This diverse and distinctive collection of secondary sources, written by a variety of authors, emphasizes social and cultural history. Each article illuminates the complexity and richness of the nation's past by focusing on the people themselves-- how they coped with, adjusted to, or rebelled against America. The readings examine people as they worked and played, fought and loved, lived and died.
Part I: Reconstruction and the West.
Allen W. Trelease, “Knights of the Rising Sun.”
Larry McMurtry, “A Road They Did Not Know.”
Part II: The Gilded Age.
James W. Clarke, “American Assassin: Charles J. Giteau.”
Henry M. Littlefield, “The Wizard of Oz: Parable on Populism.”
Kathryn Allamong Jacob, “She Couldn't Have Done It, Even If She Did.”
Part III: War and Peace in a New Century.
Robert J. Maddox, “Teddy Roosevelt and the Rough Riders.”
Upton Sinclair, “Living and Dying in Packingtown, Chicago” from The Jungle.
Bonnie Mitelmen, “Rose Schneiderman and the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire.”
Randy Roberts, “Jack Johnson Wins the Heavyweight Championship.”
Paul Fussell, “The Trench Scene.”
Part IV: Heroes, Villans, and Society in the 1920s.
Dean Smith, “The Black Sox Scandal.”
*Marty Jones, “Hollywood Scapegoat: The Roscoe Arbuckle Case”
Mark Haller, “Organized Crime in Urban Society: Chicago in the Twentieth Century.”
Part V: Depression and War.
*Bernard Asbell, “FDR’s Extra Burden”
Donald Worster, “The Black Blizzards Roll In.”
Edward Oxford, “Night of the Martians.”
David Welky, Superman in Depression and War.
*Edward Murrow and WWII: Mark Bernstein, “Inventing Broadcast Journalism” and Edward R. Murrow, “For Most of It I Have No Words.”
E.B. Sledge, “Okinawa: Of Mud and Maggots.”
Part VI: America in the Age of Anxiety: 1945-1960.
Ernest Sharpe, Jr., “The Man Who Changed His Face.”
*H.H. Wubben, “American Prisoners of War in Korea”
Richard S. Tedlow, “Intellect on Television: The Quiz Show Scandals of the 1920s.”
*Logan Thomas Snyder, “‘Border Ribbons Across the Land’: The Creation of the Interstate Highway System.”
Part VII: Coming Apart: 1960-2000.
Susan J. Douglass, “Why the Shirrelles Mattered.”
*Joshua Zeitz, “Baby Boomers: From Dr. Spock to Vietnam to Wall Street.”
Peter Braunstein, “Ms.America: Jane Fonda.”
*Douglas Little. “Arabs, Israelis, and American Orientalism.”
Randy Roberts and James S. Olson, “Perfect Bodies, Eternal Youth: The Obsession of Modern America.”
Haynes Johnson, “O.J. Simpson: The Trial of the Century.”
*Indicates New Article