Preface

Why This Book This Way? – Value Edition

We are pleased to publish the second Value Edition of our popular textbook Exploring American Histories. The Value Edition provides our signature emphasis on the diverse histories of the United States in a two-color, trade-sized format at a low price. Featuring the full narrative of the second edition parent text, select images, and all maps and pedagogical tools, the Value Edition continues to make a broad and diverse American history accessible to a new generation of students and instructors interested in a more engaged learning and teaching style. In this second edition we have strengthened our digital tools and instructor resources so faculty have more options for engaging students in active learning and assessing their progress, whether it be with traditional lecture classes, smaller discussion-oriented classes, “flipped” classrooms, or online courses.

Helping Instructors Teach with Digital Resources for the Classroom

We know that many students today are on a budget and that instructors want greater flexibility and more digital options in their choice of course materials. Accordingly, Exploring American Histories is offered in Macmillan’s premier learning platform, LaunchPad, an intuitive, interactive e-book and course space. Free when packaged with the print text or available at a low price when used stand-alone, LaunchPad grants students and teachers access to a wealth of online tools and resources built specifically for our text to enhance reading comprehension and promote in-depth study.

Developed with extensive feedback from history instructors and students, LaunchPad for Exploring American Histories includes all the advantages of the com- prehensive parent text-the complete narrative of the print book, full color art and maps, multiple document features woven throughout the narrative, and chapter- culminating document projects—as well as additional source projects from the companion reader, Thinking through Sources for Exploring American Histories, and LearningCurve, an adaptive learning tool that is designed to get students to read before they come to class. With new source-based questions in the test bank and in the LearningCurve and the ability to sort test bank questions by chapter learning objectives, instructors now have more ways to test students on their understanding of sources and narrative in the book.

For the second edition we include other features to enhance active learning, including new Thinking through Sources activities in LaunchPad, which extend and enhance the additional document projects in the companion source reader. Designed to prompt students to build arguments and to practice historical reasoning, these sophisticated auto-graded exercises guide students to assess their understanding of the sources, organize those sources for use in an essay, and draw useful conclusions from them. This unique pedagogy does for skill development what LearningCurve does for content mastery and reading comprehension. This edition also includes Guided Reading Exercises that prompt students to be active readers of the chapter narrative and auto-graded primary source quizzes to test comprehension of written and visual sources. These features, plus additional primary source documents, video sources and tools for making video assignments, map activities, flashcards, and customizable test banks, make LaunchPad a great asset for any instructor who wants to enliven American history for students.

Narrative Approach: Diverse Stories

Recent historical scholarship has transformed our vision of the past, most notably by dramatically increasing the range of people historians study, and thus deepening and complicating traditional understandings of change over time. The new research has focused particularly on gender, race, ethnicity, and class, and historians have produced landmark work in women’s history, African American history, American Indian history, and labor history.

Throughout the narrative we acknowledge recent scholarship by highlighting the theme of diversity and recognizing the American past as a series of interwoven stories made by a great variety of historical actors. We do this within a strong national framework that allows our readers to see how the numerous stories fit together and to understand why they matter. Our approach to diversity also allows us to foreground the role of individual agency as we push readers to consider the many forces that create historical change. Each chapter opens with a pair of American Histories, biographies that showcase individuals who experienced and influenced events in a particular period, and then returns to them throughout the chapter to strengthen the connections and highlight their place in the larger picture. These biographies cover both well-known Americans—such as Daniel Shays, Frederick Douglass, Andrew Carnegie, and Eleanor Roosevelt—and those who never gained fame or fortune—such as the activist Amy Kirby Post, labor organizer Luisa Moreno, and World War II internee Fred Korematsu. Introducing such a broad range of biographical subjects illuminates the many ways that individuals shaped and were shaped by historical events. This strategy also makes visible throughout the text the intersections where history from the top down meets history from the bottom up, and the relationships between social and political histories and economic, cultural, and diplomatic developments.

