The Unfinished Nation: A Concise History of the American People, Combined Hardcover

by Brinkley, Alan

• ISBN13: 9780077286347
• ISBN10: 0077286340
• Edition: 6th
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-12-14
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages

Summary

Known for its clear narrative voice and impeccable scholarship, Alan Brinkley's best-selling survey text invites students to think critically about the many forces that continually create the Unfinished Nation that is the United States. In a concise but wide-ranging narrative, Brinkley shows the diversity and complexity of the nation and our understanding of its history--one that continues to evolve both in the events of the present and in our reexamination of new evidence and perspectives on the past. This sixth edition features a new series of Patterns of Popular Culture essays, as well as expanded coverage of pre-Columbian America, new America in the World essays, and updated coverage of recent events and developments that demonstrates how a new generation continues to shape the American story.

Table of Contents

The Meeting of Cultures

America Before Columbus

Europe Looks Westward

The Arrival of the English

Conclusion

For Further Reference

Debating the Past: The American Population Before Columbus

America in the World: The Atlantic Context of Early American History

America in the World: Mercantilism and Colonial Commerce

Transplantations and Borderlands

The Early Chesapeake

The Growth of New England

The Restoration Colonies

Borderlands and Middle Grounds

The Development of Empire

Conclusion

For Further Reference

Debating the Past: Native Americans and "The Middle Ground"

Society and Culture in Provincial America

The Colonial Population

The Colonial Economies

Patterns of Society

Awakenings and Enlightenments

Conclusion

For Further Reference

Debating the Past: The Origins of Slavery

Debating the Past: The Witchcraft Trials

The Empire in Transition

Loosening Ties

The Struggle for the Continent

The New Imperialism

Stirrings of Revolt

Cooperation and War

Conclusion

For Further Reference

America in the World: The First Global War

Patterns of Popular Culture: Taverns in Revolutionary Massachusetts

The American Revolution

The States United

The War for Independence

War and Society

The Creation of State Governments

The Search for a National Government

Conclusion

For Further Reference

Debating the Past: The American Revolution

America in the World: The Age of Revolutions

The Constitution and the New Republic

Framing a New Government

Adoption and Adaptation

Federalists and Republicans

Establishing National Sovereignty

The Downfall of the Federalists

Conclusion

For Further Reference

Debating the Past: The Background of the Constitution

The Jeffersonian Era

The Rise of Cultural Nationalism

Stirrings of Industrialism

Jefferson the President

Doubling the National Domain

Expansion and War

The War of 1812

Conclusion

For Further Reference

America in the World: The Global Industrial Revolution

Patterns of Popular Culture: Horse Racing

Varieties of American Nationalism

Stabilizing Economic Growth

Expanding Westward

The "Era of Good Feelings"

Sectionalism and Nationalism

The Revival of Opposition

Conclusion

For Further Reference

Jacksonian America

The Rise of Mass Politics

"Our Federal Union"

The Removal of the Indians

Jackson and the Bank War

The Emergence of the Second Party System

Politics After Jackson

Conclusion

For Further Reference

Debating the Past: Jacksonian Democracy

Patterns of Popular Culture: The Penny Press

America's Economic Revolution

The Changing American Population

Transportation and Communications Revolutions

Commerce and Industry

Men and Women at Work

Patterns of Society

The Agricultural North

Conclusion

For Further Reference

Patterns of Popular Culture: Shakespeare in America

Cotton, Slavery, and the Old South

The Cotton Economy

Southern White Society

The "Peculiar Institution"

