Cover: Reading the American Past: Selected Historical Documents, Volume 2: Since 1865, 8th Edition by Michael P. Johnson
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Reading the American Past: Selected Historical Documents, Volume 2: Since 1865

Eighth Edition ©2020 Michael P. Johnson

With five carefully selected documents per chapter, this popular two-volume primary source reader presents a wide range of documents representing political, social, and cultural history in an accessible way. Expertly edited by Michael Johnson, co-author of The American Promise, the readings...
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ISBN:9781319212025

ISBN:9781319212018

Cover: Reading the American Past: Selected Historical Documents, Volume 2: Since 1865, 8th Edition by Michael P. Johnson

With five carefully selected documents per chapter, this popular two-volume primary source reader presents a wide range of documents representing political, social, and cultural history in an accessible way. Expertly edited by Michael Johnson, co-author of The American Promise, the readings can be used to spark discussion in any classroom and will fit into any syllabus.

Features

Documents in each chapter focus on themes and events related to the parent textbook. Each chapter of Reading the American Past contains five to six primary source documents focused on themes and events related to the corresponding chapter in The American Promise. Delving into unique perspectives, each source will connect the specific experiences of Americans throughout the past to the broader context of U.S. history.

A brief introduction provides just the right amount of context for each chapter. Every chapter in the reader begins with an introduction that provides context and primes students to engage productively with the sources that follow.

A headnote introduces students to each document and encourages them to draw their own conclusions. Brief introductions to each source provide the provenance of the document, orient the student to the historical context, and provide a starting place for their own interpretations. Plentiful gloss notes help students with unfamiliar vocabulary.

Questions for Reading and Discussion follow each document and encourage students to return to the source. The Questions for Reading and Discussion that follow each source are useful as in-class, essay, or study questions. They prompt students to enhance their own understanding by engaging critically with each document.

Comparative Questions concluding each chapter place documents in conversation. The Comparative Questions at the end of each chapter prompt students to consider the broader implications of individual sources on U.S. history.

New to This Edition

New visual sources  provide a window into the American past. One new visual source per chapter  gives students snapshots into U.S. history and provides them with opportunities to augment their analytical skills. Complete with new Questions for Reading and Discussion, these images connect students with the people who experienced America in the past and encourage students to consider U.S. history in a new way.

Focus on science and technology New sources and updated Questions for Reading and Discussion emphasize the role of science and technology in U.S. history. From ancient American tools and colonial medicine, to the development of railroads and the growing need to protect the environment, new and updated documents trace the role of innovation in the United States.

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Table of Contents

Preface for Instructors

Introduction for Students

16. RECONSTRUCTION, 1863–1877

16-1 Carl Schurz Reports on the Condition of the Defeated South Report on the Condition of the South, 186516-2 Former Slaves Seek to Reunite Their Families

Advertisements from the Christian Recorder, 1865–187016-3 Planter Louis Manigault Visits His Plantations and Former Slaves

A Narrative of a Post–Civil War Visit to Gowrie and East Hermitage

Plantations, March 22, 186716-4 Klan Violence against Blacks

Elias Hill, Testimony before Congressional Committee Investigating

the Ku Klux Klan, 187116-5 The Ignorant Vote and the Election of 1876

Thomas Nast, "The Ignorant Vote," 1876

COMPARATIVE QUESTIONS

17. THE CONTESTED WEST, 1865–1900

17-1 Transcontinental Railroad Completed, 1870 Through to the Pacific

17-2 Pun Chi Appeals to Congress in Behalf of Chinese Immigrants in California

A Remonstrance from the Chinese in California, ca. 187017-3 Mattie Oblinger Describes Life on a Nebraska Homestead

Mattie V. Oblinger to George W. Thomas, Grizzie B. Thomas, and Wheeler Thomas Family, June 16, 187317-4 Texas Rangers on the Mexican Border

N. A. Jennings, A Texas Ranger, 187517-5 In-mut-too-yah-lat-lat Describes White Encroachment

Chief Joseph, Speech to a White Audience, 1879

COMPARATIVE QUESTIONS

18. BUSINESS AND POLITICS IN THE GILDED AGE, 1870-1895

18-1 William Graham Sumner on Social Obligations What Social Classes Owe to Each Other, 183318-2 Henry Demarest Lloyd Attacks Monopolies

Wealth against Commonwealth, 189418-3 The Bosses of the Senate

Joseph Keppler, "The Bosses of the Senate," 188918-4 Andrew Carnegie Explains the Gospel of Wealth

Wealth, 188918-5 Henry George Explains Why Poverty Is a Crime

An Analysis of the Crime of Poverty, 1885

COMPARATIVE QUESTIONS

19. THE CITY AND ITS WORKERS, 1870-1900

19-1 A Textile Worker Explains the Labor Market Thomas O’Donnell, Testimony before a U.S. Senate Committee, 188519-2 Domestic Servants on Household Work

Interviews with Journalist Helen Campbell, 1880s19-3 Jacob Riis Photographs a Jewish Cobbler in New York City

