History classrooms present a unique dilemma. How do we offer our students a basic understanding of key events and facts while inviting them to see the past not as a rote list of names and dates but as the fascinating, conflicted prelude to their lives today? How do we teach our students to think like historians? As scholars and teachers who go into the classroom every day, we know these challenges well and have composed the eighth edition of America’s History to help instructors meet them. America’s History has long been known for its breadth, balance, and ability to explain to students not just what happened, but why. The latest edition both preserves and substantially builds upon those strengths.

The foundation of our approach lies in our commitment to an integrated history. America’s History combines traditional “top down” narratives of political and economic affairs with “bottom up” narratives of the lived experiences of ordinary people. Our goal is to help students achieve a richer understanding of politics, diplomacy, war, economics, intellectual and cultural life, and gender, class, and race relations by exploring how developments in all these areas were interconnected. Our analysis is fueled by a passion for exploring big, consequential questions. How did a colonial slave society settled by people from four continents become a pluralist democracy? How have liberty and equality informed the American experience? Questions like these help students understand what’s at stake as we study the past. In America’s History, we provide an integrated historical approach and bring a dedication to why history matters to bear on the full sweep of America’s past.

One of the most exciting developments in this edition is the arrival of a new author, Eric Hinderaker. An expert in native and early American history, Eric brings a fresh interpretation of native and colonial European societies and the revolutionary Atlantic World of the eighteenth century that enlivens and enriches our narrative. Eric joins James Henretta, long the intellectual anchor of the book, whose scholarly work now focuses on law, citizenship, and the state in early America; Rebecca Edwards, an expert in women’s and gender history and nineteenth-century electoral politics; and Robert Self, whose work explores the relationship between urban and suburban politics, social movements, and the state. Together, we strive to ensure that energy and creativity, as well as our wide experience in the study of history, infuse every page that follows.

The core of a textbook is its narrative, and we have endeavored to make ours clear, accessible, and lively. In it, we focus not only on the marvelous diversity of peoples who came to call themselves Americans, but also on the institutions that have forged a common national identity. More than ever, we daily confront the collision of our past with the demands of the future and the shrinking distance between Americans and others around the globe. To help students meet these challenges, we call attention to connections with the histories of Canada, Latin America, Europe, Africa, and Asia, drawing links between events in the United States and those elsewhere. In our contemporary digital world, facts and data are everywhere. What students crave is analysis. As it has since its inception, America’s History provides students with a comprehensive explanation and interpretation of events, a guide to why history unfolded as it did and a roadmap for understanding the world in which we live.

Of course, the contents of this book are only helpful if students read and assimilate the material before coming to class. So that students will come to class prepared, they now receive access to LearningCurve — an adaptive, game-like online learning tool that helps them master content — when they purchase a new copy of America’s History. And because we know that your classroom needs are changing rapidly, we are excited to announce that America’s History is available with LaunchPad, a new robust interactive e-book built into its own course space that makes customizing and assigning the book and its resources easy and efficient.

A Nine-Part Framework Highlights Key Developments

One of the greatest strengths of America’s History is its part structure, which helps students identify the key forces and major developments that shaped each era. A four-page part opener introduces each part, using analysis, striking images, and a detailed thematic timeline to orient students to the major developments and themes of the period covered. New Thematic Understanding questions ask students to consider periodization and make connections among chapters. By organizing U.S. history into nine distinct periods, rather than just thirty-one successive chapters, we encourage students to trace changes and continuities over time and to grasp connections between political, economic, social, and cultural events.

In this edition, we have reengineered the part structure to reflect the most up-to-date scholarship. Precontact native societies and European colonization are now covered in two distinct parts, allowing us to devote comprehensive attention to the whole of North America before the 1760s. We have also added an additional part bridging the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, bringing fresh perspectives on industrialization, the “long Progressive Era,” and the growth of American global power. Together, the nine parts organize the complex history of North America and the United States into comprehensible sections with distinct themes.

Part 1, “Transformations of North America, 1450–1700,” highlights the diversity and complexity of Native Americans prior to European contact, examines the transformative impact of European intrusions and the Columbian Exchange, and emphasizes the experimental quality of colonial ventures. Part 2, “British North America and the Atlantic World, 1660–1763,” explains the diversification of British North America and the rise of the British Atlantic World and emphasizes the importance of contact between colonists and Native Americans and imperial rivalries among European powers. Part 3, “Revolution and Republican Culture, 1763–1820,” traces the rise of colonial protest against British imperial reform, outlines the ways that the American Revolution challenged the social order, and explores the processes of conquest, competition, and consolidation that followed it.