The Culture of Slavery

Conclusion

For Further Reference

Debating the Past: The Character of Slavery

Antebellum Culture and Reform

The Romantic Impulse

Remaking Society

The Crusade Against Slavery

Conclusion

For Further Reference

America in the World: The Abolition of Slavery

The Impending Crisis

Looking Westward

Expansion and War

The Sectional Debate

The Crisis of the 1850s

Conclusion

For Further Reference

The Civil War

The Secession Crisis

The Mobilization of the North

The Mobilization of the South

Strategy and Diplomacy

Campaigns and Battles

Conclusion

For Further Reference

Debating the Past: The Causes of the Civil War

Patterns of Popular Culture: Baseball and the Civil War

Reconstruction and the New South

The Problems of Peacemaking

Radical Reconstruction

The South in Reconstruction

The Grant Administration

The Abandonment of Reconstruction

The New South

Conclusion

For Further Reference

Debating the Past: Reconstruction

The Conquest of the Far West

The Societies of the Far West

The Changing Western Economy

The Romance of the West

The Dispersal of the Tribes

The Rise and Decline of the Western Farmer

Conclusion

For Further Reference

Debating the Past: The Frontier and the West

Industrial Supremacy

Sources of Industrial Growth

Capitalism and Its Critics

The Ordeal of the Worker

Conclusion

For Further Reference

Patterns of Popular Culture: The Novels of Horatio Alger

The Age of the City

The New Urban Growth

The Urban Landscape

Strains of Urban Life

The Rise of Mass Consumption

Leisure in the Consumer Society

High Culture in the Urban Age

Conclusion

For Further Reference

America in the World: Global Migrations

From Crisis to Empire

The Politics of Equilibrium

The Agrarian Revolt

The Crisis of the 1890s

Stirrings of Imperialism

War with Spain

The Republic as Empire

Conclusion

For Further Reference

Debating the Past: Populism

America in the World: Imperialism

The Progressives

The Progressive Impulse

Women and Reform

The Assault on the Parties

Sources of Progressive Reform

Crusades for Order and Reform

Theodore Roosevelt and the Modern Presidency

The Troubled Succession

Woodrow Wilson and the New Freedom

Conclusion

For Further Reference

Debating the Past: Progressivism

American in the World: Social Democracy

America and the Great War

The "Big Stick": America and the World, 1901-1917

The Road to War

"War Without Stint"

The Search for a New World Order

A Society in Turmoil

Conclusion

For Further Reference

Patterns of Popular Culture: Billy Sunday and Modern Revivalism

The New Era

The New Economy

The New Culture

A Conflict of Cultures

Republican Government

Conclusion

For Further Reference

America in the World: The Cinema

The Great Depression

The Coming of the Depression

The American People in Hard Times

The Depression and American Culture

The Ordeal of Herbert Hoover

Conclusion

For Further Reference

Debating the Past: Causes of the Great Depression

America in the World: The Global Depression

The New Deal

Launching the New Deal

The New Deal in Transition

The New Deal in Disarray

Limits and Legacies of the New Deal

Conclusion

For Further Reference

Debating the Past: The New Deal

Patterns of Popular Culture: The Golden Age of Comic Books

The Global Crisis, 1921-1941

The Diplomacy of the New Era

Isolationism and Internationalism

From Neutrality to Intervention

Conclusion

For Further Reference

Debating the Past: The Question of Pearl Harbor

America in the World: The Sino-Japanese War, 1931-1941

America in a World at War

War on Two Fronts

The American Economy in Wartime

Race and Gender in Wartime America

Anxiety and Affluence in Wartime Culture

The Defeat of the Axis

Conclusion

For Further Reference

Debating the Past: The Decision to Drop the Atomic Bomb

The Cold War

Origins of the Cold War

The Collapse of the Peace

America After the War

The Korean War

The Crusade Against Subversion

Conclusion

For Further Reference

Debating the Past: The Cold War

Debating the Past: McCarthyism

The Affluent Society

The Economic "Miracle"

The Explosion of Science and Technology

People of Plenty

The Other America

The Rise of the Civil Rights Movement

Eisenhower Republicanism

Eisenhower, Dulles, and the Cold War

Conclusion

For Further Reference

Patterns of Popular Culture: Lucy and Desi

The Ordeal of Liberalism

Expanding the Liberal State

The Battle for Racial Equality

"Flexible Response" and the Cold War

The Agony of Vietnam

The Traumas of 1968

Conclusion

For Further Reference

Debating the Past: The Civil Rights Movement

Debating the Past: The Vietnam Commitment

America in the World: 1968

The Crisis of Authority

Youth Culture

The Mobilization of Minorities

The New Feminism

Environmentalism in a Turbulent Society

Nixon, Kissinger, and the War

Nixon, Kissinger, and the World

Politics and Economics in the Nixon Years

The Watergate Crisis

Conclusion

For Further Reference

Debating the Past: Watergate

America in the World: The End of Colonialism

From the "Age of Limits" to the Age of Reagan

Politics and Diplomacy After Watergate

The Rise of the New American Right

The "Reagan Revolution"

America and the Waning of the Cold War

Conclusion

For Further Reference

Patterns of Popular Culture: The Mall

The Age of Globalization

The Resurgence of Partisanship

The Economic Boom

Science and Technology in the New Economy

A Changing Society

A Contested Culture

The Perils of Globalization

Conclusion

For Further Reference

America in the World: The Global Environmental Movement

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