Give Me Liberty! An American History

by Foner, Eric

• ISBN13: 9780393927825
• ISBN10: 0393927822
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-11-30
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Summary

With characteristic clarity, Professor Foner has written an accessible, event-based narrative that is enriched throughout by the theme of American freedom. Foner shows students how the meanings of freedom have changed during the course of American history and how the limits of freedom have expanded and contracted in response to social, political, cultural, and economic events. The freedom theme integrates the text and motivates the study of history by alerting students to how much is at stake in understanding America's past. The first edition of Give Me Liberty! is available as a compact, low-cost paperback. Featuring the same text as the regular edition in a two-color format, the Seagull Edition is less than half the price.

Author Biography

Eric Foner is DeWitt Clinton Professor of History at Columbia University

Table of Contents

LIST OF MAPS, TABLES, AND FIGURES	xvii
ABOUT THE AUTHOR	xix
PREFACE	xxi
1. A New World	1	(35)
The Expansion of Europe	3	(4)
Peoples of the Americas	7	(3)
The Spanish Empire	10	(9)
The First North Americans	19	(5)
England and the New World	24	(5)
The Freeborn Englishman	29	(7)
VOICES OF FREEDOM: From Henry Care, English Liberties, or, The Free-Born Subject's Inheritance (1680)	34	(2)
2. American Beginnings, 1607-1650	36	(35)
The Coming of the English	38	(4)
Settling the Chesapeake	42	(7)
Origins of American Slavery	49	(5)
The New England Way	54	(7)
VOICES OF FREEDOM: From John Winthrop, Speech to the Massachusetts General Court (July 3, 1645)	56	(5)
New Englanders Divided	61	(5)
The New England Economy	66	(5)
3. Crisis and Expansion: North American Colonies, 1650-1750	71	(39)
Empires in Conflict	73	(6)
The Expansion of England's Empire	79	(8)
VOICES OF FREEDOM: From William Penn, England's Present Interests Discovered (1675)	87	(1)
Colonies in Crisis	87	(8)
The Eighteenth Century: A Growing Society	95	(8)
Social Classes in the Colonies	103	(7)
4. Slavery, freedom, and the Struggle for Empire to 1763	110	(39)
Slavery and the Empire	112	(7)
Slave Culture and Slave Resistance	119	(5)
An Empire of Freedom	124	(4)
The Public Sphere	128	(8)
The Great Awakening	136	(2)
Imperial Rivalries	138	(3)
Battle for the Continent	141	(8)
VOICES OF FREEDOM: From Pontiac, Speeches (1762 and 1763)	147	(2)
5. The American Revolution, 1763-1783	149	(30)
The Crisis Begins	150	(8)
The Road to Revolution	158	(4)
The Coming of Independence	162	(8)
VOICES OF FREEDOM: From Thomas Paine, Common Sense (1776)	167	(3)
Securing Independence	170	(9)
6. The Revolution Within	179	(32)
Democratizing Freedom	181	(4)
Toward Religious Liberty	185	(4)
Defining Economic Freedom	189	(4)
The Limits of Liberty	193	(4)
Slavery and the Revolution	197	(9)
VOICES OF FREEDOM: From Petitions of Slaves to the Massachusetts Legislature (1773 and 1777)	201	(5)
Daughters of Liberty	206	(5)
7. Founding a Nation, 1783-1789	211	(30)
America under the Articles of Confederation	213	(7)
A New Constitution	220	(7)
The Ratification Debate and the Origin of the Bill of Rights	227	(7)
VOICES OF FREEDOM: From James Madison, The Federalist no. 51, and Anti-Federalist Essay Signed "Brutus" (1787)	228	(6)
