DOCUMENTS CAPTURE DIVERSE VOICES AND EXPERIENCES

Documents record far more than the ideas of presidents. They disclose, for instance, Pueblo Indians’ views of conquering Spaniards in the sixteenth century, Native American grievances against New Englanders who precipitated King Philip’s War in the seventeenth century, a woman’s passionate argument for equality of the sexes in the eighteenth century, the confessions of slave insurrectionists in the nineteenth century, the views of Vietnam War veterans in the twentieth century, an economist’s explanation of the Great Recession in the twenty-first century, and much, much more. These views and many others are recorded by the documents in this collection. They permit you to read the American past from the diversity of perspectives that contributed to the making of America: women and men, workers and bosses, newcomers and natives, slaves and masters, voters and politicians, conservatives and radicals, activists and reactionaries, westerners and easterners, northerners and southerners, farmers and urbanites, the famous and the forgotten. These people created historical documents when they stole a spare moment to write a letter or record thoughts in a diary, when they talked to a scribbling friend or stranger, when they appeared in court or made a will, and when they delivered a sermon, gave a speech, or penned a manifesto. Examples of all these kinds of documents are included in Reading the American Past. Together, they make it possible for you to learn a great deal about what really happened.