The American Promise, Value Edition, Combined Volume

The Combined version contains Chapters 1-31. Volume 1 contains Chapters 1-16. Volume 2 contains Chapters 16-31.

Chapter 1, Ancient American, before 1492

An American Story: Archeologists discover that humans resided in North America ten thousand years earlier than had been known

Why do historians rely on the work of archaeologists?

When and how did humans migrate into North America?

Why were people absent from the Western Hemisphere for most of human history?

Who were the people that migrated south into North America?

When and how did Archaic hunter-gatherers inhabit ancient America?

How did Archaic Great Plains people hunt bison?

How did Archaic people survive in the Great Basin?

How did Archaic cultures exploit the Pacific coast environment?

How did Archaic peoples adapt to eastern Woodland forests?

How did agriculture influence ancient American cultures?

Why did ancient Southwestern cultures adopt agriculture?

What connected Woodland chiefdoms and burial mounds?

What ancient American cultures inhabited North America in the 1490s?

What ancient Americans inhabited the eastern Woodland and Great Plains in the 1490s?

What ancient Americans resided in the Southwestern and West during the 1490s?

What traits did ancient American cultures share in the 1490s?

How did the Mexican empire amass power and riches?

Conclusion: How did ancient Americans shape their world and ours?

Chapter Review

Chapter 2, Europeans Encounter the New World, 1492–1600

An American Story: Queen Isabella of Spain supports Christopher Columbus’s risky plan to sail west across the Atlantic

Why did Europeans launch explorations in the fifteenth century?

What fueled European expansion?

Why did the Portuguese pioneer the search for a new route to the East?

What did Spaniards discover in the western Atlantic?

Why did Columbus sail west and what did he find?

How did knowledge of the New World launch a geographic revolution and the Columbian exchange?

How did Spaniards conquer and colonize New Spain?

How did Cortés conquer Mexico?

Why did Spaniards search for other Mexicos?

Why did Spaniards build outposts in Florida and New Mexico?

How and why did Spaniards establish the colony of New Spain?

How did the Spanish conquest and colonization impact Indians?

How did New Spain influence Europe?

What was the Protestant Reformation and how did it influence Spain?

What lessons did other Europeans learn from Spain?

Conclusion: What did the New World promise Europeans?

Chapter Review

Chapter 3, The Southern Colonies in the Seventeenth Century, 1601–1700

An American Story: A young woman from England travels to America as a servant

How did settlers’ encounters with Native Americans shape the colony of Virginia?

Why was the Jamestown settlement fragile?

How did natives and newcomers engage in cooperation and conflict?

Why did Virginia become a royal colony?

How did tobacco influence Chesapeake society?

Why did Chesapeake settlers grow tobacco?

Why did a servant labor system develop?

How did indentured servants live and work?

How did Virginia and Maryland settlers express their faith in tobacco and religion?

Why did Chesapeake society change by the 1670s?

How did social and economic polarization develop?

How did government policies lead to political conflict?

What was the impact of Bacon’s Rebellion?

Why did a slave labor system develop in England’s southern colonies?

Why did Indians revolt in New Mexico and Florida?

Why did colonists in the West Indies use enslaved Africans to grow sugar?

How was South Carolina similar to the West Indies?

Why did a slave labor system emerge in the Chesapeake?

Conclusion: How did export crops contribute to the growth of the southern colonies?

Chapter Review

Chapter 4, The Northern Colonies in the Seventeenth Century, 1601–1700

An American Story: Roger Williams is banished from Puritan Massachusetts

Why did Puritans emigrate to North America?

How did the English Reformation give rise to Puritanism?

Why did separatist Pilgrims establish Plymouth colony?

Why did Puritans create Massachusetts Bay colony?

How did New England society change during the seventeenth century?

How did Puritans enforce conformity?

How did Puritans govern for Puritanism?

Why did Puritanism splinter?

What were the consequences of religious and economic changes?

How did the middle colonies differ from New England and the southern colonies?

How did the Dutch colony of New Netherland become the English colony of New York?

Why were the colonies of New Jersey and Pennsylvania created?

Why did Pennsylvania accept toleration and diversity?

How did the English empire influence the colonies?

How did English policies regulate colonial trade?

How did King Philip’s War lead to the consolidation of royal authority?

Conclusion: Was there an English model of colonization in North America?

Chapter Review

Chapter 5, Colonial America in the Eighteenth Century, 1701–1770

An American Story: The Robin Johns experience horrific turns of fortune in the Atlantic slave trade

How did the British North American colonies change during the eighteenth century?

Why did New England life and culture change?

How did natural increase affect land distribution?

