Reading the American Past: Volume II: From 1865


Book Description

With five carefully selected documents per chapter, this two-volume primary source reader presents a wide range of documents representing political, social, and cultural history in a manageable, accessible way. Thirty-two new documents infuse the collection with the voices of an even wider range of historical actors. Expertly edited by Michael P. Johnson, one of the authors of The American Promise, the readings can be used to spark discussion in any classroom and fit into any syllabus. Headnotes and discussion questions help students approach the documents, and comparative questions encourage students to make connections across documents. Reading the American Past is FREE when packaged with The American Promise, The American Promise: A Compact History, and Understanding the American Promise. For more information on the reader or on package ISBNs, please contact your local sales representative or click here




U.S. History


Book Description

U.S. History is designed to meet the scope and sequence requirements of most introductory courses. The text provides a balanced approach to U.S. history, considering the people, events, and ideas that have shaped the United States from both the top down (politics, economics, diplomacy) and bottom up (eyewitness accounts, lived experience). U.S. History covers key forces that form the American experience, with particular attention to issues of race, class, and gender.




The American Promise, Value Edition, Volume 1


Book Description

The American Promise, Value Edition, has long been a favorite with students who value the text’s readability, clear chronology, and lively voices of ordinary Americans, all in a portable format. Instructors have long valued the full narrative accompanied by a 2-color map program and the rich instructor resources of the parent text made available at an affordable price.




The Failed Promise of the American High School, 1890-1995


Book Description

This provocative new study of the American high school examines the historical debates about curriculum policy and also traces changes in the institution itself, as evidenced by what students actually studied. Contrary to conventional accounts, the authors argue that beginning in the 1930s, American high schools shifted from institutions primarily concerned with academic and vocational education to institutions mainly focused on custodial care of adolescents. Claiming that these changes reflected educators' racial, class, and gender biases, the authors offer original suggestions for policy adjustments that may lead to greater educational equality for our ever-growing and ever more diverse population of students.




Land of Promise


Book Description

"[An] ambitious economic history of the united States...rich with details." ?—David Leonhardt, New York Times Book Review How did a weak collection of former British colonies become an industrial, financial, and military colossus? From the eighteenth to the twenty-first centuries, the American economy has been transformed by wave after wave of emerging technology: the steam engine, electricity, the internal combustion engine, computer technology. Yet technology-driven change leads to growing misalignment between an innovative economy and anachronistic legal and political structures until the gap is closed by the modernization of America's institutions—often amid upheavals such as the Civil War and Reconstruction and the Great Depression and World War II. When the U.S. economy has flourished, government and business, labor and universities, have worked together in a never-ending project of economic nation building. As the United States struggles to emerge from the Great Recession, Michael Lind clearly demonstrates that Americans, since the earliest days of the republic, have reinvented the American economy - and have the power to do so again.




Understanding the American Promise, Volume 2


Book Description

Understanding the American Promise, Third Edition, features a brief, question-driven narrative that models for students the inquiry-based methods used by historians and features an innovative active learning pedagogy designed to foster greater comprehension of the reading. This book includes a full-color map and art program, new primary documents, and comprehensive supplement options including LaunchPad. It is also enhanced by LearningCurve, our easy-to-assign adaptive learning system that will ensure students come to class prepared.?




Visual Culture


Book Description

This is a book about how to read visual images: from fine art to photography, film, television and new media. It explores how meaning is communicated by the wide variety of texts that inhabit our increasingly visual world. But, rather than simply providing set meanings to individual images, Visual Culture teaches readers how to interpret visual texts with their own eyes. While the first part of the book takes readers through differing theoretical approaches to visual analysis, the second part shifts to a medium-based analysis, connected by an underlying theme about the complex relationship between visual culture and reality. Howells and Negreiros draw together seemingly diverse methodologies, while ultimately arguing for a polysemic approach to visual analysis. The third edition of this popular book contains over fifty illustrations, for the first time in colour. Included in the revised text is a new section on images of power, fear and seduction, a new segment on video games, as well as fresh material on taste and judgement. This timely edition also offers a glossary and suggestions for further reading. Written in a clear, lively and engaging style, Visual Culture continues to be an ideal introduction for students taking courses in visual culture and communications in a range of disciplines, including media and cultural studies, sociology, and art and design.




American Horizons


Book Description

American Horizons is the only U.S. History survey text that presents the traditional narrative in a global context. The seven-author team uses the frequent movement of people, goods, and ideas into, out of, and within America's borders as a framework. This unique approach provides a fully integrated global perspective that seamlessly contextualizes American events within the wider world. The authors, all acclaimed scholars in their specialties, use their individual strengths to provide students with a balanced and inclusive account of U.S. history. Presented in two volumes for maximum flexibility, American Horizons illustrates the relevance of U.S. history to American students by centering on the matrix of issues that dominate their lives. These touchstone themes include population movements and growth, the evolving definition of citizenship, cultural change and continuity, people's relationship to and impact upon the environment, political and ideological contests and their consequences, and Americans' five centuries of engagement with regional, national, and global institutions, forces, and events. In addition, this beautifully designed, full-color book features hundreds of photos and images and more than one hundred maps. American Horizons contains ample pedagogy, including: * America in the World, visual guides to the key interactions between America and the world * Global Passages, which feature unique stories connecting America to the world * Visual Reviews providing post-reading summaries to help students to connect key themes or events within a chapter * Maps and Infographics that explore essential themes in new ways




The American Promise, Volume 1


Book Description

The American Promise has long been a course favorite. Students value The American Promise for its readability, clear chronology, and lively voices of ordinary Americans, while instructors rely upon the rich content, the many documents and features, and the overall support for teaching their class their way. The American Promise provides superior formats for every use--the print book allows for a seamless reading experience while LaunchPad provides the right space for active learning assignments and dynamic course management tools that measure and analyze student progress. LaunchPad comes with a wealth of primary sources and special critical thinking activities to help students progress toward achieving learning outcomes; LearningCurve, the adaptive learning tool that students love to use to test their understanding of the text and instructors love to assign to prepare students for class; and a suite of instructor resources from videos to test banks that make teaching simpler and more effective.




Reading the American Past


Book Description

This two-volume primary-source collection provides a broad range of voices and perspectives from our nation's past, while emphasizing the important social, political, and economic themes of most U.S. history survey courses. Edited by one of the authors of The American Promise and designed to complement the textbook, Reading the American Past offers a rich selection of over 125 documents and editorial apparatus to aid students' understanding of the sources.