Helping Students Understand the Narrative

We also know that students need help making sense of their reading. As instructors, all of us have had students complain that they cannot figure out what’s important in the textbooks we assign. For many of our students, especially those just out of high school, their college history survey textbook is likely the most difficult book they have ever encountered. Also, students come to the U.S. history survey with different levels of preparation. We understand the challenges our students face, so in addition to the extensive document program, we have included the following pedagogical features designed to help students get the most from the narrative:

In addition, whenever an instructor assigns the LaunchPad e-book (which is free when bundled with the print book), students get full access to LearningCurve, an online adaptive learning tool that promotes mastery of the book’s content and diagnoses students’ trouble spots. With this adaptive quizzing students accumulate points toward a target score as they go, giving the interaction a game-like feel. Feedback for incorrect responses explains why the answer is incorrect and directs students back to the text to review before they attempt to answer the question again. The end result is a better understanding of the key elements of the text. Instructors who actively assign LearningCurve report their students come to class prepared for discussion and their students enjoy using it. In addition, LearningCurve’s reporting feature allows instructors to quickly diagnose which concepts students in their classes are struggling with so they can adjust lectures and activities accordingly. The LaunchPad ebook with LearningCurve is thus an invaluable asset for instructors who need to support students in all settings, from traditional lectures to hybrid, online, and newer “flipped” classrooms. See “Versions and Supplements” following this preface for more details.

New Coverage and Updates to the Narrative

As a consequence of the constructive feedback we have received from many reviewers, in this second edition we present an even more rounded view of the history of the United States.

Enriched Diversity and Increased Focus on the West. We continue to pay significant attention to African Americans and women throughout the text and provide greater coverage on the histories of American Indians, Hispanic and Latino Americans, and Asian Americans. Also, we have incorporated more about the West, in both primary sources and visuals and in the narrative. As important, we have not confined our discussion of these subjects to a few chapters, but we have placed them throughout the book and integrated them into the narrative and sources. For example, while American Indians were already featured in Volume 1, there is additional attention to Indian-Spanish encounters in chapter 1; more about alliances among Indian nations and with Europeans in chapter 3; additional coverage of Mandan Indians leading up to and in chapter 8, which concludes with a Documents Project on interactions between Indians and the Lewis and Clark expedition; more in-depth coverage of Indian Removal in chapters 9 and 10; and more about Indians in the Civil War era. Furthermore, the coverage of Aztecs, Incas, Mexicans and Mexican-Americans has been updated in Volume 1, especially in chapters 1, 2, 10, and 12. In Volume 2 we have updated the struggles of American Indians in chapter 15, which covers Westward expansion and in chapter 22 on the Great Depression and New Deal. We have also added considerable new material on Native Americans in relationship to Progressivism (chapter 19); World War I (chapter 20); World War II (chapter 23); and the 1950s and 1960s (chapters 25 and 26). Hispanic and Latino Americans and Asian Americans are also featured in these and other chapters in Volume 2 both in additions to the narrative and the presentation of new documentary sources relating to immigration, labor, and politics. For example, Chicana feminism is compared with that of African American women in chapter 27. With the added attention to these groups, the American West now appears prominently in nearly every chapter.

Updated and Expanded Coverage. We have also absorbed the most recent scholarship to ensure that the most useful and accurate textbook is placed in the hands of students. In addition to the new material on American Indians, Hispanic/Latino Americans, and Asian Americans, we revised our approach to a number of other historical developments. Chapter 1 incorporates recent research on the settlement of the Americas and illustrates the ways that new technologies can help trace American Indian settlements while chapter 2 includes new archaeological research on the Jamestown settlement and expands attention to indentured servants. Chapter 4 addresses the complex relationship between Enlightenment thought and religious revivals. More coverage of naval and maritime developments appears in chapters 7, 9, and 13; Indian Removal is discussed in more depth in chapters 9 and 10, and slave resistance and rebellion is more richly detailed in chapter 10 as well. The coverage of military campaigns in chapter 13 is now framed around the concept of “hard war.” Chapter 22 on the New Deal, shows how corporate leaders harnessed Christian ministers to promote their pro-capitalism, anti-New Deal message, and how the United States Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers allied with clergymen to challenge so-called “creeping socialism.” Likewise, chapter 27 on the development of political conservatism, contains a larger discussion of Reaganomics and the influence of people such as Phyllis Schlafly on the construction of the New Right agenda that went beyond politics to shape such social and cultural issues as reproductive rights for women, religious freedom, and family values.

