DAVID EMORY SHI is professor of history and the president emeritus of Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina, an institution he led from 1994–2010. An Atlanta native, he earned degrees in history from Furman University and the University of Virginia before starting his academic career at Davidson College, where he won the Outstanding Teacher Award and chaired the history department. He is the author of several books on American cultural history, including the award-winning The Simple Life: Plain Living and High Thinking in American Culture and Facing Facts: Realism in American Thought and Culture, 1850–1920. More recently, he published a collection of speeches, newspaper columns, and essays titled The Belltower and Beyond and co-edited with Holly Mayer a book of primary sources called For the Record: Documents in American History. He lives in Brevard, North Carolina.
Contents in Brief
CHAPTER 15 Reconstruction, 1865–1877 533
PART FIVE Growing Pains 571
CHAPTER 16 Big Business and Organized Labor, 1860–1900 575
CHAPTER 17 The South and the West Transformed, 1865–1900 611
CHAPTER 18 Society and Politics in the Gilded Age, 1865–1900 651
CHAPTER 19 Seizing an American Empire, 1865–1913 687
PART SIX Modern America 723
CHAPTER 20 The Progressive Era, 1890–1920 727
CHAPTER 21 America and the Great War, 1914–1920 769
CHAPTER 22 A Clash of Cultures, 1920–1929 807
CHAPTER 23 New Deal America, 1929–1939 851
CHAPTER 24 The Second World War, 1933–1945 893
PART SEVEN The American Age 945
CHAPTER 25 The Cold War and the Fair Deal, 1945–1952 951
CHAPTER 26 Affluence and Anxiety in the Atomic Age, 1950–1959 987
CHAPTER 27 New Frontiers, 1960–1968 1031
CHAPTER 28 Rebellion and Reaction, the 1960s and 1970s 1077
THINKING LIKE A HISTORIAN: Debating Contemporary Immigration and the Uses of History 1216
Glossary G-1
Appendix A-1
The Declaration of Independence A-1
Articles of Confederation A-5
The Constitution of The United States A-11
Amendments to the Constitution A-20
Presidential Elections A-30
Admission of States A-36
Population of The United States A-37
Immigration to The United States, Fiscal Years 1820–2011 A-38
Immigration by Region and Selected Country of Last Residence, Fiscal Years 1820–2011 A-40
Presidents, Vice Presidents, and Secretaries of State A-49
Further Readings R-1
Credits C-1
Index I-1
Thinking Like A Historian
PART FOUR
Debating Reconstruction 566
Secondary Sources
■ William Dunning, from Reconstruction, Political and Economic, 1865–1877 (1907)
■ Eric Foner, from The Story of American Freedom (1998)
Primary Sources
■ Union Army General Carl Schurz, from Report on the Condition of the South (1865)
■ Mississippi Vagrant Law (1865)
■ Civil Rights Act (1866)
■ Radical Republican Thaddeus Stevens, from “The Advantages of Negro Suffrage” (1867)
PART FIVE
Debating the Annexation of the Philippines 718
Secondary Sources
■ Nell Irvin Painter, “The White Man’s Burden” (1989)
■ Kritsen L. Hoganson, “The National Manhood Metaphor” (1998)
Primary Sources
■ William McKinley, “Annual Message of the President to Congress” (1899)
■ Henry Cabot Lodge, “The Retention of the Philippine Islands,” Speech in the U.S. Senate (1900)
■ Albert Beveridge, “Our Philippine Policy,” Speech in the U.S. Senate (1900)
■ Theodore Roosevelt, “National Duties,” Speech at Minnesota State Fair (1901)
Preface
This second edition of The Essential Learning Edition continues to nurture America’s long-established focus on history as a storytelling art. It features colorful characters and anecdotes informed by balanced analysis and social texture, all guided by the unfolding of key events and imperfect but often fascinating human actors with an emphasis on the culture of everyday life. The Essential Learning Edition continues to provide a unique package of features to introduce students to the methods and tools used by historians to study, revise, and debate efforts to explain and interpret the past.
As always, the first step in my preparing a new edition is to learn from students and professors what can be improved, polished, added or deleted. The results of dozens of survey instruments provided a strong consensus: students want an inexpensive, visually interesting textbook written in lively prose that focuses on the essential elements of American history while telling the dramatic stories about the ways that individuals responded to and shaped events. Too many textbooks overwhelm them, students responded, either by flooding them with too much information or by taking too much for granted in terms of the knowledge that students bring to the introductory course. Students stressed that textbooks need to help them more readily identify the most important developments or issues to focus on (and remember) as they read.