What were the pillars of the New England economy?

Why did the middle colonies grow rapidly?

Why did German and Scots-Irish immigrants come to the middle colonies?

What industries helped the middle colonies prosper?

How did indentured and enslaved labor enrich the middle colonies?

Why did the middle colonies grow and prosper?

Why did slavery come to define the southern colonies?

Why did the enslaved population of the southern colonies grow so dramatically?

How did enslaved people build an African American culture?

How did the labor of enslaved Black people bring prosperity to the southern colonies?

What unified colonists in British North America during the eighteenth century?

How did commerce and consumption shape colonial identity?

How did colonists’ religious experiences change?

How did trade and conflict affect the North American borderlands?

How did the policies of the British empire affect colonial politics?

Conclusion: Why did British North American colonists develop a dual identity?

Chapter Review

Chapter 6, The British Empire and the Colonial Crisis, 1754-1775

An American Story: Loyalist governor Thomas Hutchinson stands his ground in radical Massachusetts

How did the Seven Years’ War lay the groundwork for the colonial crisis?

Why did the Seven Years’ War begin in the Ohio Country?

What was the objective of the Albany Congress and why did it fail?

How did the war transform imperial power in North America?

Why did British victory lead to Pontiac’s War and the Proclamation of 1763?

How did imperial authorities and British colonists differ about taxing the colonies?

Why did Grenville’s Sugar Act fail in its objectives?

Why did the Stamp Act provoke widespread colonial resistance?

What forms did colonial resistance take?

Why did resistance spread through the colonies?

Why did the colonial crisis worsen after the repeal of the Stamp Act?

Why did the modest Townshend duties provoke such resistance?

How did the nonconsumption movement engage women in political action?

What provoked the "massacre" in Boston and how did it radicalize opinion?

How did colonial tensions ease and then explode after the repeal of the Townshend duties?

Why didn’t the repeal of the Townshend duties bring a more permanent peace?

Why did residents of Boston dump tea in their harbor?

What were the Coercive Acts?

How did the conflict spread beyond Boston?

How did New Englanders escalate tensions with imperial authorities?

What were the objectives of the First Continental Congress?

Why did armed conflict break out in Lexington and Concord?

How did enslaved people react to the colonial rebellion?

Conclusion: What changes did the American colonists want in 1775?

Chapter Review

Chapter 7, The War for America, 1775-1783

An American Story: Deborah Sampson masquerades as a man to join the Continental army

What persuaded British North American colonists to support independence?

What did the Second Continental Congress accomplish in its initial months?

What were the military aims of each side in 1775?

Why did Thomas Paine’s Common Sense affect public opinion?

What led the Continental Congress to declare independence?

How did the military objectives of each side shape the course of the war’s early years?

How did the Continental Army take shape?

What was the British war strategy and how was it implemented?

What battles most shaped the war’s first year?

How did the war transform the home front?

What role did local associations play on the home front?

Who remained loyal to Britain and why?

Who was a traitor?

How did the war affect the finances and economy of the United States?

How did a war for independence unleash a broader social transformation?

How did the American Revolution become a war among continental and global powers?

What was Burgoyne’s strategy and why did it fail?

How did the American Revolution look in the West?

How did the French Alliance shape the course of the war?

What were the principal causes of the British defeat?

What was the British southern strategy?

How did the southern strategy result in guerrilla warfare?

Why did the British lose at Yorktown?

Who were the war’s losers and winners?

Conclusion: Why did the British lose the American Revolution?

Chapter Review

Chapter 8, Building a Republic, 1775-1789

An American Story: James Madison comes of age in the midst of revolution

What kind of government did the Articles of Confederation create?

How and why were powers of taxation limited by the Articles of Confederation?

How did conflicting colonial land claims pose problems for the new government?

How did a weak government wage war?

How was republican government implemented?

How did states implement republican ideals in their constitutions?

Who were "the People"?

How did the new republican governments confront the institution of slavery?

Why did the Articles of Confederation fail?

How did Congress’s financial constraints nearly result in the overthrow of republican government?

How did the Haudenosaunee lose more land after the revolution?

How did Congress try to organize the Northwest Territory and how did Native Americans resist?

How did the confederation government’s financial constraints boil into crisis?

How did the Constitution change the nation’s form of government?

What events led to a new Constitutional Convention?

How were the principal challenges to the new Constitution resolved?

How did the Constitution limit and balance political power?

Why did so many Americans object to the Constitution?

Who were the Federalists and what did they believe?

Who were the Antifederalists and what did they believe?

How did the Federalists win the debate?

Conclusion: What was the "republican remedy"?

