The American Promise: A Concise History is a brief, inexpensive narrative with a clear political, chronological narrative that makes teaching and learning American history a snap. Streamlined by the authors themselves to create a truly concise book, the fifth edition is nearly 15 percent shorter than the fourth compact edition, yet it includes more primary sources than ever—including a new visual sources feature. It is also enhanced by LearningCurve, our easy-to-assign adaptive learning system that will ensure students come to class prepared.
America's Promise is a concise, highly readable introduction to American History. Designed to clearly explain major themes and events, it also captures the rich and often amusing character of the American people. The strong narrative emphasizes public life and how individuals constructed public structures in which they lived and worked. Including the latest scholarship in social, cultural, and political history, the work integrates the history and importance of women and minorities. To aid students in learning and reviewing, each chapter begins with a preview of the main ideas that will be discussed and ends with a conclusion that reinforces the key concepts. Rather than being simply declaratory signposts, section headings highlight main ideas and help carry along the narrative. A glossary defines main terms, and a timeline helps students keep track of events. Selected readings are also included to encourage further reading and study. Finally, carefully selected illustrations and maps portray, pinpoint, and illuminate important episodes in American history. The most concise and competitively priced book available, America's Promise is a breath of fresh air in the introductory market.
The American Promise has long been a course favorite. Students value The American Promise for its readability, clear chronology, and lively voices of ordinary Americans, while instructors rely upon the rich content, the many documents and features, and the overall support for teaching their class their way. The American Promise provides superior formats for every use--the print book allows for a seamless reading experience while LaunchPad provides the right space for active learning assignments and dynamic course management tools that measure and analyze student progress. LaunchPad comes with a wealth of primary sources and special critical thinking activities to help students progress toward achieving learning outcomes; LearningCurve, the adaptive learning tool that students love to use to test their understanding of the text and instructors love to assign to prepare students for class; and a suite of instructor resources from videos to test banks that make teaching simpler and more effective.
U.S. History is designed to meet the scope and sequence requirements of most introductory courses. The text provides a balanced approach to U.S. history, considering the people, events, and ideas that have shaped the United States from both the top down (politics, economics, diplomacy) and bottom up (eyewitness accounts, lived experience). U.S. History covers key forces that form the American experience, with particular attention to issues of race, class, and gender.
This book provides a history of the New Deal, exploring the institutional, political, and cultural changes experienced by the United States during the Great Depression.
The American Promise, Value Edition, has long been a favorite with students who value the text’s readability, clear chronology, and lively voices of ordinary Americans, all in a portable format. Instructors have long valued the full narrative accompanied by a 2-color map program and the rich instructor resources of the parent text made available at an affordable price.
One hundred and fifty years after the first shots were fired on Fort Sumter, the Civil War still captures the American imagination, and its reverberations can still be felt throughout America's social and political landscape. Louis P. Masur's The Civil War: A Concise History offers a masterful and eminently readable overview of the war's multiple causes and catastrophic effects. Masur begins by examining the complex origins of the war, focusing on the pulsating tensions over states rights and slavery. The book then proceeds to cover, year by year, the major political, social, and military events, highlighting two important themes: how the war shifted from a limited conflict to restore the Union to an all-out war that would fundamentally transform Southern society, and the process by which the war ultimately became a battle to abolish slavery. Masur explains how the war turned what had been a loose collection of fiercely independent states into a nation, remaking its political, cultural, and social institutions. But he also focuses on the soldiers themselves, both Union and Confederate, whose stories constitute nothing less than America's Iliad. In the final chapter Masur considers the aftermath of the South's surrender at Appomattox and the clash over the policies of reconstruction that continued to divide President and Congress, conservatives and radicals, Southerners and Northerners for years to come. In 1873, Mark Twain and Charles Dudley wrote that the war had "wrought so profoundly upon the entire national character that the influence cannot be measured short of two or three generations." From the vantage of the war's sesquicentennial, this concise history of the entire Civil War era offers an invaluable introduction to the dramatic events whose effects are still felt today.
You can have it all! A mid-sized alternative, "The American Promise: A Compact History "is the perfect compromise for instructors who want all the features of a full-length text in an affordable format. Condensed by the authors to deliver the latest scholarship in an engaging, flexible format, the fourth edition includes a lavish visual and special features program, study tools that rival any survey text, and a memorable narrative enlivened by the voices of hundreds of Americans.
"As majestic in its scope as the country it celebrates. [Johnson's] theme is the men and women, prominent and unknown, whose energy, vision, courage and confidence shaped a great nation. It is a compelling antidote to those who regard the future with pessimism."— Henry A. Kissinger Paul Johnson's prize-winning classic, A History of the American People, is an in-depth portrait of the American people covering every aspect of U.S. history—from politics to the arts. "The creation of the United States of America is the greatest of all human adventures," begins Paul Johnson's remarkable work. "No other national story holds such tremendous lessons, for the American people themselves and for the rest of mankind." In A History of the American People, historian Johnson presents an in-depth portrait of American history from the first colonial settlements to the Clinton administration. This is the story of the men and women who shaped and led the nation and the ordinary people who collectively created its unique character. Littered with letters, diaries, and recorded conversations, it details the origins of their struggles for independence and nationhood, their heroic efforts and sacrifices to deal with the 'organic sin’ of slavery and the preservation of the Union to its explosive economic growth and emergence as a world power. Johnson discusses contemporary topics such as the politics of racism, education, the power of the press, political correctness, the growth of litigation, and the influence of women throughout history. Sometimes controversial and always provocative, A History of the American People is one author’s challenging and unique interpretation of American history. Johnson’s views of individuals, events, themes, and issues are original, critical, and in the end admiring, for he is, above all, a strong believer in the history and the destiny of the American people.