To address these student concerns, I have continued to provide contextual explanations for events or developments that too often are taken for granted by authors. For example, this edition includes more material about the Native American experience, the nature and significance of the Protestant Reformation, the texture of daily life, the impact of the cotton culture on the global economy, and the march of capitalism.
When asked what they most wanted in an introductory text, instructors said much the same as their students, but they also asked for a textbook that introduced students to the nature of historical research, analysis, and debate. Many professors also mentioned the growing importance to them and their institutions of assessing the success of their students in meeting the learning goals established by their department. Accordingly, I have aligned The Essential Learning Edition with specific learning outcomes for the introductory American history survey course approved by various state and national organizations, including the American Historical Association. These learning outcomes also extend to the accompanying media package, enabling instructors to track students’ progress towards mastery of these important learning goals.
These and other suggestions from students and professors have shaped this new version of The Essential Learning Edition. Each of the 30 chapters begins with a handful of Core Objectives , carefully designed to help
students understand—and remember—the major developments and issues in each period. To make it easier for students to grasp the major developments, every chapter aligns the narrative with the learning objectives. Each Core Objective is highlighted at the beginning of each major section in the chapter for which it is relevant. Core Objective flags appear in the page margins to reinforce key topics in the narrative that are essential to understanding the broader Core Objectives. Key terms, chosen to reinforce the major concepts, are bolded in the text and defined in the margin, helping reinforce their significance. At the end of each chapter, review features continue to reiterate and review the Core Objectives, including pithy chapter summaries, lists of key terms, and chapter chronologies.
This book continues to be distinctive for its creative efforts to make every component—maps, images, etc.— a learning opportunity and teaching point. Maps, for example, include lists of questions to help students interpret the data embedded in them.
Interactive maps are but just one example of the innovative elements in this book designed to deepen student learning and get them more engaged in the learning dynamic. Chapters in The Essential Learning Edition also include a What It’s All About feature, which visually summarizes in a graphical format major issues. These are now available exclusively in the Norton Coursepack for instructors to use in ways that are best suited for their courses. Some examples include:
■ Chapter 3: Comparative examination of how different regions of the English colonies were settled and developed.
■ Chapter 9: Analyzes sectional conflicts and the role the economic policies of Henry Clay and Andrew Jackson played in those conflicts.
■ Chapter 12: Abolitionist versus pro-slavery arguments on slavery.
■ Chapter 15: Tracing the legal and legislative road from slavery to freedom for African Americans in the former Confederate States.
■ Chapter 23: The First New Deal compared to the Second New Deal.
Another unique new feature, called Thinking Like a Historian, helps students better understand—and apply—the research techniques and interpretive skills used by historians. Through carefully selected examples, the Thinking Like a Historian segments highlight the foundational role of primary and secondary sources as the building blocks of history and illustrates the ways in which historians have differed in their interpretations of the past. There is one Thinking Like a Historian feature for each of the seven major periods of American history; each feature takes on a major interpretive issue in that era. In Part I of the activity, students first read excerpts from two original secondary sources that offer competing interpretive views framing that period. In Part II, students then read some of the original primary sources that those same historians used to develop their arguments. Finally, students must answer a series of questions that guide their reading and analysis of the sources.
As always, this new edition also includes new content. As I created this new edition of The Essential Learning Edition, I have complemented the political narrative by incorporating more social and cultural history into the text. Key new discussions include:
■ Chapter 1: Enriched coverage of pre-Columbian peoples, especially the Maya, Mexica (Aztecs), and Algonquians—and European explorations in North America. Additional material about the Renaissance and Reformation, especially Martin Luther and the Anglican Reformation.
■ Chapter 2: Additional material on the social structure of European societies during the Age of Discovery, the crucially important and highly profitable Caribbean colonies, especially Barbados, and the process of enslaving Africans and shipping them to the Americas.
■ Chapter 3: The everyday life of women and the role of women in evangelical revivals; enhanced treatment of Great Awakening; and, additional details on infant mortality and family dynamics in the colonial period.
■ Chapter 4: New insights into the growing resistance to British authority in the colonies leading up to 1775.
■ Chapter 5: Enriched treatment of Revolutionary War battles, the everyday life of soldiers, and the role of women revolutionaries and those who served as “camp followers” in support of the Continental armies.
■ Chapter 6: Additional insights into Shays’s Rebellion and the early stages of American capitalism.
■ Chapter 7: Enhanced profile of Thomas Jefferson and his contradictory stance on slavery and women.
■ Chapter 8: More information about the development of the cotton gin and its impact on the national economy. Added insights into the development of the textile mill system in New England and the daily life of Irish immigrants in seaboard cities as well as women in early labor unions.