Adjustments to Chapter Organization and Focus. Based on reviewers’ comments, we also reframed and re-organized several chapters. Chapter 7 is more clearly focused around the ways that competing ideas and interests required compromises to ensure the stability of the new nation. Chapter 8 focuses on the development of “American” identities among diverse groups living in or on the margins of the United States in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Chapters 24 and 25 have been extensively reorganized: the former now traces the Cold War from 1945–1960 and the latter contains the origins of the civil rights movement and its development from 1945–1960, as well as the politics of the Truman and Eisenhower administrations.

The final chapter of a history textbook is necessarily and continuously evolving, and for this edition we have added material on President Obama’s second term; the legalization of same-sex marriage; the formation of the Black Lives Matter movement; the revelations of Edward Snowden concerning the government’s domestic spy apparatus; the clash over restricting immigration from Mexico and Central America as well as refugees from Syria; renewed conflict between the United States and Russia; and the creation of the terroristic organization Islam in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and the threat it poses to democratic nations in the West and to moderate Muslims in the Middle East.

Strengthened Attention to Global Affairs. Much of the material we have added both in primary sources and the narrative, underscore the steadily evolving relationship between the United States and the rest of the world. This coverage begins with the early chapters of Volume 1, as the Americas were incorporated into and then became a driving force in major developments in Europe, Africa, and Asia. Once the United States gained its independence, its relations with Britain, France, Haiti, Mexico, China, and especially Africa and the West Indies transformed the nation in dramatic ways. Throughout U.S. history, immigrants from diverse cultures have reshaped the country in vital ways. Increasingly in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, the role of the United States in global affairs has transformed the nation and the world economically, culturally, and militarily. Indeed, new technologies, new terrorist threats, environmental disasters, and international trade make it more difficult than ever to understand U.S. history without attention to the wider world.

Acknowledgments

We wish to thank the talented scholars and teachers who were kind enough to give their time and knowledge to help us with our revision, as well as those who provided advice in preparation for the first edition. Historians who provided special insight for the second edition include the following:

Daniel Allen, Trinity Valley Community College

Leann Almquist, Middle Georgia State University

Rebecca Arnfeld, California State University, Sacramento

David Arnold, Columbia Basin College

Brian Alnutt, Northampton Community College

John Belohlavek, University of South Florida

Jeff Bloodworth, Gannon University

Carl Bon Tempo, University at Albany - SUNY

Martha Jane Brazy, University of South Alabama

Richard Buckelew, Bethune-Cookman University

Timothy Buckner, Troy University

Monica Butler, Seminole State College of Florida

Jacqueline Campbell, Francis Marion University

Amy Canfield, Lewis-Clark State College

Michael Cangemi, Binghamton University

Roger Carpenter, University of Louisiana, Monroe

Keith Chu, Bergen Community College

Remalian Cocar, Georgia Gwinnett College

Lori Coleman, Tunxis Community College

Wilbert E. Corprew, SUNY Broome

Vanessa Crispin-Peralta, Moorpark College

David Cullen, Collin College

Gregory K. Culver, Austin Peay State University

Robert Chris Davis, Lone Star College - Kingwood

Thomas Devine California State University, Northridge

Tom Dicke, Missouri State University

Andy Digh, Mercer University

Gary Donato, Massachusetts Bay Community College

David Dzurec, University of Scranton

Susan Eckelmann, University of Tennessee, Chattanooga

George Edgar, Modesto Junior College

Taulby Edmondson, Virginia Tech

Ashton Ellett, University of Georgia

Keona K. Ervin, University of Missouri

Gabrielle Everett, Jefferson College

Robert Glen Findley, Odessa College

Tiffany Fink, Hardin-Simmons University

Roger Flynn, TriCounty Technical College

Jonathan Foster, Great Basin College

Sarah Franklin, University of North Alabama

Michael Frawley, University of Texas of the Permian Basin

Robert Genter, Nassau Community College

Dana Goodrich, Northwest Vista College

Audrey Grounds, University of South Florida

Abbie Grubb, San Jacinto College - South

Kenneth Grubb, Wharton County Junior College

Ashley Haines, Mt. San Antonio College

Dennis Halpin, Virginia Tech

Hunter Hampton, University of Missouri

Tona Hangen, Worcester State University

Stephen Henderson, William Penn University

Kimberly Hernandez, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Lacey A. Holley-McCann, Columbia State Community College

