Understanding the American Promise grew out of many conversations over the last decade among ourselves and with others about the teaching and learning of history. We knew that instructors wanted a U.S. history text that introduced students to overarching trends and developments but at the same time gave voice to the diverse people who have made American history. We also knew that instructors wanted a text demonstrating that history is a discipline rooted in debate and inquiry. At the same time, we knew that even though many students dutifully read their survey texts, they often come away overwhelmed and confused about what is most important to know. Because of the difficulty many students have understanding the most important concepts when they read a traditional U.S. survey text, a growing number of instructors thought that their students needed a brief text that did not overwhelm them with detail. Instructors also wanted a text that would help students focus as they read, keep their interest in the material, and encourage them to learn historical thinking skills.

With these issues in mind, we took a hard look at the introductory course from a number of different directions. We reflected on the changes in our own classrooms, reviewed state-of-the-art scholarship on effective teaching, consulted learning experts and instructional designers, and talked to students and instructors about their needs. We talked to people who are teaching online and listened to instructors’ wish lists for time-saving support materials. Understanding the American Promise is a textbook designed to address these wide-ranging concerns. With the second edition, we again combine an abridged narrative with an innovative design and unique pedagogy orchestrated to work together to aid students’ understanding of the most important developments while also fostering students’ ability to think historically. A number of revisions and additions make the second edition an even better tool for this textbook designed for understanding.

Because, like other instructors, we are eager to ensure students read and assimilate this rich material, we are excited to announce that the second edition of Understanding the American Promise comes with LearningCurve — an adaptive game-like online learning tool that helps students master content. The second edition also introduces 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. To learn more about the benefits of LearningCurve and LaunchPad, see the “Versions and Supplements” section on page ix.

An Inquiry-based Model Designed for Understanding

By employing innovative pedagogy, we believe that Understanding the American Promise helps students not only understand the book’s major developments but also begin to grasp the question-driven methodology that is at the heart of the historian’s craft. Each chapter opens with a NEW chapter-opening question that drives students toward the overarching themes of the chapter, followed by a brief chapter introduction that identifies in simple, straightforward terms the most important events and people to be discussed. Section-opening headings expressed as questions and section-ending quick review questions further model the kinds of questions historians ask and help students engage in inquiry-based reading and understanding.

Chapter Study Guides Designed for Active Learning

At the core of Understanding the American Promise’s unique pedagogical features are the revised Chapter Study Guides that provide a carefully structured four-step process to help students build deep understanding of the chapter material. In Step One, students go online to complete the LearningCurve activity to ensure that they have a grasp of the basic content and concepts of the chapter. In Step Two, students not only identify the chapter’s key terms but also explain why each matters. In Step Three, they begin to apply their understanding of the chapter material through activities that ask them to consider comparison, change-over-time, or cause and effect. In Step Four, analytical and synthetic questions require students to engage in higher-order historical thinking. And, finally, in an active recitation exercise, students answer the chapter-opening question to fully realize their understanding of the chapter.

Visual Learning Aids

Throughout each chapter, a wide range of visual material keeps students’ attention and reinforces important concepts. Some narrative material has been moved into figures and tables to call out and organize certain concepts visually and provide an alternative mode of learning. Two map activities per chapter engage students in reading maps and making connections and thus enhance geographical literacy. In total, there are over 165 maps in the book. A visual activity in each chapter reinforces the role of images as historical evidence. Many of the 300-plus images in the book are historical artifacts that underscore the importance of material culture.

Additional Pedagogical Features

The second edition includes several other helpful learning tools. As mentioned earlier, the NEW LearningCurve online adaptive activity is designed to prepare students for class by reinforcing their work reading the textbooks. Section-based chronologies of historical developments help students keep events in context as they read. Because students often have difficulty seeing the forest for the trees, innovative chapter locators at the foot of the page remind students of where they are in the chapter’s larger progression of events and concepts. Key terms highlighted in the text and then defined in the margins further remind students of what’s most important to know.

Updated Scholarship

In our ongoing effort to offer a comprehensive text that braids all Americans into the national narrative and to frame that narrative in a more global perspective, we updated the second edition in many ways. We have paid particular attention to the most recent scholarship and, as always, appreciated and applied many suggestions from our users that keep the book fresh, accurate, and organized in a way that works best for students.

Volume I draws on exciting new scholarship on Native Americans, leading to enhanced coverage of Pontiac’s Rebellion in chapter 6 and more attention to Indians and their roles in the conflict between the British and the colonists in chapter 7. chapter 9 expands the coverage of American interactions with Indians in the Southwest, adding new material on Creek chief Alexander McGillivray. chapter 10 greatly increases the coverage of Indians in the West, with a new section devoted to the Osage territory and the powerful Comanche empire known as Comanchería.

Volume II also includes expanded attention to Native Americans — particularly in chapter 17, where we improved coverage of Indian schools, assimilation techniques used by whites, and Indian resistance strategies. For the second edition, we also provide more coverage of women, African Americans, and the global context of U.S. history. In the narrative, we consider the ways in which the GI Bill disproportionately benefited white men after World War II. chapter 16 includes new coverage of the Colfax massacre, arguably the single worst incidence of brutality against African Americans during the Reconstruction era. chapter 27 provides new coverage of civil rights activism in northern states.

Because students live in an increasingly global world and need help making connections with the world outside the United States, we have continued our efforts to incorporate the global context of American history throughout the second edition. This is particularly evident in Volume II, where we have expanded coverage of transnational issues in recent decades, such as the U.S. bombing campaign in Vietnam and U.S. involvement in Afghanistan.

In addition to the many changes noted above, in both volumes we have updated, revised, and improved this second edition in response to both new scholarship and requests from instructors. New and expanded coverage areas include, among others, taxation in the pre-Revolutionary period and the early Republic, the Newburgh Conspiracy of the 1780s, the overbuilding of railroads in the West during the Gilded Age, the 1918–1919 global influenza epidemic, finance reform in the 1930s, post–World War II considerations of universal health care, Latino activism, the economic downturn of the late 2000s, the most recent developments in the Middle East, and the Obama presidency.