points: Wilson’s Address to Congress (1918)

             The Defeat of the League of Nations (1920)

Chapter 8     Women’s Issues, 1900–1940

8.1       Voting Rights

             Carrie Chapman Catt, Address to National American Women Suffrage Association (1902)

8.2       The Right to Work 

             Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Women and Economics (1898)

8.3       Reproductive Rights

             Margaret Sanger, My Fight for Birth Control (1931)

           Let Us All Speak Our Minds (c. 1926)

Chapter 9     The New Deal

9.1       Roosevelt Explains His Policies 

             Franklin D. Roosevelt,  The Only Thing We Have to Fear is Fear Itself (1933)

             Harry Hopkins and the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (1934)

             John Maynard Keyes Makes Public Recommendations (1934)

9.2       The New Deal and the “Common Man”

             “Saint Roosevelt” (1934, 1936)

9.3        Attack from the Right  

              Herbert Hoover, Government Must Not Limit Free Enterprise (1928)

9.4        Thunder from the Left

              The Communist Party: The New Deal Means Fascism and War (1934)

Chapter 10     World War II

10.1      Isolationism

              Bennett Champ Clark, The Experience of the Last War Should Guide Us Today (1935)

              Robert Taft, Let Us Retain the Neutrality Acts (1939)

10.2      Interventionists  

              Henry L. Stimson, Repeal the Arms Embargo (1936)

10.3      America First Versus Aid to Britain

              James B. Conant, We Must Aid the Allies (1940)

              Burton K. Wheeler, Lend-Lease Will Lead to War(1941)

10.4      Undeclared War  

              Franklin Delano Roosevelt, The German Menace (1941)

10.5      A New American Internationalism

              Roosevelt’s “Four Freedoms” Speech (1941)

               Franklin Roosevelt, The Atlantic Charter (1941)

            Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948)

Chapter 11    The Cold War

11.1      The Soviet Menace, The Truman Doctrine, The Marshall Plan, and Massive Retaliation

                          Winston Churchill, The Iron Curtain (1946)

               X” [George Kennan], The Sources of Soviet Conduct (1947)

               Harry S Truman, Aid to Greece and Turkey (1947)

               George Marshall, We Must Help Europe Recover (1947)

               Secretary Dulles’ Strategy of Massive Retaliation (1954)

11.2       A Military-Industrial Complex? Economic Aspects of the Cold War

               Paul M. Sweezy, The Marshall Plan, An Instrument of Peace?  (1949)

               Richard M. Nixon, What Freedom Means To Us: American People Are Peace-Loving People

                        (1959)

11.3      The Red Scare

               Joseph R. McCarthy, Why Communism Is Gaining (1950)

              McCarran Internal Security Act (1950)

              Millard Tydings Committee, McCarthy’s Charges Are False (1950)

Chapter 12    The Civil Rights Revolution

12.1      School Desegregation

              Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954)

               John F. Kennedy, A Moral Imperative: Equality of Treatment (1963)

              White Citizens’ Councils, How Can We Educate Our Children? (1965)

12.2      Christian Love versus Racial Anger

              Southern Christian Leadership Conference, This is SCLC (1964)

              Songs of the Civil Rights Movement

                        Keep Your Eyes on the Prize

                        Woke Up This Morning with My Mind Stayed on Freedom

                        Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around

                        This Little Light of Mine

              Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, We Want Black Power (1967)

Chapter 13    The Great Society

13.1      Defenders

              Lyndon B. Johnson, The Great Society (1964)

13.2      The Attack from the Right   

              Barry Goldwater, The Conscience of a Conservative (1960)

13.3      The Attack from the Left  

              Students for a Democratic Society, The Port Huron Statement (1962)

              Pamphlet of Columbia University Students (1968)

Chapter 14    The New Feminism

14.1      The National Organization for Women’s Bill of Rights

               National Organization for Women, Bill of Rights (1967)

14.2       Radical Feminism

               Anne Koedt, Politics of the Ego: A Manifesto for New York Radical Feminists (1969)

               Radical Women (Organization), No More Miss America! (1968)

14.3       The Counterattack

                Alice Skelsey, Mrs. Homemaker–Mrs. Wonderful: The New Myths from Women’s Lib (1972)

Chapter 15    The Vietnam War

15.1       The Hawk Position

                Dwight D. Eisenhower, The Domino Theory (1954)

               The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution (1964)

               The “White Paper” (1965)

15.2       The North Vietnamese Analyze American Intervention

               Le Duan, The North Vietnamese Analyze American Intervention (1965)

15.3       The Antiwar Movement Strikes Back

               Vietnam Day Committee, Attention All Military Personnel (1965)

               Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee,The U.S. Government Has Deceived Us (1966)

               Declaration of Conscience against the War in Vietnam (1965)

               American Deserters’ Committee, Deserters’ Proclamation (1968)

Chapter 16    Watergate

16.1       The Tapes

               Richard Nixon, The Smoking Gun (1972)

16.2       Nixon Defends Himself

               Richard M. Nixon, I Did Not Know About Watergate (1973)

16.3       The Vote for Impeachment

               House Judiciary Committee, Impeachment Articles (1974)

16.4        Jimmy Carter:  Energy and the Crisis of Confidence

             Jimmy Carter and the Crisis of Confidence (1979)

                Dick Cheney, We Must Increase Domestic Production from Known Sources of Oil (2001)

Chapter 17    The Reagan Revolution and Conservative Ascendancy

17.1       Ronald Reagan’s Boundless Optimism

               Ronald Reagan’s Vision of Freedom (1988)

17.2       The New Right

               Richard Viguerie, The New Right: We’re Ready to Lead (1980)

               Jude Wanniski, Taxes, Revenues, and the “Laffer Curve” (1978)

17.3      The Liberals Hit Back

               Robert L. Heilbroner, The Demand for the Supply-Side (1982)

               Robert McAfee Brown, The Need for a Moral Minority (1982)

Chapter 18 The War on Terror

18.1       America’s Response to Terror  

               Address by George W. Bush, President of the United States (2001)

               Senate Joint Resolution 23 (2001)

                President George W. Bush, Combat Operations in Iraq Have Ended: THOSE IN DARKNESS MAY BE FREE (2003)

                Donald Rumsfeld, What We Learned from the War: TRANSFORMATION TAKES MONEY (2003)

               The 9/11 Commission Report:  Planning for War (2004)

18.2       The Torture of Prisoners

               General Protection of Prisoners of War (1949)

                Alberto Gonzales, Memorandum to President Bush on Treatment of Prisoners (2002)