Creed Hyatt, Lehigh Carbon Community College

Joe Jaynes, Collin College

Stephen Katz, Community College of Philadelphia

Lesley Kauffman, San Jacinto College-Central

Tina M. Kibbe, Lamar University

Melanie Kiechle, Virginia Tech

Stephanie Lamphere, Sierra College

Todd Laugen, Metropolitan State University of Denver

Carolyn J. Lawes, Old Dominion University

John Leazer, Carthage College

Marianne Leeper, Trinity Valley Community College

Alan Lehmann, Blinn College - Brenham

Carole N. Lester, University of Texas at Dallas

Amanda Littauer, Northern Illinois University

Carmen Lopez, Miami Dade College

Robert Lyle, University of North Georgia

Amani Marshall, Georgia State University

Phil Martin, San Jacinto College - South

David Mason, Georgia Gwinnett College

Jason Mead, Johnson University

Robert Miller, California State University, San Marcos

Ricky Moser, Kilgore College

Alison Parker, College at Brockport, SUNY

Craig Pascoe, Georgia College

Linda Pelon, McLennan Community College

Jamie Pietruska, Rutgers University

Sandra Piseno, Clayton State University

Ray Rast, Gonzaga University

Jason Ripper, Everett Community College

Gregory L. Schneider, Emporia State University

Debra Schultz, Kingsborough Community College, CUNY

Scott Seagle, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Donald Seals, Kilgore College

Gregory Shealy, Saint John’s River State College

Cathy Hoult Shewring, Montgomery County Community College

Jill Silos-Rooney, Massachusetts Bay Community College

Beth Slutsky, California State University, Sacramento

Karen Smith, Emporia State University

Suzie Smith, Trinity Valley Community College

Troy Smith, Tennessee Tech University

David Soll, University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire

Gary Sprayberry, Columbus State University

Bethany Stollar, Tennessee State University

Jason Stratton, Bakersfield College

Kristen Streater, Collin College

Joseph Stromberg, San Jacinto College - Central

Sarah Swedberg, Colorado Mesa University

Christopher Thrasher, Calhoun Community College

Jeffrey Trask, Georgia State University

Linda Upham-Bornstein, Plymouth State University

Mark VanDriel, University of South Carolina

Kevin Vanzant, Tennessee State University

Ramon C. Veloso, Palomar College

Morgan Veraluz, Tennessee State University

Melissa Walker, Converse College

William Wantland, Mount Vernon Nazarene University

David Weiland, Collin College

Eddie Weller, San Jacinto College-South

Shane West, Lone Star College-Greenspoint Center

Geoffrey West, San Diego Mesa College

Kenneth B. White, Modesto Junior College

Matt White, Paris Junior College

Anne Will, Skagit Valley College

John P. Williams, Collin College

Zachery R. Williams, University of Akron

Kurt Windisch, University of Georgia

Jonathan Wlasiuk, The Ohio State University

Timothy Wright Shoreline Community College

Timothy L. Wood, Southwest Baptist University

Nancy Beck Young, University of Houston

We are also grateful for those who contributed to the creation of the first edition, upon which this revised edition is built:

