A Concise History of the United States of America (Cambridge Concise Histories)
Cambridge University Press
Edition: Illustrated, 3/5/2012
EAN 9780521848251, ISBN10: 0521848253
Hardcover, 472 pages, 23.1 x 15.7 x 2.8 cm
Language: English
Born out of violence and the aspirations of its early settlers, the United States of America has become one of the world's most powerful nations. The book begins in colonial America as the first Europeans arrived, lured by the promise of financial profit, driven by religious piety and accompanied by diseases which would ravage the native populations. It explores the tensions inherent in a country built on slave labour in the name of liberty, one forced to assert its unity and reassess its ideals in the face of secession and civil war, and one that struggled to establish moral supremacy, military security and economic stability during the financial crises and global conflicts of the twentieth century. Woven through this richly crafted study of America's shifting social and political landscapes are the multiple voices of the nation's history: slaves and slave owners, revolutionaries and reformers, soldiers and statesmen, immigrants and refugees. These voices help define the United States at the dawn of a new century.
Introduction
1. New found land
imagining America
2. A city on a hill
the origins of a redeemer nation
3. The cause of all mankind
from colonies to Common Sense
4. Self-evident truths
founding the revolutionary republic
5. The last, best hope of Earth
toward the second American revolution
6. Westward the course of empire
from union to nation
7. A promised land
gateway to the American century
8. The soldier's faith
conflict and conformity
9. Beyond the last frontier
a new deal for America
10. A land in transition
America in the atomic age
11. Armies of the night
counterculture and counterrevolution.