American Nation A History of the United States

The Primary Source Edition of The American Nation shows how the political history of the United States is intimately tied to the social, economic and cultural development of the nation. The Primary Source Edition utilizes primary sources, along with critical thinking questions for each, to immerse the student in the unfolding story of America. Co-authors Mark Carnes and John Garraty explore the relationship between these various histories and show how it took the voices and actions of many peoples to produce this singular political structure - The United States of America. Long renowned for its elegant narrative style, The American Nation in this Twelfth Edition retains its most significant strength-its rich and memorable prose.Elegant and vivid narrative style. The carefully composed narrative infuses the story with memorable details while lively biographical portraits bring major historical figures to life. Political history emphasis. Structuring the narrative around central political developments, the political framework forms the backdrop for examination of the nation's history--its political evolution as well as its economic, social, and cultural developments. "Mapping the Past." Using unique and unusual thematic maps, "Mapping the Past" feature essays examine issues and influences that have shaped the American nation while teaching students how to read and use maps. The first "Mapping the Past" essay in the book ("Depicting History with Maps: The Vote on Ratification," Ch. 5) describes for students the elements of maps--titles, keys, labels, geographical and chronological references--and shows them how to "read" a map. Most "Mapping the Past" essays explore some aspect of social history, for example: "The Making of the Working Class" (Ch. 8), "Nature as a Civilizing Force: Central Park" (Ch. 11), "Cholera: A New Disease Strikes the Nation" (Ch. 19) and "Roe v. Wade and the Abortion Controversy" (Ch. 31). Accompanying text explains the information conveyed in the maps and relates it to the subject matter of the chapter. Eighteen "Mapping the Past" essays--half of them new to the twelfth edition--appear throughout the text. "Re-Viewing the Past." Each of these essays examines a recent film that deals with some incident or aspect of American history and discusses how the film relates to, reflects, or distorts the reality of the era and the events they portray. Seven "Re-Viewing the Past" essays appear throughout the text; among the films discussed are two that are new to the twelfth edition: Cold Mountain (Ch. 15) and Chicago (Ch. 25). "American Lives" biographical essays. These essays provide descriptions of dramatic incidents in the lives of selected subjects--some famous and some lesser known. Nine "American Lives" feature essays--two of them new to the twelfth edition (Nat Love, Ch. 17, and Emma Goldman, Ch. 22)--appear throughout the text. Prologue ("Beginnings"). This introduction to the narrative describes the first peopling of the American continent and the growth and development of Native American communities long before the arrival of European explorers and settlers. Debating the Past. Using illustrations to capture students' interest, these short feature essays describe historians' varying viewpoints on some provocative question related to the chapter's content. A bibliographic source note at the end of the essay cites the works in which each historian discussed presented his or her argument. A "Debating the Past" essay appears in each chapter, considering such questions as "Was the American Revolution rooted in class struggle?" (Ch. 4), "Was the Civil War avoidable?" (Ch. 14), "Did immigrants assimilate?" (Ch. 19), and "Do historians ever get it right?" (Ch. 33). "Web Assets," signaled by icons throughout the pages of the book, identify assets on Longman's premium Web Sites-MyHistoryLab and LongmanAmericanHistory.com-that relate to the chapter content and themes. The icons indicate the kind of asset-document, map, video, or audio-and the title of the asset. These Web assets provide hundreds of additional materials, including source documents, interactive maps, videos, and audio clips designed to enrich students' study of U.S. history. MyHistoryLab provides students with an online package complete with the entire textbook, numerous study aids, and course management. Icons in the book reference many of the over 1000 primary sources, images, audio clips and video clips, as well as over 150 map activities with gradable quizzes, geographic case studies, map workbook activities, and atlas maps. The comprehensive site also includes a history bookshelf with twenty of the most commonly assigned books in history classes and a history toolkit with tutorials and helpful links, and an electronic version of the book.