■ Chapter 10: A more robust portrait of Andrew Jackson and his distinctive life and personality as well as the Peggy Eaton Affair.
■ Chapter 11: Delves more deeply into the economic significance and everyday dynamics of slavery and the culture of slave communities. More coverage of the “slave trail” from the Upper South to the Gulf coast states and of the nature of slave auctions. New details on the lives of plantation mistresses, their duties, double-standards, and systemic sexism they endured
■ Chapter 12: Enriched treatment of the abolitionist movement and utopianism, especially the Shakers and the Oneida Community.
■ Chapter 13: Additional color and texture about life on the Overland trails, Sutter’s Fort, and the mining communities associated with the California Gold Rush. Also more in-depth treatment of the Fugitive Slave Act.
■ Chapter 14: Enhanced attention to the everyday experience of Civil War soldiers—why they fought, what they ate, camp life, the horrors of battle and their sense of manly duty.
■ Chapter 16: Deepened the discussion of the impact of the railroad boom on the Gilded Age economy and everyday life.
■ Chapter 17: Reorganized the section on Native Americans in the West, including new sections on the Sand Creek Massacre, and Grant’s Indian Policy, and expanded coverage on Custer, the Great Sioux War, and the Battle of the Little Big Horn. Added a profile of Ida Wells—African American woman who led the crusade against racial lynchings.
■ Chapter 18: New section added that better frames the discussion of political life during the Gilded Age, including the balance between the two major parties, the surprising level of public participation in everyday politics, and the relationships between business & politics and industry & agriculture.
■ Chapter 19: Details added about Theodore Roosevelt and the Rough Riders during the Cuba campaign.
■ Chapter 20: Added a portrait of Walter Rauschenbusch and his role in promoting the social gospel.
■ Chapter 21: More material about the everyday experience of soldiers in the Great War, especially the nature of trench warfare in the Western Front and the role of shellshock.
■ Chapter 22: An enriched profile of Al Capone and more detailed treatment of the famous Democratic Convention of 1924.
■ Chapter 23: A more textured account of the human effects of the Great Depression on the American people.
■ Chapter 27: Enhanced treatment of John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Martin Luther King, Jr. And a profile of civil rights leader Medgar Evers.
■ Chapter 30: New coverage of the Obama administration, the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the rise of voter populism, the surprising victory of Donald Trump in the 2016 election, and his tempestuous first year as president.
In sum, The Essential Learning Edition includes the most dramatic changes ever made in a resilient book that has been in print for more than thirty years.
Media Tools for Students and Instructors
America: The Essential Learning Edition, Second Edition, is supported by a robust collection of digital resources to support the core objectives and historical developments discussed in each chapter, while also building students’ history “skills.”
QIJK
Norton InQuizitive uses interactive questions and guided feedback to motivate students to read and understand the key concepts, events, and historical developments. A variety of question types featuring images, maps, and sources prompt critical and analytical thinking on each of the chapter’s Core Objectives. In a case study with The Essential Learning Edition, First Edition, 80% of history students said they think InQuizitive helped them learn the material from the textbook, 88% of students said they prefer InQuizitive to previous standard multiple-choice quizzes, and 92% of students would recommend that the instructor continue using InQuizitive.
New! History Skills Tutorials
With the Second Edition we’ve expanded our digital resources to include a new series of tutorials to build students’ critical analysis skills. The History Skills Tutorials combine video and interactive assessments to teach students how to analyze documents, images, and maps. By utilizing a three-step process, students learn a framework for analysis through videos featuring
Instructor’s Manual (Chad Garick, Jones County Junior College; Kenneth Howell, Blinn College)
The Instructor’s Manual for The Essential Learning Edition has everything instructors need to prepare lectures and classroom activities: chapter summaries, suggestions for teaching Core Objectives, as well as lecture ideas, classroom activities, and lists of recommended books, films, and websites.
Test Bank (Thomas Born, Blinn College; Linda Coslett, Chattanooga State Community College)
The Test Bank features multiple-choice, true/false, and essay questions aligned with the chapter’s Core Objectives and classified according to level of difficulty, and Bloom’s Taxonomy, offering multiple avenues for content and skill assessment. All Norton test banks are available with ExamView Test Generator software, allowing instructors to easily create, administer, and manage assessments.
Acknowledgments
The quality and range of reviews on this project were truly exceptional. The book and its accompanying media components benefited from the insights of numerous instructors.
Milan Andrejevich, Ivy Tech College–South Bend
Carol A. Bielke, San Antonio Independent School District
April Birchfield, Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College