Chapter Review

Chapter 9, The New Nation Takes Form, 1789-1800

An American Story: Brilliant and brash, Alexander Hamilton becomes a polarizing figure in the 1790s

What were the sources of political stability in the 1790s?

What precedents did Washington set in creating the executive branch?

Why did Congress almost immediately amend the Constitution?

How did an ideology of republican motherhood emerge?

What was Alexander Hamilton’s economic policy?

How did the U.S. economy grow in the 1790s?

Why did Hamilton’s plan to shore up the nation’s credit provoke such controversy?

Why did the First Bank of the United States and the Report on Manufactures provoke controversy?

What threats did the United States face in the west?

Why were American settlers in the west discontented?

What dynamics shaped U.S. diplomacy with Creeks in the Southwest?

How did the United States finally defeat the Northwest Confederacy?

What threats did the United States face in the Atlantic world?

How did the United States respond to France’s Revolution and its war with Great Britain?

Why was the Jay Treaty so controversial?

How did the Haitian Revolution affect the United States?

How did partisan rivalries shape the politics of the late 1790s?

What distinguished Federalists from Republicans?

Why did the U.S. break with France, its former ally?

How did partisan conflict culminate in the Alien and Sedition Acts?

Conclusion: Why did the United States form political parties?

Chapter Review

Chapter 10, Republicans in Power, 1800-1828

An American Story: The Shawnee chief Tecumseh attempts to forge a pan-Indian confederacy

What was the revolution of 1800?

Were the election of 1800 and Gabriel’s rebellion revolutionary?

How did Jefferson try to implement his vision of Republican Government?

How did the United States get enmeshed in a Mediterranean war?

How did the Louisiana Purchase affect the United States?

How did the United States acquire Louisiana?

Why was the Lewis and Clark expedition into Indian Country significant?

How did Native American power west of the Mississippi shape U.S. policy?

What led to the War of 1812?

How did maritime tensions grow between the United States and Great Britain?

How did British and Native American conflicts intersect?

Who won the War of 1812?

How did the civil status of free American women and men differ in the early Republic?

How did Dolley Madison change elite political sociability?

How did women’s legal status change in the early nineteenth century?

How did women involve themselves in church governance?

How did women’s education change gender relations?

Why did partisan conflict increase during the administrations of Monroe and Adams?

How did suffrage for white men increase in the early nineteenth century?

Why was the conflict over Missouri statehood so bitter?

How did the collapse of Spain’s American empire affect the United States?

In what ways did the Election of 1824 mark a turning point?

Why did John Quincy Adams’s administration fail?

Conclusion: How did republican simplicity become complex?

Chapter Review

Chapter 11, The Expanding Republic, 1815-1840

An American Story: The Grimké sisters speak out against slavery

What economic developments reshaped the U.S. economy after 1815?

How was transportation revolutionized after 1815?

How did labor relations change after 1815?

How did the financial and legal systems shape economic change?

In what ways did the Panic of 1819 signal a new economic era of booms and busts?

How did the new practices of party politics shape Andrew Jackson’s election and agenda?

What political changes did the election of 1828 usher in?

How did issues of personal character shape the election of 1828?

How did Jackson govern differently from previous presidents?

What was Andrew Jackson’s impact on the presidency?

What characterized U.S.-Native American dynamics in the 1830s?

Why were tariffs so controversial and how did Jackson respond?

What was the Bank War?

What were the most significant social and cultural changes in the 1830s?

How did ideas of gender change in the 1830s?

What kinds of religious and moral reform movements reshaped the United States?

How and why did the antislavery movement take new forms starting in the 1830s?

What political and economic events dominated Martin Van Buren’s presidency?

How did politics and slavery shape Van Buren’s presidency?

What caused the Panic of 1837 and what effect did it have?

Conclusion: The Age of Jackson or the era of reform?

Chapter Review

Chapter 12, The North and the West

An American Story: With the support of his wife, Abraham Lincoln struggles to survive in antebellum America

Why did "industrial evolution" occur?

Why did agricultural production boom?

How did manufacturing and mechanization boost productivity?

How did railroads break the bonds of nature?

How did the free-labor ideal explain economic inequality?

What was the free-labor ideal?

How did the free-labor ideal justify economic inequality?

How did immigrants experience the free-labor system?

What spurred westward expansion?

What was Manifest Destiny?

What did migrants encounter in Oregon and on the Overland Trail?

What caused the Mormon exodus to the Great Salt Lake?

Why did the U.S. and Mexico clash in the Mexican borderlands?

Why did the United States go to war with Mexico?

How did expansion shape politics?

