Give Me Liberty: An American History

by Foner, Eric

• ISBN13: 9780393978728
• ISBN10: 0393978729
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2004-08-30
• Publisher: W W Norton & Co Inc

Summary

Freedom, the oldest of cliches and the most modern of aspirations, is the unifying theme in the new survey of American history by Eric Foner, the well-known historian and author of The Story of American Freedom. As the fundamental idea behind Americans' sense of themselves as individuals and as a nation, freedom is deeply embedded in the record of our history and the language of everyday life. Give Me Liberty! examines the changing meanings of freedom, the social conditions that make freedom possible, and its shifting boundaries from colonial times to the early twenty-first century.

Table of Contents

List of Maps, Tables, and Figures	xiv
About the Author	xvi
Preface	xvii
``What is Freedom?'': Reconstruction, 1865--1877	548	(42)
The Meaning of Freedom	551	(11)
Voices of Freedom: From Petition of Committee in Behalf of the Freedom to Andrew Johnson (1865)	558	(4)
The Making of Radical Reconstruction	562	(10)
Radical Reconstruction in the South	572	(5)
The Overthrow of Reconstruction	577	(13)
Part 4 TOWARD A GLOBAL PRESENCE, 1870--1920
America's Gilded Age, 1870--1890	590	(44)
The Second Industrial Revolution	593	(11)
The Transformation of the West	604	(10)
Voices of Freedom: From Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce Indians, Speech in Washington, D.C. (1879)	610	(4)
Politics in a Gilded Age	614	(5)
Freedom in the Gilded Age	619	(5)
Labor and the Republic	624	(10)
Freedom's Boundaries, at Home and Abroad, 1890--1900	634	(40)
The Populist Challenge	637	(10)
The Segregated South	647	(8)
Redrawing the Boundaries	655	(7)
Voices of Freedom: From Saum Song Bo, Letter in American Missionary (October 1885)	658	(4)
Becoming a World Power	662	(12)
The Progressive Era, 1900--1916	674	(44)
An Urban Age and a Consumer Society	678	(12)
Voices of Freedom: From Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Women and Economics (1898)	687	(3)
Changing Ideas of Freedom	690	(11)
The Politics of Progressivism	701	(8)
The Progressive Presidents	709	(9)
Safe for Democracy: The United States and World War I, 1916--1920	718	(50)
An Era of Intervention	721	(6)
America and the Great War	727	(6)
The War at Home	733	(9)
Voices of Freedom: From Eugene V. Debs's Speech to the Jury before Sentencing under the Espionage Act (1918)	740	(2)
Who Is an American?	742	(11)
1919	753	(15)
Part 5 DEPRESSION AND WARS, 1920--1953
From Business Culture to Great Depression: The Twenties, 1920--1932	768	(40)
The Business of America	772	(8)
Voices of Freedom: From Andre Siegfried, ``The Gulf Between,'' Atlantic Monthly (March 1928)	774	(6)
Business and Government	780	(4)
The Birth of Civil Liberties	784	(4)
The Culture Wars	788	(11)
The Great Depression	799	(9)
The New Deal, 1932--1940	808	(40)
The First New Deal	811	(10)
The Grassroots Revolt	821	(6)
Voices of Freedom: From John L. Lewis, Radio Address, ``Industrial Democracy in Steel'' (July 1936)	823	(4)
The Second New Deal	827	(3)
A Reckoning with Liberty	830	(4)
The Limits of Change	834	(5)
A New Conception of America	839	(9)
Fighting for the Four Freedoms: World War II, 1941--1945	848	(44)
Fighting World War II	852	(10)
The Home Front	862	(8)
Visions of Postwar Freedom	870	(4)
The American Dilemma	874	(11)
Voices of Freedom: From Justice Robert H. Jackson, Dissent in Korematsu v. United States (1944)	879	(6)
The End of the War	885	(7)
The United States and the Cold War, 1945--1953	892	(42)
Origins of the Cold War	895	(12)
The Cold War and the Idea of Freedom	907	(4)
The Truman Presidency	911	(5)
The Anticommunist Crusade	916	(18)
Voices of Freedom: From Henry Steele Commager. ``Who is Loyal to America?'' Harper's (September 1947)	923	(11)
Part 6 WHAT KIND OF NATION? 1953--2004
An Affluent Society, 1953--1960	934	(44)
The Golden Age	937	(13)
The Eisenhower Era	950	(13)
The Freedom Movement	963	(9)
Voices of Freedom: From Martin Luther King, Jr., Speech at Montgomery, Alabama (December 5, 1955)	968	(4)
The Election of 1960	972	(6)
The Sixties, 1960--1968	978	(44)
The Freedom Movement	981	(4)
The Kennedy Years	985	(3)
Lyndon Johnson's Presidency	988	(6)
The Changing Black Movement	994	(4)
Vietnam and the New Left	998	(11)
Voices of Freedom: From Tom Hayden and Others, The Port Huron Statement (June 1962)	1000	(9)
The New Movements and the Rights Revolution	1009	(8)
1968	1017	(5)
The Triumph of Conservatism, 1969--1988	1022	(46)
The Rebirth of Conservatism	1024	(5)
Voices of Freedom: From Young Americans for Freedom, The Sharon Statement (September 1960)	1028	(1)
President Nixon	1029	(7)
Vietnam and Watergate	1036	(5)
The End of the Golden Age	1041	(8)
The Rising Tide of Conservatism	1049	(6)
The Reagan Revolution	1055	(13)
Globalization and its Discontents, 1989--2000	1068	(44)
Voices of Freedom: From Global Exchange, Seattle, Declaration for Global Democracy (December 1999)	1072	(1)
The Post-Cold War World	1073	(10)
A New Economy?	1083	(7)
Culture Wars	1090	(14)
Impeachment and the Election of 2000	1104	(4)
Freedom and the New Century	1108	(4)
Epilogue: September 11 and the Next American Century	1112	(4)
The War on Terrorism	1116	(9)
Voices of Freedom: From The National Security Strategy of the United States (September 2002)	1120	(5)
The Aftermath of September 11 at Home	1125	(4)
Learning from History	1129
APPENDIX
Documents
The Declaration of Independence (1776)	2	(2)
The Constitution of the United States (1787)	4	(10)
From George Washington's Farewell Address (1796)	14	(4)
The Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions (1848)	18	(2)
From Frederick Douglass's ``What, to the Slave, Is the Fourth of July?'' Speech (1852)	20	(3)
The Gettysburg Address (1863)	23	(1)
Abraham Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address (1865)	24	(1)
The Populist Platform of 1892	25	(3)
Franklin D. Roosevelt's First Inaugural Address (1933)	28	(2)
Martin Luther King, Jr.'s, ``I Have a Dream'' Speech (1963)	30	(2)
Tables
Presidential Elections	32	(8)
Admission of States	40	(1)
Population of the United States	41	(1)
Historical Statistics of the United States: Workforce	42	(1)
Immigration, by Origin	42	(1)
Glossary	43	(20)
Credits	63	(3)
Index	66