Benjamin Allen, South Texas College

Christine Anderson, Xavier University

Uzoamaka Melissa C. Anyiwo, Curry College

Anthony A. Ball, Housatonic Community College

Terry A. Barnhart, Eastern Illinois University

Edwin Benson, North Harford High School

Paul Berk, Christian Brothers University

Deborah L. Blackwell, Texas A&M International University

Thomas Born, Blinn College

Margaret Bramlett, St. Andrews Episcopal High School

Lauren K. Bristow, Collin College

Tsekani Browne, Duquesne University

Jon L. Brudvig, Dickinson State University

Dave Bush, Shasta College

Barbara Calluori, Montclair State University

Julia Schiavone Camacho, The University of Texas at El Paso

Jacqueline Glass Campbell, Francis Marion University

Amy E. Canfield, Lewis-Clark State College

Dominic Carrillo, Grossmont College

Mark R. Cheathem, Cumberland University

Laurel A. Clark, University of Hartford

Myles L. Clowers, San Diego City College

Hamilton Cravens, Iowa State University

Audrey Crawford, Houston Community College

John Crum, University of Delaware

Alex G. Cummins, St. Johns River State College

Susanne Deberry-Cole, Morgan State University

Julian J. DelGaudio, Long Beach City College

Patricia Norred Derr, Kutztown University

John Donoghue, Loyola University Chicago

Timothy Draper, Waubonsee Community College

David Dzurec, University of Scranton

Keith Edgerton, Montana State University Billings

Blake Ellis, Lone Star College

Christine Erickson, Indiana University–Purdue University Fort Wayne

Todd Estes, Oakland University

Gabrielle Everett, Jefferson College

Julie Fairchild, Sinclair Community College

Randy Finley, Georgia Perimeter College

Kirsten Fischer, University of Minnesota

Michelle Fishman-Cross, College of Staten Island

Jeffrey Forret, Lamar University

Kristen Foster, Marquette University

Susan Freeman, Western Michigan University

Nancy Gabin, Purdue University

Kevin Gannon, Grand View University

Benton Gates, Indiana University–Purdue University Fort Wayne

Bruce Geelhoed, Ball State University

Mark Gelfand, Boston College

Jason George, The Bryn Mawr School

Judith A. Giesberg, Villanova University

Sherry Ann Gray, Mid-South Community College

Patrick Griffin, University of Notre Dame

Aaron Gulyas, Mott Community College

Scott Gurman, Northern Illinois University

Melanie Gustafson, University of Vermont

Brian Hart, Del Mar College

Paul Hart, Texas State University

Paul Harvey, University of Colorado Colorado Springs

Woody Holton, University of Richmond

Vilja Hulden, University of Arizona

Colette A. Hyman, Winona State University

Brenda Jackson-Abernathy, Belmont University

Troy R. Johnson, California State University, Long Beach

Shelli Jordan-Zirkle, Shoreline Community College

Jennifer Kelly, The University of Texas at Austin

Kelly Kennington, Auburn University

Andrew E. Kersten, University of Wisconsin–Green Bay

Janilyn M. Kocher, Richland Community College

Max Krochmal, Duke University

Peggy Lambert, Lone Star College

Jennifer R. Lang, Delgado Community College

John S. Leiby, Paradise Valley Community College

Mitchell Lerner, The Ohio State University

Matthew Loayza, Minnesota State University, Mankato

Gabriel J. Loiacono, University of Wisconsin Oshkosh

John F. Lyons, Joliet Junior College

Lorie Maltby, Henderson Community College

Christopher Manning, Loyola University Chicago

Marty D. Matthews, North Carolina State University

Eric Mayer, Victor Valley College

Suzanne K. McCormack, Community College of Rhode Island

David McDaniel, Marquette University

J. Kent McGaughy, Houston Community College, Northwest

Alan McPherson, Howard University

Sarah Hand Meacham, Virginia Commonwealth University

Brian Craig Miller, Emporia State University

Brett Mizelle, California State University, Long Beach

Mark Moser, The University of North Carolina at Greensboro

Jennifer Murray, Coastal Carolina University

Peter C. Murray, Methodist University

Steven E. Nash, East Tennessee State University

Chris Newman, Elgin Community College

David Noon, University of Alaska Southeast

Richard H. Owens, West Liberty University

David J. Peavler, Towson University

Laura A. Perry, University of Memphis

Wesley Phelps, University of St. Thomas

Merline Pitre, Texas Southern University

Eunice G. Pollack, University of North Texas

Kimberly Porter, University of North Dakota

