Modern America: A Documentary History of the Nation Since 1945: A Documentary History of the Nation Since 1945

by Donaldson; Robert H

• ISBN13: 9780765615374
• ISBN10: 0765615371
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2007-02-15
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

This primary source reader assembles key documents and firsthand accounts that are emblematic of American life from the end of World War II to the present. Designed to complement a core text for a typical post-1945 U.S. history course, the book offers conciseness and selectivity with balanced coverage of domestic and foreign, societal and cultural issues grouped together chronologically. The readings afford students compelling and sometimes startling insights into the nation's postwar adaptation to its new position of global power and responsibility, wealth, and rapid social change; on through years of energy and ambition, conflict and tragedy; to the post-Vietnam malaise and the rise of Ronald Reagan, the frenzied nineties, and the arrival of the new millennium. Each chapter includes an introduction that sets the documents in historical context, a biographical sketch of a significant person of the time, study questions, and suggestions for further reading.

Table of Contents

Preface

Origins of the Cold War

Introduction

Documents

President Harry Truman's Decision to Drop the Bomb (1945)

George Kennan and the Strategy of "Containment" (1946-47)

General Omar Bradley on the Risks of a Global War (May 1951)

From Korea: Love Letters Home

Biographical Sketch

Study Questions

Further Readings

Postwar Political Trends

Introduction

Documents

Hubert Humphrey Calls on the Democratic Party to Champion Civil Rights (July 14, 1948)

House Committee on Un-American Activities Investigates Hollywood

Testimony of Actor

Testimony of Screenwriter

Senator Joseph McCarthy Attacks the State Department (February 1950)

The Kennedy-Nixon Debates (1960)

Biographical Sketch

Study Questions

Further Readings

Origins of the Modern Civil Rights Movement

Introduction

Documents

To Secure These Rights. The Report of the President's Commission on Civil Rights (1947)

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas (1954

The "Southern Manifesto" (March 1956)

John Lewis Remembers the Nashville Sit-ins (1960)

Biographical Sketch

Study Questions

Further Readings

The Eisenhower Administration's "New Look" Foreign Policy

Introduction

Secretary of State John Foster Dulles and the Strategy of Massive Retaliation (January 1954)

National Security Council Briefing on the "Implications of the Soviet Earth Satellite" (October 10, 1957)

President Dwight Eisenhower's Farewell Address (January 17, 1961)

Biographical Sketch

Study Questions

Further Readings

The Fifties Lifestyle

Introduction

Documents

Jack Gould of The New York Times Pans Elvis (September 1956)

Game Show Scandal (1959)

Testimony of Herbert Stempel to the House Investigation of Television Quiz Shows

The Feminine Mystique (1963)

Female Sexuality in the 1950s: "Myths That Imperil Married Love" (1958)

Biographical Sketch

Study Questions

Further Readings

The Cold War Heats Up During the Kennedy Administration

Introduction

Documents

President John F. Kennedy's Inaugural Address (January 1961)

Dean Rusk Recalls the Bay of Pigs Incident (April 1961)

President John F. Kennedy Addresses the Nation on the Cuban Missile Crisis (October 22, 1962)

Kennedy and Vietnam, Two Interviews

CBS Interview, Walter Cronkite (September 2, 1963)

NBC Interview, Chet Huntley and David Brinkley (September 9, 1963)

Biographical Sketch

Study Questions

Further Readings

Lyndon Johnson's War

Introduction

Documents

"Why We Are in Vietnam" (April 1965)

"A Voodoo Foreign Policy" (May 1966)

Coming Home from Vietnam

Biographical Sketch

Study Questions

Further Readings

Sixties Society and Culture

Introduction

Documents

The First Family (1962)

"The Times They Are A-Changin'" (1963)

Jack Gould of the New York Times Pans the Beatles (February 10, 1964)

What They Watched. Top Ten TV Shows 1960-1969

Biographical Sketch

Study Questions

Further Reading

Political Trends on the Left and the Right

Introduction

Documents

The Sharon Statement (October 1960) and the Port Huron Statement (June 1962)

President Lyndon B. Johnson Describes the "Great Society" (May 22, 1964)

"Extremism Is No Vice" (June 1964)

Time Attempts to Define the "Silent Majority" (January 1970)

Biographical Sketch

Study Questions

Further Readings

Civil Rights Victories and Divisions

Introduction

Documents

Fannie Lou Hamer Recalls Her Attempts to Register and Vote (1962)