How did U.S. expectations of the war with Mexico compare with realities?

How did the U.S. achieve victory in Mexico?

How did gold transform California?

What changes did social reformers seek in the 1840s and 1850s?

What reforms did women’s rights activists seek?

How did abolitionists try to end slavery?

How did transcendentalists and utopians seek reform?

Conclusion: How did the free-labor ideal contribute to economic growth?

Chapter Review

Chapter 13, The Slave South

An American Story: Slave Nat Turner leads a revolt to end slavery

Why did the South become so different from the North?

Why was the cotton kingdom also a slave empire?

What did it mean that the South was black and white?

What were the key elements of the plantation economy?

What was plantation life like for slaveowners and their wives?

How did slavery encourage paternalism and the concept of male honor?

What was myth and what reality of the lives of southern ladies?

What was plantation life like for enslaved people?

What kinds of work did enslaved people do?

How did family and religion fare in the quarter?

How did enslaved people demonstrate resistance and rebellion?

How did nonslaveholding southern whites work and live?

How did plantation-belt yeomen live?

How did upcountry yeomen live?

Who were the poor whites?

What was the culture of the plain folk?

What place did free Black people occupy in the South?

Why was freedom for Black people precarious?

How were some free Black people able to achieve despite restrictions?

How did slavery shape southern politics?

What changes came to the southern political arena?

Why did planter power persist?

Conclusion: How did slavery come to define the South?

Chapter Review

Chapter 14, The House Divided

An American Story: Abolitionist John Brown takes his war against slavery to Harpers Ferry, Virginia

Why did the acquisition of land from Mexico contribute to sectional tensions?

What did the Wilmot Proviso propose regarding the expansion of slavery?

What were the issues of the election of 1848?

What was the Compromise of 1850?

What upset the balance between slave and free states?

Why was the Fugitive Slave Act so disruptive?

What was the impact of Uncle Tom’s Cabin?

Why was the Kansas-Nebraska Act so explosive?

How did the party system change in the 1850s?

What happened to the old parties of Whigs and Democrats?

What defined the new parties of Know-Nothings and Republicans?

What did the Election of 1856 reveal?

Why did northern fear of the "Slave Power" intensify in the 1850s?

Why did Kansas turn violent?

Why did the Dred Scott decision fan sectionalism?

Why was Abraham Lincoln a Republican?

What issues did Lincoln and Douglas debate?

Why did some southern states secede immediately after Lincoln’s election?

What were the consequences of John Brown’s raid?

Why did the Republicans win in 1860?

What led to secession?

Conclusion: Why did political compromise fail?

Chapter Review

Chapter 15, The Crucible of War

An American Story: Slave Robert Smalls liberates slaves and fights for freedom in the Civil War

How did southern states respond to secession?

What was the result of the attack on Fort Sumter?

Why did the upper South have to choose sides?

Why did each side expect to win?

How did they expect to win?

How did Lincoln and Davis mobilize?

How did each side fare in the early years of the war?

Why did stalemate develop in the eastern theater?

What made Union victories in the western theater so important?

How did the Union dominate in the Atlantic theater?

What was King Cotton diplomacy?

How did the war for union become a fight for Black freedom?

How did slaves become contraband?

How did contraband become free people?

What part did Black people play in the fighting?

What problems did the Confederacy face at home?

What was radical about Confederate policy?

Why did poor southerners suffer so much?

How did the enslaved help end slavery?

How did the war affect the economy and politics of the North?

How did the Lincoln administration strengthen the Union?

How did northern women contribute to the war effort?

What fed the Democrat’s dissent?

How did the Union finally win the war?

Why were Vicksburg and Gettysburg significant?

What happened when Grant took command?

Why was the election of 1864 significant?

How did the Confederacy end?

Why was the war’s bloody toll so high?

Conclusion: In what ways was the Civil War a "Second American Revolution"?

Chapter Review

Chapter 16, Reconstruction

An American Story: James T. Rapier emerges in the early 1870s as Alabama’s most prominent Black leader

How did competing plans for wartime reconstruction differ?

Why did Congress object to Lincoln’s plan "to bind up the nation’s wounds"?

How did land and labor systems change?

What did former slaves want from freedom?

What did early reconstruction reveal about the North’s and South’s intentions?

What was Johnson’s program of reconciliation?

How did white southerners react to Johnson’s reconciliation efforts?

How did Republicans respond to the South’s black codes?

How radical was congressional reconstruction?

What did Republicans hope to achieve with the passage of the Fourteenth Amendment?

Why did Congress pass the Military Reconstruction Act?

Why was President Johnson impeached?