Cynthia Prescott, University of North Dakota

Gene Preuss, University of Houston

Sandra Pryor, Old Dominion University

Rhonda Ragsdale, Lone Star College

Michaela Reaves, California Lutheran University

Peggy Renner, Glendale Community College

Steven D. Reschly, Truman State University

Barney J. Rickman, Valdosta State University

Pamela Riney-Kehrberg, Iowa State University

Paul Ringel, High Point University

Timothy Roberts, Western Illinois University

Glenn Robins, Georgia Southwestern State University

Alicia E. Rodriquez, California State University, Bakersfield

Mark Roehrs, Lincoln Land Community College

Patricia Roessner, Marple Newtown High School

John G. Roush, St. Petersburg College

James Russell, St. Thomas Aquinas College

Eric Schlereth, The University of Texas at Dallas

Ronald Schultz, University of Wyoming

Stanley K. Schultz, University of Wisconsin–Madison

Sharon Shackelford, Erie Community College

Donald R. Shaffer, American Public University System

David J. Silverman, The George Washington University

Andrea Smalley, Northern Illinois University

Molly Smith, Friends School of Baltimore

David L. Snead, Liberty University

David Snyder, Delaware Valley College

Jodie Steeley, Merced College

Bryan E. Stone, Del Mar College

Emily Straus, SUNY Fredonia

Jean Stuntz, West Texas A&M University

Nikki M. Taylor, University of Cincinnati

Heather Ann Thompson, Temple University

Timothy Thurber, Virginia Commonwealth University

T. J. Tomlin, University of Northern Colorado

Laura Trauth, Community College of Baltimore County–Essex

Russell M. Tremayne, College of Southern Idaho

Laura Tuennerman-Kaplan, California University of Pennsylvania

Vincent Vinikas, The University of Arkansas at Little Rock

David Voelker, University of Wisconsin–Green Bay

Ed Wehrle, Eastern Illinois University

Gregory Wilson, University of Akron

Maria Cristina Zaccarini, Adelphi University

Nancy Zens, Central Oregon Community College

Jean Hansen Zuckweiler, University of Northern Colorado

We also appreciate the help the following scholars, archivists, and students gave us in providing the information we needed at critical points in the writing of this text: Lori Birrell, Leslie Brown, Andrew Buchanan, Gillian Carroll, Susan J. Carroll, Jacqueline Castledine, Derek Chang, Paul Clemens, Dorothy Sue Cobble, Kayo Denda, Jane Coleman-Harbison, Alison Cronk, Elisabeth Eittreim, Phyllis Hunter, Tera Hunter, Molly Inabinett, Kenneth Kvamme, William Link, James Livingston, Julia Livingston, Justin Lorts, Melissa Mead, Gilda Morales, Vicki L. Ruiz, Julia Sandy-Bailey, Susan Schrepfer, Bonnie Smith, Melissa Stein, Margaret Sumner, Camilla Townsend, Jessica Unger, Anne Valk, and Melinda Wallington.

We want to thank Rob Heinrich and Julia Sandy for compiling the document projects for the new companion source reader. They have paid careful attention to locating interesting and varied sources that aptly fit with the themes of the second edition of Exploring American Histories and give instructors and students compelling documents to explore. Jen Jovin at Bedford/St. Martin’s deftly orchestrated the development of the reader and we owe her our thanks as well.

We would particularly like to applaud the many hardworking and creative people at Bedford/St. Martin’s who guided us through the labyrinthine process of writing this second edition. No one was more important to us than the indefatigable and unflappable Heidi Hood, our senior editor. We could not have had a better team than Edwin Hill, Michael Rosenberg, William Lombardo, Jane Knetzger, Mary Posman, Jennifer Jovin, Kerri Cardone, Jennifer Wetzel, Sarah O’Connor, Stephanie Ellis, Sandi McGuire, Alex Kaufman, Christine Buese, and Kalina Ingham. The team at Bedford/St. Martin’s also enlisted help from Naomi Kornhauser, Lisa Wehrle, Janet Renard, and John Reisbord, for which we are grateful. We will always remain thankful to Sara Wise and Patricia Rossi for their advice about and enthusiasm for a document-based American History textbook and to Joan Feinberg, who had the vision that has guided us through every page of this book. Finally, we would like to express our gratitude to our friends and family who have encouraged us through two editions and have even read the book without it being assigned.

Nancy A. Hewitt and Steven F. Lawson