We the People	234	(7)
8. Securing the Republic, 1790-1815	241	(31)
Politics in an Age of Passion	242	(10)
VOICES OF FREEDOM: From Address of the Democratic-Republican Society of Pennsylvania (December 18, 1794)	250	(2)
The Adams Presidency	252	(8)
Jefferson in Power	260	(7)
The "Second War of Independence"	267	(5)
9. The Market Revolution	272	(31)
A New Economy	274	(8)
Market Society	282	(8)
VOICES OF FREEDOM: From Josephine L. Baker, "A Second Peep at Factory Life," Lowell Offering (1845)	287	(3)
The Free Individual	290	(5)
The Limits of Prosperity	295	(8)
10. Democracy in America, 1815-1840	303	(34)
The Triumph of Democracy	304	(6)
VOICES OF FREEDOM: From "The Memorial of the Non-Freeholders of the City of Richmond" (1829)	306	(4)
Nationalism and Its Discontents	310	(6)
Nation, Section, and Party	316	(5)
The Age of Jackson	321	(10)
The Bank War and After	331	(6)
11 The Peculiar Instituion	337	(30)
The Old South	339	(9)
VOICES OF FREEDOM: From John C. Calhoun, Speech in Congress (1837)	346	(2)
Life under Slavery	348	(7)
Slave Culture	355	(5)
Resistance to Slavery	360	(7)
12. An Age of Reform, 1820-140	367	(30)
The Reform Impulse	368	(10)
The Crusade against Slavery	378	(6)
Black and White Abolitionism	384	(4)
The Origins of Feminism	388	(10)
VOICES OF FREEDOM: From Angelina Grimké, Letter in The Liberator (August 2, 1837)	391	(6)
13. A House Divided, 1840-1861	397	(40)
Fruits of Manifest Destiny	398	(11)
A Dose of Arsenic	409	(6)
The Rise of the Republican Party	415	(7)
VOICES OF FREEDOM: From William H. Seward, "The Irrepressible Conflict" (1858)	420	(2)
The Emergence of Lincoln	422	(10)
The Impending Crisis	432	(5)
14. A New Birth of Freedom: The Civil War, 1861-1865	437	(38)
The First Modern War	438	(9)
The Coming of Emancipation	447	(7)
The Second American Revolution	454	(7)
VOICES OF FREEDOM: From Abraham Lincoln, Address at Sanitary Fair, Baltimore (April 18, 1864)	455	(6)
The Confederate Nation	461	(4)
Turning Points	465	(3)
Rehearsals for Reconstruction and the End of the War	468	(7)
15. "What Is Freedom?": Reconstruction, 1865-1877	475	(35)
The Meaning of Freedom	477	(9)
VOICES OF FREEDOM: From Petition of Committee in Behalf of the Freedmen to Andrew Johnson (1865)	484	(2)
The Making of Radical Reconstruction	486	(12)
Radical Reconstruction in the South	498	(4)
The Overthrow of Reconstruction	502	(8)
16. America's Gilded Age, 1870-1890	510	(36)
The Second Industrial Revolution	512	(8)
The Transformation of the West	520	(8)
VOICES OF FREEDOM: From Chief Joseph of the Nez Percé Indians, Speech in Washington, D.C. (1879)	525	(3)
Politics in a Gilded Age	528	(5)
Freedom in the Gilded Age	533	(5)
Labor and the Republic	538	(8)
17. Freedom's Boundaries, at Home and Abroad, 1890-1900	546	(36)
The Populist Challenge	549	(7)
The Segregated South	556	(9)
Redrawing the Boundaries	565	(7)
VOICES OF FREEDOM: From Saum Song Bo, Letter in American Missionary (October 1885)	568	(4)
Becoming a World Power	572	(10)
18. The Progressive Era, 1900-1916	582	(38)
An Urban Age and a Consumer Society	584	(10)
VOICES OF FREEDOM: From Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Women and Economics (1898)	592	(2)
Changing Ideas of Freedom	594	(10)
The Politics of Progressivism	604	(8)
The Progressive Presidents	612	(8)