Why did the Fifteenth Amendment snub women?

How successful were the South’s Republican governments?

Who were the southern Republicans?

How did plantations and labor systems change?

Why did Reconstruction collapse?

What struggles did Grant’s troubled presidency face?

How did northern resolve wither?

How did white supremacy triumph in the South?

How did the election of 1876 end in compromise?

Conclusion: Was Reconstruction "a revolution but half accomplished"?

Chapter Review

Chapter 17, The Contested West, 1865-1900

An American Story: Frederick Jackson Turner delivers his "frontier thesis"

What did U.S. expansion mean for Native Americans?

How did the U.S. government remove Native Americans from their land and establish the reservation system?

What led to the decimation of the great bison herds?

What led to the collapse of Comanchería?

How did the Sioux fight to keep the Black Hills?

In what ways did different Native American groups defy and resist colonial rule?

How were Indian Schools used to wage war on Native American culture?

How did the Dawes Allotment Act mark a new departure in Indian policy?

How did Native Americans resist and survive white encroachment?

How did mining shape American expansion?

What was life like on the Comstock Lode?

What groups fought for the West?

How did the fight for land and resources in the West unfold?

What role did homesteaders and speculators play in the development of the West?

What was life like for those who did not own land – tenants, sharecroppers, and migrants?

How did commercial farming give rise to industrial cowboys?

Conclusion: How did the West set the tone for the Gilded Age?

Chapter Review

Chapter 18, The Gilded Age

An American Story: The Big Four make millions building the transcontinental railroad

How did the railroads stimulate big business?

How did the railroads become America’s first big business?

How did Andrew Carnegie pioneer vertical integration in steel?

What means did John D. Rockefeller use to create the Standard Oil Trust?

How did new inventions like the telephone and electricity transform American life?

Why did the ideas of social Darwinism appeal to wealthy Americans?

How did J.P. Morgan come to dominate finance capitalism?

What was the relationship between the theories of social Darwinism and laissez-faire?

What factors influenced political life in the late nineteenth century?

Why was party loyalty so important to America’s voters?

What role did sectionalism and the New South play in national politics?

How did gender and race influence politics?

How were women active in politics before they got the vote?

What issues shaped party politics in the late nineteenth century?

How did corruption and party strife come to dominate American politics?

How did Garfield’s assassination lead to civil service reform?

What role did reform and scandal play in the presidential campaign of 1884?

How did Henry George use the issue of inequality to campaign for mayor of New York?

What role did economic issues play in party realignment?

Why was the tariff such a potent political issue in the 1880s and 1890s?

How did the federal government regulate trusts and railroads?

What was the fight for free silver about?

Conclusion: How did business dominate the Gilded Age?

Chapter Review

Chapter 19, The City and Its Workers

An American Story: Workers build the Brooklyn Bridge

Why did American cities experience explosive growth in the late nineteenth century?

How did the urban explosion in the United States reflect a global migration?

How did racism lead to the cry for immigration restriction?

How did the city magnify extremes of wealth and poverty?

What kinds of work did people do in industrial America?

Who were America’s diverse workers?

What role did women and children play in the family economy?

Who were the white-collar workers?

Why did labor unions arise in the late 1870s and 1880s?

What led to the Great Railroad Strike of 1877 and what were its results?

What were the philosophical and strategic differences between the Knights of Labor and the American Federation of Labor?

What was the Haymarket bombing and what were its long term effects?

How did urban industrialism shape home life and the world of leisure?

What role did domesticity play in American culture of the nineteenth century?

What were the cheap amusements of working-class Americans?

How did municipal governments respond to the challenges of urban expansion?

How did the landscape of American cities change?

How did American cities suffer from "boss rule"?

How did New York demonstrate the consolidation of the capitalist class?

How was Chicago perceived as both the white city and city of sin?

Conclusion: Who built the cities?

Chapter Review

Chapter 20, Dissent, Depression, and War

An American Story: Frances Willard participates in the creation of the Populist Party in 1892

Why did American farmers organize alliances in the late nineteenth century?

How did the Farmers’ Alliance aim to protect family farmers?

How did the Farmers Alliance become the Populist Party?

What led to the labor wars in the 1890s?

What precipitated the Homestead lockout and subsequent strike?

What led to the Cripple Creek miners’ strike of 1894 and why did it succeed?

Why did Eugene V. Debs lead the Pullman strike?

How were women involved in late-nineteenth-century politics?

What were the goals of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union?

How did Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony organize the movement for woman suffrage?

How did economic depression affect American politics in the 1890s?

What was "Coxey’s Army"?