Part 4, “Overlapping Revolutions, 1800–1860,” traces the transformation of the economy, society, and culture of the new nation; the creation of a democratic polity; and growing sectional divisions. Part 5, “Creating and Preserving a Continental Nation, 1844–1877,” covers the conflicts generated by America’s empire building in the West, including sectional political struggles that led to the Civil War and national consolidation of power during and after Reconstruction. Part 6, “Industrializing America: Upheavals and Experiments, 1877–1917,” examines the transformations brought about by the rise of corporations and a powerhouse industrial economy; immigration and a diverse, urbanizing society; and movements for progressive reform.

Part 7, “Domestic and Global Challenges, 1890–1945,” explores America’s rise to world power, the cultural transformations and political conflicts of the 1920s, the Great Depression, and the creation of the welfare state. Part 8, “The Modern State and the Age of Liberalism, 1945–1980,” addresses the postwar period, including America’s new global leadership role during the Cold War; the expansion of federal responsibility during a new “age of liberalism”; and the growth of mass consumption and the middle class. Finally, Part 9, “Global Capitalism and the End of the American Century, 1980 to the Present,” discusses the conservative political ascendancy of the 1980s; the end of the Cold War and rising conflict in the Middle East; and globalization and increasing social inequality.

Hundreds of Sources Encourage
Comparative and Critical Thinking

America’s History has long emphasized primary sources. In addition to weaving lively quotations throughout the narrative, we offer students substantial excerpts from historical documents — letters, diaries, autobiographies, public testimony, and more — and numerous figures that give students practice working with data. These documents allow students to experience the past through the words and perspectives of those who lived it, to understand how historians make sense of the past using data, and to gain skill in interpreting historical evidence. Each chapter contains three source-based features.

American Voices, a two-page feature in each chapter, helps students learn to think critically by comparing texts written from two or more perspectives. New topics include “The Debate over Free and Slave Labor,” “Jewish Immigrants in the Industrial Economy,” “Theodore Roosevelt: From Anti-Populist to New Nationalist,” and “Immigration After 1965: Its Defenders and Critics.”

New America Compared features use primary sources and data to situate U.S. history in a global context while giving students practice in comparison and data analysis. Retooled from the Voices from America feature from the last edition to include data in addition to primary sources, these features appear in every chapter on topics as diverse as the fight for women’s rights in France and the United States, an examination of labor laws after emancipation in Haiti and the United States, the loss of human life in World War I, and an analysis of the worldwide economic malaise of the 1970s.

Finally, we are excited to introduce a brand-new feature to aid you in teaching Historical Thinking Skills. A Thinking Like a Historian feature in every chapter includes five to eight brief sources organized around a central theme, such as “Beyond the Proclamation Line,” “Making Modern Presidents,” and “The Suburban Landscape of Cold War America.” Students are asked to analyze the documents and complete a Putting It All Together assignment that asks them to synthesize and use the evidence to create an argument. Because we understand how important primary sources are to the study of history, we are also pleased to offer for free, when packaged, the all-new companion reader, Sources for America’s History, featuring a wealth of additional documents.

As in past editions, an outstanding visual program engages students’ attention and gives them practice in working with visual sources. The eighth edition features over 425 paintings, cartoons, illustrations, photographs, and charts, most of them in full color and more than a quarter new to this edition. Informative captions set the illustrations in context and provide students with background for making their own analysis of the images in the book. Keenly aware that students lack geographic literacy, we have included dozens of maps that show major developments in the narrative, each with a caption to help students interpret what they see.

Taken together, these documents, figures, maps, and illustrations provide instructors with a trove of teaching materials, so that America’s History offers not only a compelling narrative, but also — right in the text — the rich documentary materials that instructors need to bring the past alive and introduce students to historical analysis.

Study Aids Support Understanding and Teach
Historical Thinking Skills

The study aids in the eighth edition have been completely revised in the new edition to better support students in their understanding of the material and in their development of Historical Thinking Skills. New Identify the Big Idea questions at the start of every chapter guide student reading and focus their attention on identifying not just what happened, but why. A variety of learning tools from the beginning to the end of each chapter support this big idea focus. As they read, students will gain proficiency in Historical Thinking Skills via marginal review questions that ask students to “Identify Causes,” “Trace Change over Time,” and “Understand Points of View,” among other skills. Where students are likely to stumble over a key concept, we boldface it in the text where it is first mentioned and provide a glossary that defines each term.

In the Chapter Review section, a set of Review Questions is given for the chapter as a whole that includes a new Thematic Understanding question, along with new Making Connections questions that ask students to consider broader historical issues, developments, and continuities and changes over time. A brief list of More to Explore sources directs students to accessible print and Web resources for additional reading. Lastly, a Timeline with a new Key Turning Points question reminds students of important events and asks them to consider periodization.

New Scholarship Includes Latest Research and Interpretations

In the new edition, we continue to offer instructors a bold account of U.S. history that reflects the latest, most exciting scholarship in the field. Throughout the book, we have given increased attention to political culture and political economy, including the history of capitalism, using this analysis to help students understand how society, culture, politics, and the economy informed one another.

