American History: a Survey

Course Handbook

2016

Module Structure p 3

Basic Geographical Facts p 4 - 6

Aims and Objectives/

Course Lecturers/ Assistants pp 7 - 8

Lecture Lists pp 9 - 10

Examination Essays pp 11 - 12

Tutorials and

Tutorial Presentations pp 12 - 14

Reading Lists pp 14 - 33

Using the Internet p 34

2 MODULE STRUCTURE

The present module offers a broad survey of the main developments in the history of colonial America and of the United States down to the

1990s. It is available to be taken by all Senior Freshman Single

Honors, TSM and HPS students, as well as to Visiting Students.

Assessment of this module takes the form of

(i) An essay which is to be submitted by all participants in

the module (SH, TSM, HPS and Visiting students) on Mon

28th March 2016. This essay will account for 20% of the

overall assessment of this module.

And

(ii) A three-hour examination which will be held in the

examining period commencing 2nd May which will account

for 80% of the module’s assessment.

Written tutorial assignments will also be required in this course. Failure to complete them may result in candidates being prevented from taking the examination and receiving credit for the course.

3 The United States: Basic Facts

Land area: 3,539,225 sq mi (9,166,601 sq km); total area: 3,718,691 sq mi (9,631,420 sq km)

Population (2007 est.): 301,139,947 (growth rate: 0.9%); birth rate: 14.2/1000; infant mortality rate: 6.4/1000; life expectancy: 78.0; density per sq mi: 85

Capital (2003 est.): Washington, DC, 570,898

Largest cities (2003 est.): New York, 18,498,000 (metro area), 8,085,742 (city proper); Los Angeles, 12,146,000 (metro area), 3,819,951 (city proper); Chicago, 8,711,000 (metro area), 2,869,121 (city proper); Houston, 2,009,960; Philadelphia, 1,479,339; Phoenix, 1,388,416; San Diego, 1,226,753; San Antonio, 1,214,725; Dallas, 1,208,318; Detroit, 911,402

Monetary unit: dollar The United States of America

Languages: English 82%, Spanish 11% (2000)

Ethnicity/race: White: 211,460,626 (75.1%); Black: 34,658,190 (12.3%); Asian: 10,242,998 (3.6%); American Indian and Alaska Native: 2,475,956 (0.9%); Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander: 398,835 (0.1%); other race: 15,359,073 (5.5%); Hispanic origin:1 35,305,818 (12.5%)

Religions: Protestant 52%, Roman Catholic 24%, Mormon 2%, Jewish 1%, Muslim 1%, none 10% (2002)

Literacy rate: 99% (2003 est.)

Economic summary: GDP/PPP (2007 est.): $13.84 trillion; per capita $45,800. Real growth rate: 2.2%. Inflation: 2.9%. Unemployment: 4.6%. Arable land: 18%. Agriculture: wheat, corn, other grains, fruits, vegetables, cotton; beef, pork, poultry, dairy products; fish; forest products.

Labour force: 153.1 million (includes unemployed); farming, forestry, and fishing 0.6%, manufacturing, extraction, transportation, and crafts 22.6%, managerial, professional, and technical 35.5%, sales and office 24.8%, other services 16.5%; note: figures exclude the unemployed (2007).

Industries: leading industrial power in the world, highly diversified and technologically advanced; petroleum, steel, motor vehicles, aerospace, telecommunications, chemicals, electronics, food processing, consumer goods, lumber, mining.

Natural resources: coal, copper, lead, molybdenum, phosphates, uranium, bauxite, gold, iron, mercury, nickel, potash, silver, tungsten, zinc, petroleum, natural gas, timber.

Exports: $927.5 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.): agricultural products 9.2% (soybeans, fruit, corn), industrial supplies 26.8% (organic chemicals), capital goods 49.0% (transistors, aircraft, motor vehicle parts, computers, telecommunications equipment), consumer goods 15.0% (automobiles, medicines) (2003).

5 Imports: $1.727 trillion f.o.b. (2005 est.): agricultural products 4.9%, industrial supplies 32.9% (crude oil 8.2%), capital goods 30.4% (computers, telecommunications equipment, motor vehicle parts, office machines, electric power machinery), consumer goods 31.8% (automobiles, clothing, medicines, furniture, toys) (2003).

Major trading partners: Canada, Mexico, Japan, UK, China, Germany

6 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

Today the United States is the most powerful country in the world. This course offers a critical and interpretative framework that explains why this came to be so.

The aim of this module is to provide students with an introduction and overview of the emergence and development of the United States, from the settlement of the first colonies to the first Gulf War.

On successful completion of this module students should be able to demonstrate that they have acquired the ability

• to order the main events in North American colonial history in the history of the United States between the eighteenth and the twentieth centuries. • to assess the significance of the main trends and developments in American society in this period • to evaluate the critical turning points in the political and social history of the period. • to engage with the most influential books and articles pertaining to the period.