Why is the election of 1896 considered one of the most important elections in U.S. history?

Why did the United States largely abandon its isolationist foreign policy in the 1890s?

How did both markets and missionaries promote U.S. expansion?

How did the Monroe Doctrine and the Open Door Policy forge American foreign policy at the turn of the 20^th century?

Why was the Spanish-American war called "a splendid little war"?

What was the debate over American imperialism following the war?

Conclusion: How did domestic strife influence foreign policy?

Chapter Review

Chapter 21, Progressive Reform

An American Story: Jane Addams founds Hull House

How did grassroots progressives attack the problems of urban industrial America?

How did reformers work to "civilize the city"?

How did middle class progressives ally with the working class?

What were the key tenets of progressive theory?

What was the theory of reform Darwinism?

What did progressive city and state government look like?

How did Theodore Roosevelt advance the progressive agenda?

What was Roosevelt’s Square Deal?

How effective was Roosevelt as a reformer?

Why did Roosevelt champion conservation?

Why did Roosevelt describe his foreign policy with the phrase "Speak Softly but Carry a Big Stick"?

Why did William Howard Taft have such a troubled presidency?

How did progressivism evolve during Woodrow Wilson’s first term?

How could all four presidential candidates in 1912 claim to be Progressives?

Why did Wilson focus his progressive reforms on the tariffs, banking, and trusts?

Why has Wilson been called a reluctant progressive?

What were the limits of progressive reform?

What were some radical alternatives to progressive reform?

Why was progressivism for white men only?

Conclusion: How did the Progressive Era give rise to the liberal state?

Chapter 21 Review

Chapter 22, World War I: The Progressive Crusade

An American Story: Doughboy George "Brownie" Browne sees combat on the front lines in France

What was Woodrow Wilson’s foreign policy agenda?

How did Wilson seek to tame the Americas?

How did Europe descend into war?

What was Wilson’s policy of neutrality?

How did the United States enter the war?

How did the United States build an army?

What did Americans experience in France?

What impact did the war have on the home front?

What did progressive want from the war?

How did the war aid the advance of women?

What happened to dissent in wartime?

How did Woodrow Wilson win the war but lose the peace?

What were Wilson’s Fourteen Points?

What part did Wilson play at the Paris peace conference?

What were the sides in the fight for the treaty?

Why was America’s transition from war to peace so turbulent?

How did labor fare after the war?

What factors led to the Red scare?

What stimulated the Great Migration of Black people and Mexicans?

What did the election of 1920 signal?

Conclusion: Victory, but at what cost?

Chapter Review

Chapter 23, From New Era to Great Depression

An American Story: Henry Ford puts America on wheels

How did big business shape the "New Era" of the 1920s?

What did it mean that the U.S. had a business government?

How did the government promote prosperity and peace abroad?

How did the automobile shape the American economy?

How did consumer culture take root in American life?

In what ways did the Roaring Twenties challenge traditional values?

How successful was the experiment of prohibition?

How did women’s roles change in the 1920s?

How did the New Negro expand Black cultural life?

What explains the rise of popular culture?

Why did the Lost Generation find a home abroad?

Why did the relationship between urban and rural America deteriorate in the 1920s?

What were the consequences of the rising anti-foreigner sentiment?

How was the Ku Klux Klan reborn?

How did the Scopes trial reflect the divide between urban and rural America?

How did the election of 1928 reflect Republican strength?

How did President Hoover respond to the economic crash of 1929?

What reputation did Herbert Hoover bring to the presidency?

What factors distorted the U.S. economy?

What caused the crash of 1929?

How did Hoover respond to the economic crisis?

What impact did the economic depression have on everyday life?

What was the human toll of the Great Depression?

How did Americans try to escape the realities of the Great Depression?

How did the working class rise up?

Conclusion: Why did the hope of the 1920s turn to despair?

Chapter Review

Chapter 24, The New Deal Experiment

An American Story: "Migrant Mother" Florence Owens struggles to survive in the Great Depression

Why was Franklin D. Roosevelt elected president in 1932?

How did Roosevelt’s background shape his political ideas?

What contributed to FDR’s victory in the 1932 election?

What were the goals and achievements of the first New Deal?

Who were the New Dealers?

How did the New Deal reform banking and finance?

How did the New Deal conserve natural resources?

How did the New Deal address agricultural problems?

How did the New Deal try to stimulate industrial recovery?

Who opposed the New Deal?

Why did business leaders oppose New Deal policies?

Why did New Deal agricultural policies fail to help many rural people?

What political challenges confronted New Deal policies?

Why did the New Deal begin to create a welfare state?

How did the New Deal create jobs?

