Complete Idiot's Guide to American History 3E

by Axelrod, Ph.D., Alan

• ISBN13: 9780028644646
• ISBN10: 0028644646
• Edition: 3rd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-02-04
• Publisher: DK Publishing, Inc.

Summary

This revised third edition offers a concise survey of the great events, personalities, and ideas that have created American history.

Author Biography

Alan Axelrod, Ph.D., scholar in American literature, is the author of several books

Table of Contents

The New World	p. 1
The First People (50000 B.C.E.-1500s C.E.)	p. 3
People of the Land Bridge	p. 4
45,000 Years of American History (Abridged Version)	p. 4
South of the Border	p. 5
Beyond the Aztec Horizon	p. 7
Leif the Lucky	p. 7
West to East (1451-1507)	p. 9
The Round World Myth	p. 9
The Weaver's Boy	p. 10
First Blood	p. 13
Carving Up	p. 13
Three More Voyages	p. 14
Why We're Not Called Columbia	p. 15
New Blood for Old Spain (1400-1600s)	p. 17
The Sword of the Conquistador	p. 18
The First American Revolutions	p. 22
From Black Legend to Black Robes	p. 23
England's Errand in the Wilderness (1497-1608)	p. 25
England Joins the Age of Discovery	p. 26
A Colony Vanishes, Another Appears	p. 28
A Rock and a Hard Place (1608-1733)	p. 33
Promised Land	p. 34
Massachusetts Bay	p. 36
Rhode Island: Haven for the Heterodox	p. 37
Maryland: Catholics Welcome	p. 38
Pennsylvania: Quaker Colony	p. 38
Georgia: Utopia, Prison, and Profit Center	p. 39
Slave Country	p. 40
Colonial Contenders (1608-1680s)	p. 43
Champlain Sails In	p. 44
The Sun King Beams	p. 45
A Small Investment	p. 47
Sweden in the Delaware Valley	p. 49
New Netherland Becomes New York	p. 50
Fires in the Wilderness (1636-1748)	p. 53
New England Bleeds	p. 54
The French and Indian Wars	p. 56
Global War in the Backwoods (1749-1763)	p. 61
The French and Indian War	p. 62
Seven Years' Bad Luck	p. 66
Rebellion of a Chief	p. 67
The World Turned Upside Down	p. 69
Invitation to a Tea Party (1763-1775)	p. 71
King George Draws a Line	p. 72
Taxation Without Representation	p. 73
Bloody Boston	p. 75
Tearing Apart and Coming Together	p. 76
The Shot Heard 'Round the World	p. 78
Washington Signs On	p. 79
A Misnamed Battle Near Bunker Hill	p. 80
The Olive Branch Spurned, a Declaration Written	p. 80
Fanning the Flames of Liberty (1776-1783)	p. 83
A Bad Bet	p. 84
The British Lion Roars	p. 85
Re-Crossing the Delaware	p. 86
Saratoga Sunrise	p. 87
Trouble in the City of Brotherly Love	p. 88
Vive la France!	p. 88
A Hard Forge	p. 88
White War, Red Blood	p. 89
More Action in the South	p. 90
The Triumph at Yorktown	p. 90
Building the House	p. 93
From Many, One (1787-1797)	p. 95
Bound by a Rope of Sand	p. 96
Northwest Ordinance	p. 97
We the People	p. 97
Constitutional Convention	p. 98
Father of His Country	p. 101
Glorious Afterthought: The Bill of Rights	p. 103
Hamilton Gets the Credit	p. 104
Growing Pains (1798-1812)	p. 107
Foreign Affairs	p. 108
The Age of Jefferson	p. 110
Tecumseh Raises the Hatchet	p. 114
1812: A War for What? (1812-1814)	p. 115
The War Hawks Roost	p. 116
Three-Pronged Flop	p. 116
The West in Peril	p. 117
British Stranglehold	p. 117
"We Have Met the Enemy, and They Are Ours"	p. 118
O, Say Can You See	p. 118
Deliverance on Lake Champlain	p. 119
An American Hero Is Born	p. 120
Fanfare for the Common Man (1814-1836)	p. 121
Good Feelings	p. 122
Bad Feelings	p. 125
The Age of Jackson	p. 126
Trails of Tears (1817-1842)	p. 129
Liberty and Union, Now and Forever	p. 130
The Seminoles Say No	p. 131
The Defiance of Black Hawk	p. 132
Indian Removal	p. 132
The House Divided	p. 137
A Nation in Chains (1724-1857)	p. 139
Against the American Grain	p. 140
The Tortured Course of Compromise	p. 142
The Dred Scott Disaster	p. 145
Westward the Course (1834-1846)	p. 147
The Plow and the Reaper	p. 148
Martyrdom in Texas	p. 149
Rolling West	p. 150
"What Hath God Wrought?"	p. 152