With new author Eric Hinderaker aboard, we have taken the opportunity to reconceptualize much of the pre-1800 material. This edition opens with two dramatically revised chapters marked by closer and more sustained attention to the way Native Americans shaped, and were shaped by, the contact experience and highlighting the tenuous and varied nature of colonial experimentation. These changes carry through the edition in a sharpened continental perspective and expanded coverage of Native Americans, the environment, and the West in every era. We have also brought closer attention to the patterns and varieties of colonial enterprise and new attention to the Atlantic World and the many revolutions — in print, consumption, and politics — that transformed the eighteenth century.

In our coverage of the nineteenth century, the discussion of slavery now includes material on African American childhood and the impact of hired-out slaves on black identity. The spiritual life of Joseph Smith also receives greater attention, as do the complex attitudes of Mormons toward slavery. New findings have also deepened the analysis of the war with Mexico and its impact on domestic politics. But the really new feature of these chapters is their heightened international, indeed global, perspective.

In the post–Civil War chapters, enhanced coverage of gender, ethnicity, and race includes greater emphasis on gay and lesbian history and Asian and Latino immigration, alongside the entire chapter devoted to the civil rights movement, a major addition to the last edition. Finally, we have kept up with recent developments with an expanded section on the Obama presidency and the elections of 2008 and 2012.

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to the following scholars and teachers who reported on their experiences with the seventh edition or reviewed features of the new edition. Their comments often challenged us to rethink or justify our interpretations and always provided a check on accuracy down to the smallest detail.

Jeffrey S. Adler, University of Florida

Jennifer L. Bertolet, The George Washington University

Vicki Black, Blinn College

Stefan Bosworth, Hostos Community College

Tammy K. Byron, Dalton State College

Jessica Cannon, University of Central Missouri

Rose Darrough, Palomar College

Petra DeWitt, Missouri University of Science & Technology

Nancy J. Duke, Daytona State College

Richard M. Filipink, Western Illinois University

Matthew Garrett, Bakersfield College

Benjamin H. Hampton, Manchester Community College and Great Bay Community College

Isadora Helfgott, University of Wyoming

Stephanie Jannenga, Muskegon Community College

Antoine Joseph, Bryant University

Lorraine M. Lees, Old Dominion University

John S. Leiby, Paradise Valley Community College

Karen Ward Mahar, Siena College

Timothy R. Mahoney, University of Nebraska–Lincoln

Eric Mayer, Victor Valley College

Glenn Melancon, Southeastern Oklahoma State University

James Mills, University of Texas, Brownsville

Frances Mitilineos, Oakton Community College

Anne Paulet, Humboldt State University

Thomas Ratliff, Central Connecticut State University

LeeAnn Reynolds, Samford University

Jenny Shaw, University of Alabama

Courtney Smith, Cabrini College

Timothy Thurber, Virginia Commonwealth University

Sarah E. Vandament, North Lake College of the Dallas County Community College District

Julio Vasquez, University of Kansas

Louis Williams, St. Louis Community College–Forest Park

As the authors of America’s History, we know better than anyone else how much this book is the work of other hands and minds. We are indebted to Mary Dougherty, William J. Lombardo, Dan McDonough, and Jane Knetzger, who oversaw this edition, and Laura Arcari, who asked the right questions, suggested a multitude of improvements, and expertly guided the manuscript to completion. As usual, Denise B. Wydra and Joan E. Feinberg generously provided the resources we needed to produce an outstanding volume. Annette Pagliaro Sweeney did a masterful job consulting with the authors and seeing the book through the production process. Karen R. Soeltz, Sandi McGuire, and Janie Pierce-Bratcher in the marketing department understood how to communicate our vision to teachers; they and the members of college and high school sales forces did wonderful work in helping this edition reach the classroom. We also thank the rest of our editorial and production team for their dedicated efforts: Associate Editors Robin Soule and Jen Jovin; Editorial Assistant Victoria Royal; Susan Zorn, who copyedited the manuscript; proofreaders Arthur Johnson and Lindsay DiGianvittorio; art researchers Pembroke Herbert and Sandi Rygiel at Picture Research Consultants, Inc.; text permissions researcher Eve Lehmann; and Kalina Ingham and Hilary Newman, who oversaw permissions. Finally, we want to express our appreciation for the invaluable assistance of Patricia Deveneau, who expertly suggested topics and sources for the Thinking Like a Historian features in Chapters 8–14; Kendra Kennedy, for crucial research aid; and Eliza Blanchard and Erin Boss, and especially Michelle Whalen and the U.S. historians — Robert Brigham, Miriam Cohen, James Merrell, and Quincy Mills — for their invaluable help and advice at Vassar. Many thanks to all of you for your contributions to this new edition of America’s History.

James A. Henretta

Eric Hinderaker

Rebecca Edwards

Robert O. Self