How did the New Deal support workers?

Why did the New Deal create Social Security and increase taxes on wealth?

What Americans did the New Deal neglect?

Why did the New Deal lose support during Roosevelt’s second term as president?

How did the election of 1936 influence Roosevelt’s political outlook?

Why did Roosevelt try to pack the Supreme Court?

How did politics and a new economic slump slow New Deal reforms?

What reforms were enacted while the New Deal lost steam?

Conclusion: What were the achievements and limitations of the New Deal?

Chapter Review

Chapter 25, The United States and the Second World War

An American Story: Colonel Paul Tibbets drops the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan

How did isolationism shape American foreign policy in the 1930s?

How did the depression influence U.S. isolationism?

Why did Roosevelt support the good neighbor policy?

How did isolationism influence American foreign policy?

How did war in Europe and Asia influence U.S. foreign policy?

How did Nazi aggression start war in Europe?

How did America become the arsenal of democracy?

Why did Japan attack Pearl Harbor?

How did the United States mobilize for war?

Why did the wartime emergency lead to internment of Japanese Americans?

How did the U.S. build a citizen army?

How did the U.S. convert to a war economy?

How did the Allies reverse Axis advances in Europe and the Pacific?

What turned the tide in the Pacific?

How did the Allies counterattack against Nazi advances in Europe and Africa?

How did war change the American home front?

How did American women and families contribute to the war effort?

Why did Black activists support the Double V campaign?

How did the war influence the 1944 presidential election?

How did the U.S. respond to the Holocaust?

How did the Allies win the war?

How did the Allies’ European campaign defeat Nazi Germany?

How did the Allies defeat Japan?

Conclusion: Why did the United States emerge as a superpower at the end of the war?

Chapter Review

Chapter 26, The New World of the Cold War

An American Story: Helen Gahagan Douglas, congresswoman and loyal Truman ally, supports the Marshall Plan, the creation of NATO, and the war in Korea

How did the Cold War begin?

Why did U.S.-Soviet tensions emerge after World War II?

How did the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan reflect new U.S. priorities?

What were the elements of the national security state?

In what ways did anticommunism shape U.S. politics and policy?

How did superpower rivalry play out across the globe?

What contributed to the rise of McCarthyism?

What were the effects of the anti-communist crusade at home?

Why did the United States go to war in Korea?

How did containment lead to military intervention?

What was the war’s impact on domestic politics?

How did the Korean War shape U.S. defense policy?

How did the U.S. approach to the superpower struggle evolve in the 1950s?

What was the "New Look" in foreign policy?

Why and how did the U.S. apply containment in Vietnam?

What prompted U.S. interventions in Latin America and the Middle East?

Why did the U.S. and Soviet Union engage in a nuclear arms race?

Conclusion: What were the costs and consequences of the Cold War?

Chapter Review

Chapter 27, Postwar Culture and Politics

An American Story: Vice President Richard Nixon debates Russian premier Nikita Khrushchev

Why did domestic reform wane after World War II?

How did the U.S. reconvert to a peacetime economy?

What was the Fair Deal and why did it falter?

How did the New Deal fare under Eisenhower?

What fueled postwar prosperity?

How did technology transform agriculture and industry?

What led Americans to move to the suburbs?

Why did the postwar Sun Belt grow so quickly?

What role did higher education play in economic expansion?

How did the economic boom affect American society?

What characterized American consumer culture?

What explains the postwar revival of domesticity and religion?

How did television transform culture and politics?

Who were the critics of the affluent society?

Why did civil rights struggles erupt in the 1950s?

What was the state of race relations and civil rights in the postwar period?

How did Black activists challenge the Supreme Court and the president?

What led to the Montgomery mass protest?

Conclusion: What challenges did prosperity mask?

Chapter Review

Chapter 28, Rights, Rebellion, and Reaction

An American Story: African American lawyer and activist Pauli Murray breaks barriers to fight for civil rights

How did Kennedy and Johnson expand the role of government?

What were JFK’s foreign and domestic priorities?

How did LBJ wage the War on Poverty?

What were the aims of the Great Society?

What were the legacies of the Great Society?

How did the courts revolutionize rights?

How did the Black freedom movement evolve?

What strategies did civil rights activists adopt in the 1960s?

How did the federal government respond to calls for racial justice?

What were the roots of Black power and urban rebellions?

Why did so many social movements emerge in the 1960s?

What were the goals of Red Power?

How did the Chicano movement mobilize?

Why did young people join the New Left and counterculture?

What and how did gay men and lesbians protest?

What explains the rise of a new environmentalism?

What sparked a new wave of feminism?