Destiny Manifested (1846-1860)	p. 155
Halls of Montezuma	p. 156
Of God and Gold	p. 158
A Strange Flag over Sumter (1859-1862)	p. 163
John Brown's Body	p. 164
Bleak Transition	p. 165
April 12, 1861, 4:30 A.M.	p. 166
From Bull Run to antietam	p. 167
Emancipation Proclaimed--More or Less	p. 171
Bloody Road to Appomattox and Beyond (1863-1876)	p. 173
Four Score and Seven	p. 174
Vicksburg and Chattanooga	p. 176
To Richmond	p. 177
The March to the Sea	p. 179
Mr. McLean's House	p. 179
With Malice Toward Some	p. 180
Enter "His Fraudulency"	p. 183
Rebuilding the House	p. 185
Sea to Shining Sea (1862-1878)	p. 187
Home Sweet Home	p. 188
Ruts and Rails	p. 190
The Warpath (1862-1891)	p. 197
Blue, Gray--and Red	p. 198
Massacre in Minnesota	p. 199
War for the Bozeman Trail	p. 200
Hancock's War and Sheridan's Campaign	p. 201
Struggle for the Black Hills	p. 201
"I Will Fight No More Forever"	p. 203
After Geronimo	p. 204
Wounded Knee Ending	p. 205
Exploitation and Enterprise (1869-1908)	p. 207
An Empire of Cows	p. 208
Law and Disorder	p. 209
Cornering the Market	p. 210
An Age of Invention	p. 213
Octopus and Jungle (1877-1906)	p. 219
The Golden Door	p. 220
The Knights of Labor	p. 222
Boss Tyranny	p. 224
Chicago Meat	p. 225
World Power	p. 229
Over There (1898-1918)	p. 231
Selling the News	p. 232
He Kept Us Out of War	p. 234
Booze, Boom, Bust (1918-1929)	p. 241
Wilson's Dream	p. 242
A Generation Lost and Found	p. 245
America Goes Dry	p. 249
Countdown to Black Tuesday	p. 249
A New Deal and a New War (1930-1941)	p. 251
Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?	p. 252
Tyranny Abroad	p. 253
The Epoch of FDR	p. 253
Street Wars	p. 256
Bloodlust	p. 257
Saving the World (1941-1945)	p. 261
"I Shall Return"	p. 262
Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree	p. 263
The Dark Genius of Erwin Rommel	p. 264
Coral Sea and Midway	p. 264
Island Hopping	p. 264
On Mediterranean Shores	p. 265
D-Day	p. 266
Retaking Europe	p. 267
Fat Man and Little Boy	p. 270
Superpower	p. 273
War Served Cold-and Hot (1944-1954)	p. 275
Winning the Peace	p. 276
Curtain of Iron	p. 277
"Police Action" in Korea	p. 281
From the Back of the Bus to the Great Society (1947-1968)	p. 285
Executive Order 9981	p. 286
The Dream Deferred	p. 286
Or Does It Explode?	p. 289
Sputnik and the New Frontier	p. 291
JFK	p. 292
LBJ	p. 294
Nam (1946-1975)	p. 297
History	p. 298
American "Advisors"	p. 299
Flaming Monks and the Fall of a "Friend"	p. 299
Rolling Thunder	p. 300
"Escalation" and "Vietnamization"	p. 300
Hearts and Minds	p. 301
The Light at the End of the Tunnel	p. 302
Nixon's War	p. 303
Peace with Honor	p. 305
Identity Crisis	p. 307
Of Love, the Moon, and Dirty Tricks (1968-1974)	p. 309
Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out	p. 310
The Eagle Has Landed	p. 311
Pentagon Papers	p. 312
SALT, China, and the Middle East	p. 312
CREEP	p. 313
Women Rise, the Nation Drifts, Reagan Rallies (1963-1980)	p. 317
A Woman's Place	p. 318
Oil	p. 320
The Japanese Miracle	p. 321
Scary Cities, Crumbling Bridges	p. 322
China Syndrome	p. 322
The Fanatics	p. 323
The Great Communicator	p. 324
A New World Order?	p. 325
A New Economy, a Plague, a Fallen Wall, and a Desert in Flames (1980-1991)	p. 327
The Trickle-Down Solution	p. 328
"Gay Plague" and a Blind Eye	p. 331
"Mr. Gorbachev, Tear Down This Wall!"	p. 332
A War Without Bullets	p. 332
Ollie, Iran, and the Contras	p. 334
Desert Shield and Desert Storm	p. 335
E Pluribus Unum (1991-1999)	p. 337
The Economy, Stupid	p. 338
The New Right	p. 338
The Age of Rage	p. 340
And It's Still the Economy	p. 343
We Fight for Peace	p. 344
Democracy at the Turn of the Millennium (1991-2002)	p. 349
American Trials	p. 350
Of Wall Street Riches and the Great American Smokeout	p. 353
Pillars of the Community	p. 356
Terror and Democracy	p. 363
Index	p. 367
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