Jacob Riis, "Hebrew Making Reading for Sabbath Eve in his Coal Cellar," ca. 189019-4 Walter Wyckoff Listens to Revolutionary Workers in Chicago

Among the Revolutionaries, 189819-5 George Washington Plunkitt Explains Politics

William L. Riordon, Plunkitt of Tammany Hall, 1905

COMPARATIVE QUESTIONS

20. DISSENT, DEPRESSION, AND WAR, 1890-1900

20-1 Mary Elizabeth Lease Reports on Women in the Farmers’ Alliance

Women in the Farmers’ Alliance, 189120-2 Cherokee Strip Land Rush, 1893

The Cherokee Strip Land Rush, 189320-3 White Supremacy in Wilmington, North Carolina

Gunner Jesse Blake, Narrative of the Wilmington "Rebellion" of 1898

20-4 Conflicting Views about Labor Unions

N. F. Thompson, Testimony before the Industrial Commission on the Relations and Conditions of Capital and Labor, 1900

Samuel Gompers, Letter to the American Federationist, 189420-5 Emilio Aguinaldo Criticizes American Imperialism in the Philippines

Case against the United States, 1899

COMPARATIVE QUESTIONS

21. PROGRESSIVISM FROM THE GRASS ROOTS TO THE WHITE HOUSE, 1890-1916

21-1 Jane Addams on Settlement Houses

The Subjective Necessity for Social Settlements, 189221-2 Pietro Learning to Write

Jacob Riis, Pietro Learning to Write, 189221-3 A Sociologist Studies Working-Class Saloons in Chicago

Royal Melendy, Ethical Substitutes for the Saloon, 190021-4 Marie Jenney Howe Parodies the Opposition to Women’s Suffrage

An Anti-Suffrage Monologue, 191321-5 Booker T. Washington on Racial Accommodation

The Atlanta Exposition Address, 189521-6 W. E. B. Du Bois on Racial Equality

Booker T. Washington and Others, 1903

COMPARATIVE QUESTIONS

22. WORLD WAR I: THE PROGRESSIVE CRUSADE AT HOME AND ABROAD, 1914-1920

22-1 "The Human American Eagle," 1918 John D. Thomas and Arthur S. Mole, "The Human American Eagle," Camp Gordon, Atlanta, Georgia, 191822-2 Eugene V. Debs Attacks Capitalist Warmongers

Speech Delivered in Canton, Ohio, June 16, 191822-3 A Doughboy’s Letter from the Front

Anonymous Soldier, Letter to Elmer J. Sutters, 191822-4 Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer Defends America from Communists

The Case against the "Reds," 192022-5 An African American Responds to the Chicago Race Riot

Stanley B. Norvell, Letter to Victor F. Lawson, 1919

COMPARATIVE QUESTIONS

23. FROM NEW ERA TO GREAT DEPRESSION, 1920-1932

23-1 Demonstrating the Need for a Federal Highway System

Army Convoy Truck Stuck on the Road, 191923-2 Reinhold Niebuhr on Christianity in Detroit

Diary Entries, 1925–192823-3 The Ku Klux Klan Defends Americanism

Hiram W. Evans, The Klan’s Fight for Americanism, 192623-4 Mothers Seek Freedom from Unwanted Pregnancies

Margaret Sanger, Motherhood in Bondage, 192823-5 Marcus Garvey Explains the Goals of the Universal Negro Improvement Association

The Negro’s Greatest Enemy, 1923

COMPARATIVE QUESTIONS

24. THE NEW DEAL EXPERIMENT, 1932-1939

24-1 Martha Gellhorn Reports on Conditions in North Carolina in 1934 Martha Gellhorn to Harry Hopkins, November 11, 193424-2 Working People’s Letters to New Dealers

Letter to Frances Perkins, January 27, 1935

Letter to Frances Perkins, March 29, 1935

Letter to Franklin D. Roosevelt, November 23, 1936

Letter to Frances Perkins, July 27, 1937

Letter to Franklin D. Roosevelt, November 27, 193924-3 Oklahoma Tenant Farmer Leads His Family Down the Road, 1938

Dorothea Lange, "Family Walking on Highway, five children," 193824-4 Huey Long Proposes Redistribution of Wealth

Speech to Members of the Share Our Wealth Society, 193524-5 Conservatives Criticize the New Deal

Herbert Hoover, Anti–New Deal Campaign Speech, 1936

Minnie Hardin, Letter to Eleanor Roosevelt, December 14, 1937

COMPARATIVE QUESTIONS

25. THE UNITED STATES AND THE SECOND WORLD WAR, 1939-1945

25-1 A Japanese American War Hero Recalls Pearl Harbor

Grant Hirabayashi, Oral History, 199925-2 American Jewish Leaders Notify FDR about the Holocaust

Memorandum Submitted to the President of the United States at the White House on Tuesday, December 8, 194225-3 Rosies the Riveter Recall Working in War Industries

Rosie the Riveter Memoirs, ca. 200425-4 Soldiers Send Messages Home

Sergeant Irving Strobing, Radio Address from Corregidor, Philippines, May 5 or 6, 1942