• to present a coherent summary and assessment of the historical debates and controversies relating to the period. • to interpret with key primary documents in the political, social and cultural history of the period. • to interact with and apply key electronic databases and resources available for the period • to demonstrate a continuing engagement with the latest developments and outstanding problems in the interpretation of the period.

Course Team:

The lecturers for the course are Prof. Ciaran Brady (Room 3116, email: [email protected]), Prof. Patrick Geoghegan (Room 3110, email: [email protected]) The tutorial assistants are Alexandra Tierney [email protected] and Mary Hatfield [email protected]

The course co-ordinator is Prof. Brady who will welcome any feedback, positive or negative, about the course during the year either directly or through your student representatives.

8 LECTURE LIST 2014

From Colonies to Empire: the course of American History, 1607 - 1991

1. Inventing America: myth, historiography and history and the formation of the United States

2. Starting out late: European Settlements in New Spain, New France, the Chesapeake and New England, 1584 –1640.

3. Independents: colonial self-development, 1640 - 1690.

4. Imperial America: war and territorial growth, 1660–1763.

5. Revolutionary America: political, social and ideological upheaval, 1763 – 1776.

6. Republican America: revolutions and counter-revolutions, 1776 – 1815.

7. Expanding America: territorial and economic growth, 1790–1840.

8. Democratic America: political and social change, 1815 – 1840.

9. Divided America ; war, sectionalism, and slavery, 1840 – 1858.

9 10. Origins of the American Civil War, 1848 – 61.

11. War, Reconstruction and territorial growth, 1861-1893.

12. Industrial America: economic development and social conflict, 1860 - 1900.

13. Urban America: social change and social thought, 1896–1920.

14. Progressive America: the transformation of the American political system, 1900 –1914.

15. Global America: the emergence of the U.S. as a world power, 1898 – 1940.

16. Modern America: the response to economic crisis, 1920 – 1940.

17. Affluent America: social and cultural developments, 1940 - 1960.

18.Militant America: World War II, the Cold War, and American Foreign Relations,1940 – 60.

19. America in crisis: the 1960s.

20.Contemporary American Challenges: from ‘the Great Society’ to ‘the Reagan Revolution’.

21.Contemporary American Challenges: American foreign policy from

Cuba to the Gulf War 1961-1991.

10 EXAMINATION ESSAY TOPICS

Assessment essays are due from all participants in the

Module (SH, TSM, HPS and Visiting Students)

on Monday 28th March 2016.

Essays should be approx.2,500 words long. The essay topics for this Module are as follows:

1. Assess the social and economic consequences of colonial wars, 1660 - 1760. 2. Assess the development of colonial attitudes toward the Empire, 1660 - 1770. 3. Colonial defences of slavery. 4. What was new about American republican thought, 1770 – 1820? 5. Assess the accuracy of Tocqueville’s view of America. 6. What distinguished the Republican Party from earlier sectional third parties? 7. Ethnic Cleansing? Federal policy toward native Americans 1800 - 1865 8. Critically assess the constitutional case for secession 1832 – 1861. 9. What were the successes and failures of Reconstruction? 10. Explain the rise of the Populist movement in the 1890s. 11. Women and society, 1870-1920;or Women and politics, 1920- 1968.

11 12. The press and political reform, 1920 - 60. 13. How accurate is the image of the 1920s as ‘an era of complacency’? 14. US foreign policy during the Cold War. 15. How accurate is the image of the 1960s as ‘an era of revolution’? 16. Account for the rise of ‘the New Right’ in American politics.

TUTORIALS AND TUTORIAL PRESENTATIONS

There will be six weekly tutorials in Hilary term, in the weeks 23 – 6, 28 - 29

The tutorials for American history: A survey will be lead by Alexandra Tierney [email protected] and Mary Hatfield [email protected]

Documents and other material will be distributed in the first tutorial class of the term, however, students should collect a copy of the reading for tutorial 1 from the appropriate box outside the departmental office.

Discussion and debate are the fundamental catalysts of all tutorial sessions, and thus there is a responsibility on students to read material and at least attempt to form some opinion on the subject being studied.

Tutorials:

Week 23, Tutorial 1: Document: A Relation of the Indian War (1676).

Week 24, Tutorial 2: Document: The Constitution of the United States (1789).

Week 25, Tutorial 3: Document: The Monroe Doctrine (1823)

Week 26, Tutorial 4: Document: The Lincoln-Douglas debates (1858). Week 27, Reading week/Study week: No Tutorials

Week 28, Tutorial 5: Document: Henry Demarest Lloyd, “Wealth against Commonwealth” (1894)

Week 29, Tutorial 6: Woodrow Wilson’s “Fourteen Points” (1918)

Please Note: Tutorials are an essential part of this course and regular attendance and participation are mandatory. Students failing to meet the departmental requirement on attendance in tutorials or failing to submit any required tutorial work will be graded as ‘non-satisfactory’. Students should of course submit any documentation of extenuating circumstances to the

13 departmental office, either themselves or through their College tutor.