"The Civil Rights Movement is a Hoax" (July 1964)

Charles Hamilton Defines Black Power (April 1968)

President Lyndon Johnson, Special Message to Congress on Civil Rights (March 1965)

Biographical Sketch

Study Questions

Further Readings

Polarization and Protest

Introduction

Documents

The "Weathermen Manifesto" (June 1969)

Ronald Reagan Recalls the 1969 Berkeley Riots

The "Red Stockings Manifesto" and the Rise of Radical Feminism (1969)

The Legend of Stonewall and Gay Activism (July 1969)

Biographical Sketch

Study Questions

Further Readings

Nixon and the End of U.S. Involvement in Indochina

Introduction

Documents

President Richard Nixon on the Vietnamization of the War (November 1969)

Testimony Before the House Foreign Relations Committee (April 22, 1971)

Shanghai Communique, (February 1972)

Biographical Sketch

Study Questions

Further Readings

The Environmental and Consumerism Movements

Introduction

Silent Spring (1962)

Unsafe At Any Speed, (1965)

Love Canal. Testimony Before the Senate Subcommittee on Environmental Pollution and Hazardous Waste (March 1979)

"To Our Friends Beyond the Radius, Hi!" An Open Letter from the Vicinity of Three Mile Island (April 1979)

Biographical Sketch

Study Questions

Further Readings

The Tragedy of Watergate

Introduction

The Washington Post Breaks the Story "Five Held in Plot to Bug Democrats' Office" (June 18, 1972)

Goldwater Eases Nixon Out, Reminiscence August 1974

"I Have Never Been a Quitter." President Richard Nixon, Resignation Statement (August 8, 1974)

Biographical Sketch

Study Questions

Further Readings

Feminism and American Society

Introduction

Documents

Testimony Before the Senate Judiciary Committee on the Equal Rights Amendment (1970)

Phyllis Schlafly Recalls Her Victory over the ERA (June 1997)

The Boston Women's Health Book Collective, Our Bodies, Ourselves (1971)

Justice Harry Blackmun for the Court

Biographical Sketch

Study Questions

Further Readings

The Emergence of Ronald Reagan and the New Right

Introduction

Documents

"Government Is Not the Solution." President Ronald Reagan's Inaugural Address (January 1981)

"My Case for Reagan" (1984)

"The New American Revolution." President Ronald Reagan's State-of the Union Address (January 1985)

Biographical Sketch

Study Questions

Further Readings

The Reagan Foreign Policy and a New Soviet Confrontation

Introduction

Documents

President Ronald Reagan's "Evil Empire" Speech (March 1983)

President Ronald Reagan's "Star Wars" Speech (March 1983)

Ronald Reagan Recalls His Frustrations over Central America (1990)

NATO's, "London Declaration" and the End of the Cold War (July 1990)

Biographical Sketch

Study Questions

Further Readings

More Culture Wars

Introduction

Documents

Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (1978)

Listen America (1980)

Kandy Stroud, "Stop Pornographic Rock" (May 1985)

Frank Zappa Responds: "Cultural Terrorism" (ca. 1985)

Dan Quayle Attacks Murphy Brown (May 1992)

Biographical Sketch

Study Questions

Further Reading

Bill Clinton's America and the Impeachment of a President

Introduction

Documents

The Republican "Contract with America" (September 1994)

"The New Covenant." President Bill Clinton's State of the Union Address (January 1995)

Scandal Engulfs President Bill Clinton (1998)

Clinton Interview on Newshour with Jim Lehrer (January 21, 1998)

President Bill Clinton's Speech to the Nation (August 17, 1998)

Articles of Impeachment (December 16, 1998)

Biographical Sketch

Study Questions

Further Reading

The Election of George W. Bush, Terrorism, and the Crisis in the Gulf

Introduction

Documents

The 2000 Presidential Election: A Contested Outcome

Bush v. Gore (December 12, 2000)

George W. Bush Declares Victory (December 13, 2000)

"Our Very Freedom Came Under Attack." President George W. Bush, Addresses the Nation on the Evening of September 11, 2001

"States like these…Constitute an Axis of Evil." President George W. Bush's State of the Union Address (January 2002)

9/11 Commission Report (2004)

Biographical Sketch

Study Questions

Further Reading

About the Editor

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