John Conroy, Letter, December 24, 1942

Allen Spach, Letter, February 1943

James McMahon, Letter, March 10, 1944

David Mark Olds, Letter, July 12, 194525-5 U. S Generals Inspect Ohrdruf Concentration Camp, 1945

U. S Generals Inspect Ohrdruf Concentration Camp, April 12, 1945

COMPARATIVE QUESTIONS

26. THE NEW WORLD OF THE COLD WAR, 1945-1960

26-1 General Marshall Summarizes the Lessons of World War II

For the Common Defense, 194526-2 George F. Kennan Outlines Containment

The Long Telegram, February 22, 194626-3 Cold War Blueprint

NSC-68: U.S. Objectives and Programs for National Security, 195026-4 Civilians Prepare for Nuclear Attack

Miami Couple Honeymoons in Fallout Shelter, 195926-5 A Veteran Recalls Combat in the Korean War

Donald M. Griffith Interview, 2003

COMPARATIVE QUESTIONS

27. POSTWAR CULTURE AND POLITICS, 1945-1960

27-1 Edith M. Stern Attacks the Domestic Bondage of Women

Women Are Household Slaves, 194927-2 Vance Packard Analyzes the Age of Affluence

The Status Seekers, 195927-3 George E. McMillan Reports on Racial Conditions in the South in 1960

Sit-Downs: The South’s New Time Bomb, 196027-4 Youth Culture and the Draft

Elvis Presley Joins the Army, 195827-5 President Dwight D. Eisenhower Warns about the Military-Industrial

Complex

Farewell Address, January 1961

COMPARATIVE QUESTIONS

28. RIGHTS, REBELLION, AND REACTION, 1960-1974

28-1 Martin Luther King Jr. Explains Nonviolent Resistance

Letter from Birmingham City Jail, 196328-2 George C. Wallace Denounces the Civil Rights Movement

The Civil Rights Movement: Fraud, Sham, and Hoax, July 4, 196428-3 Equal Rights for Women

National Organization for Women, Statement of Purpose, October 29, 196628-4 Black Power

Chicago Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee Leaflet, 196728-5 Students Protest the Vietnam War

National Guard Soldiers Shoot Kent State University Students, 1970

COMPARATIVE QUESTIONS

29. AN AGE OF LIMITS, 1961–1979

29-1 A Secret Government Assessment of the Vietnam War

Robert S. McNamara, Actions Recommended for Vietnam, October 14, 196629-2 Military Discipline in an Unpopular War

Robert D. Heinl Jr., The Collapse of the Armed Forces, June 7, 197129-3 The Evacuation of Saigon Exposes the Limits of U.S. Military Power

Evacuation of Saigon, April 30, 197529-4 The Watergate Tapes: Nixon, Dean, and Haldeman Discuss the Cancer

within the Presidency Transcript from Tape-Recorded Meeting, March 21, 197329-5 President Carter Declares Energy Conservation the Moral Equivalent of War, 1977

Address to the Nation on Proposed National Energy Policy, April 18, 1977

COMPARATIVE QUESTIONS

30. DIVISIONS AT HOME AND ABROAD IN A CONSERVATIVE ERA, 1980–2000

30-1 President Ronald Reagan Defends American Morality

Address to the National Association of American Evangelicals, 198330-2 Norma McCorvey Explains How She Became "Roe" of Roe v. Wade

Affidavit, United States District Court, District of New Jersey, 200030-3 A Vietnamese Immigrant on the West Coast

Anonymous Man, Oral History, 198330-4 President Bush Announces a New World Order, September 11, 1990 Address Before a Joint Session of the Congress, September 11, 199030-5 Police Brutality and Los Angeles Riots, 1992

Pat Oliphant, "Free at Last," 1992

COMPARATIVE QUESTIONS

31. AMERICA IN A NEW CENTURY, SINCE 2000

31-1 National Security of the United States Requires Preemptive War

The National Security Strategy of the United States, September 200231-2 A Captured 9/11 Terrorist Confesses

Khalid Sheikh Muhammad, Confession, 200731-3 A Christian Leader Argues That Evangelical Christianity Has Been

Hijacked Tony Campolo, Interview, 200431-4 President Barack Obama Declares a New Beginning in U.S. Relations with the Muslim World

On a New Beginning, June 4, 200931-5 President Trump Addresses the Conservative Political Action Conference

President Donald J. Trump Hugs the Flag, 2019

COMPARATIVE QUESTIONS

Headshot of Michael P. Johnson

Michael P. Johnson

Michael P. Johnson (Ph.D., Stanford University) is professor of history at Johns Hopkins University. His publications include Toward a Patriarchal Republic: The Secession of Georgia; Abraham Lincoln, Slavery, and the Civil War: Selected Speeches and Writings; and Reading the American Past: Selected Historical Documents, the documents reader for The American Promise. He has also coedited No Chariot Let Down: Charleston’s Free People of Color on the Eve of the Civil War with James L. Roark.