What were the causes of feminists protest?

How did radical feminism depart from earlier women’s movements?

What opposition did feminists encounter?

Why and where did the conservative movement gain ground?

Who joined the grassroots right?

What did the 1968 election mean for liberal reforms?

Conclusion: What were the lasting effects of sixties-era liberalism?

Chapter Review

Chapter 29, Confronting Limits at Home and Abroad

An American Story: Lieutenant Frederick Downs Jr. is wounded in Vietnam and returns home to a country divided over the war

What led to the United States’ deepening involvement in Vietnam?

How did anticommunism shape Kennedy’s foreign policy?

How did JFK respond to the insurgency in Southeast Asia?

Why did LBJ widen the U.S. commitment to Vietnam?

Who served in the Vietnam War?

How did a war abroad provoke a war at home?

What fueled the antiwar movement?

Why was the Tet Offensive a turning point in the war?

How did divisions over Vietnam influence the 1968 election?

How did U.S. foreign policy shift under Nixon?

What were the results of détente with the Soviet Union and China?

Where and why did the U.S. intervene around the globe?

How did the Vietnam War end?

What were the legacies of U.S. defeat in Southeast Asia?

How did the aftermath of the Vietnam conflict affect the Cold War?

What accounted for the Americans’ political shift to the right in the 1970s?

How did economic and energy crises affect the nation?

In what ways did Nixon appeal to the Right?

What was the Watergate scandal?

How did Democrats make gains in the post-Watergate years?

What challenges did the Carter administration face?

Why did a Democratic president retreat from liberalism?

Why did energy and the environment capture national attention?

How did a focus on human rights alter foreign policy?

What new crises did the U.S. face abroad?

Conclusion: How did the constraints of the 1970s transform U.S. policy and politics?

Chapter Review

Chapter 30, Political Divisions in a Conservative Era

An American Story: Phyllis Schlafly promotes conservatism

What conservative goals were realized during Reagan’s presidency?

How did Reagan appeal to the New Right?

What economic policies did the new administration adopt?

Who were the winners and losers in the 1980 economy?

How did liberals fight the conservative turn?

What political battles wound up in the courts and Congress?

Why was feminism on the defensive?

How did gay men and lesbians secure rights?

Why did the Cold War intensify, and how did it end?

What led to renewed militarization in the 1980s?

What was the Iran-Contra Scandal?

How were Soviet-American relations transformed?

How new was the "new world order"?

Why did the U.S. intervene in Central America and the Persian Gulf?

Why did domestic politics become more polarized in the 1990s?

How did gridlock become a problem for governing?

What agenda did the "New Democrats" pursue?

How did conservative activism shape politics?

What were the "culture wars"?

Why was Clinton impeached?

How did the U.S. respond to the challenges of globalization?

What was the "new economy" and whom did it leave behind?

How did globalization affect the U.S. economy?

Why did American debate the benefits of free trade?

How did the U.S. define its role in the post-Cold War world?

Conclusion: What were the legacies of the "Reagan Revolution"?

Chapter Review

Chapter 31, America in a New Century

An American Story: Immigrant Jose Antonio Vargas achieves success and faces uncertainty as anti-immigrant sentiments persist in the U.S.

How did U.S. foreign and domestic policy shift under George W. Bush?

Why was the election of 2000 disputed?

What were the effects of the 9/11 attacks?

How did Americans weigh tensions between security and civil liberties?

How did the U.S. wage the "War on Terror"?

What were Bush’s domestic successes and failures?

What was Obama’s reform agenda, and what obstacles did he face?

Did the 2008 election signal a post-racial America?

What were Obama’s domestic aims and accomplishments?

Why did partisanship escalate, and with what consequences?

What were the results of the multilateral approach to foreign policy?

How were new social movements and new media changing politics?

Why and how did progressives mobilize around economic equality?

What new rights movements emerged in the 21^st century? What sparked the Black Lives Matter movement?

How did social media tools transform political activism?

What was the significance of Trump’s presidency?

How did the 2016 election disrupt expectations?

Why were right wing populism and white nationalism on the rise?

What was Trump’s record in office?

In what ways did the U.S. retreat from global leadership?

In an intensely divided nation, was there any common ground?

How did COVID-19 reveal inequalities and rifts among Americans?

How did the 2020 election lead to an attack on the U.S. Capitol?

How did crises shape the early Biden administration?

Conclusion: Was America becoming more or less democratic in the 21^st century?

Chapter Review

 

APPENDIX

The Declaration of Independence

The Constitution of the United States

Amendments to the Constitution with Annotations (including the six unratified amendments)

Glossary