19. Safe for Democracy: The United States and World War I, 1916-1920	620	(40)
An Era of Intervention	622	(6)
America and the Great War	628	(4)
The War at Home	632	(6)
VOICES OF FREEDOM: From Eugene V. Debs's Speech to the Jury before Sentencing under the Espionage Act (1918)	638	(2)
Who Is an American?	640	(11)
1919	651	(9)
20. From Business Culture to Great Depression: The Twenties, 1920-1932	660	(36)
The Business of America	663	(7)
VOICES OF FREEDOM: From André Siegfried, "The Gulf Between," Atlantic Monthly (March 1928)	665	(5)
Business and Government	670	(4)
The Birth of Civil Liberties	674	(4)
The Culture Wars	678	(10)
The Great Depression	688	(8)
21. The New Deal, 1932-1940	696	(40)
The First New Deal	699	(9)
The Grassroots Revolt	708	(6)
VOICES OF FREEDOM: From John L. Lewis, Radio Address, "Industrial Democracy in Steel" (July 1936)	710	(4)
The Second New Deal	714	(3)
A Reckoning with Liberty	717	(4)
The Limits of Change	721	(6)
A New Conception of America	727	(9)
22. Fighting for the Four Freedoms: World War II, 1941-1945	736	(40)
Fighting World War II	739	(9)
The Home Front	748	(7)
Visions of Postwar Freedom	755	(3)
The American Dilemma	758	(12)
VOICES OF FREEDOM: From Justice Robert H. Jackson, Dissent in Korematsu v. United States (1944)	764	(6)
The End of the War	770	(6)
23. The United States and the Cold War, 1945-1953	776	(32)
Origins of the Cold War	778	(10)
The Cold War and the Idea of Freedom	788	(4)
The Truman Presidency	792	(5)
The Anticommunist Crusade	797	(13)
VOICES OF FREEDOM: From Henry Steele Commager, "Who Is Loyal to America?" Harper's (September 1947)	803	(5)
24. An Affluent Society, 1953-1960	808	(37)
The Golden Age	810	(12)
The Eisenhower Era	822	(11)
The Freedom Movement	833	(9)
VOICES OF FREEDOM: From Martin Luther King, Jr., Speech at Montgomery, Alabama (December 5, 1955)	838	(4)
The Election of 1960	842	(3)
25. The Sixties, 1960-1968	845	(41)
The Freedom Movement	847	(4)
The Kennedy Years	851	(3)
Lyndon Johnson's Presidency	854	(7)
The Changing Black Movement	861	(3)
Vietnam and the New Left	864	(9)
VOICES OF FREEDOM: From Tom Hayden and Others, The Port Huron Statement (June 1962)	866	(7)
The New Movements and the Rights Revolution	873	(9)
1968	882	(4)
26. The Triumph of Conservatism, 1969-1988	886	(41)
The Rebirth of Conservatism	887	(4)
VOICES OF FREEDOM: From Young Americans for Freedom, The Sharon Statement (September 1960)	891	(1)
President Nixon	891	(8)
Vietnam and Watergate	899	(4)
The End of the Golden Age	903	(7)
The Rising Tide of Conservatism	910	(7)
The Reagan Revolution	917	(10)
27. Globalization and Its Discontents, 1989-2000	927	(38)
VOICES OF FREEDOM: From Global Exchange, Seattle, Declaration for Global Democracy (December 1999)	930	(1)
The Post-Cold War World	930	(10)
A New Economy?	940	(6)
Culture Wars	946	(12)
Impeachment and the Election of 2000	958	(4)
Freedom and the New Century	962	(3)
28. Epilogue: September 11 and the Next American Century	965
The War on Terrorism	968	(8)
VOICES OF FREEDOM: From The National Security Strategy of the United States (September 2002)	972	(4)
The Aftermath of September 11 at Home	976	(4)
Learning from History	980
SUGGESTED READING	A-1
GLOSSARY	A-12
THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE (1776)	A-40
THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES (1787)	A-44
CREDITS	A-60
INDEX	A-63