Assessment:

(i) Presentation: All students will present on a document over the course of the term. Arrangements will be made in class and completion of this task is a requirement of the course.

(ii) Tutorial Assignment: All students will be required to submit a piece of written work and again this is compulsory and will be discussed in the first tutorial class of term.

General Reading: 1607-1991 The reading list has been designed to include works which address all of these themes and topics discussed in the lectures and tutorials. But students are encouraged to develop their own interpretations, based on their reading of primary and secondary sources, discussions in tutorials, and other coursework. The use of I.T. is an integral part of the course and students are encouraged to make the full use of JSTOR and other on-line resources. This is a key objective of the course and by the end of the year students should be proficient in accessing and interpreting primary and secondary sources relating to American history, both in the library and on the web.

Single or two-volume overviews of American history are big business in the American academic world. They are generally reliable, careful and bland. An exception is Bernard Bailyn et al, The Great Republic: a history of the American people which brings together thoughtful and provocative essays from some of America’s top historians, for example David Herbert Donald and Gordon Wood. This two-volume set is recommended for purchase (and it will shortly be available in the library). Other useful works are George Tindall, America: a Narrative History, Eric Foner, Give me Liberty and P.S. Boyer et al, The Enduring Vision all of which are comprehensive, accessible up to date and contain very valuable bibliographies. Among the more acceptable shorter alternatives are M.A. Jones, The Limits of Liberty and Carl Degler, Out of our Past. Hugh Brogan, The Penguin history of the United States is entertaining and mildly idiosyncratic. A recent highly provocative single-volume interpretative essay on American history which places war at the centre of the nation’s development is Fred Anderson and Andrew Cayton, The Dominion of War: Empire and Liberty in North America, 1500-2000

All of the above are available in paperback and one should be purchased.

Anthologies of major articles or extracts from important books are also a big commercial enterprise in U.S. publishing. By far the most useful and up-to-date is the series Major problems in American History published by D.C. Heath because, in addition to the extracts from secondary sources, each volume prints a large selection of primary sources which are not readily available elsewhere. Of

15 principal value to this section of the course are K.O. Kupperman (ed.), Major problems in American Colonial History, Richard D. Brown (ed.), Major problems in the era of the American Revolution; Sean Wilentz, Major problems in the Early Republic, 1787 - 1848, Michael Perman, Major problems in the Civil War and Reconstruction, P.D. Escott and David R. Goldfield (eds), Major problems in the history of the American South; Mary B Norton and Ruth Alexander, Major problems in American women’s history Clyde A. Milner et al (eds). Major problems in the history of the American West and Kermit R. Hall (ed.), Major problems in American Constitutional History. For an excellent collection of essays on historiography and previously neglected areas of American history, see Eric Foner (ed.), The New American History, 2nd ed. James McPherson’s To the best of my ability provides a good overview of all the American presidents.

A. M. Schlesinger et al (eds) American Presidential Elections contains a vast amount of analysis and quantitative data from the early of the Republic to the near present. Two major and under- exploited sources of extensive detailed information are the multivolume biographical collections, The Dictionary of American Biography and its recent successor, American National Biography.

The most important resource at your disposal is JSTOR. This contains a wealth of important articles, all just a keyword search away. The resource provides you with your own library and is also invaluable for book reviews and essays reviewing the historiography.

Selected Reading

(a) Colonial America Alan Taylor, American Colonies is a superb, provocative and highly informative survey which supplies a full and up-to date bibliography. Slightly older but still highly stimulating in its perspectives is Gary B. Nash, Red, White and Black: the peoples of early America. R.C. Simmons The American Colonies and Richard Middleton, Colonial America are good general overviews by English historians written for an audience with little previous knowledge of American history. An excellent bridge between American scholarship and those more familiar with European (and particularly British history) is supplied in Jack P. Greene, Pursuits of Happiness: the social development of early modern British colonies and the formation of American culture. Jack p. Greene and J.R Pole (eds), Colonial British America and S. Katz Colonial America are excellent anthologies of important articles concerning several aspects of colonial history. Earliest contacts with native Americans are discussed in Karen Kupperman Settling with the Indians and B. W. Sheehan’s Savagism and civility and from the perspective of the Amerindians themselves in Francis Jennings, The Invasion of America and Daniel Richter, Facing East: a native history of early America and his more detailed The Ordeal of the Longhouse: the peoples of the Iroquois League in the era of European colonisation. Neal Salisbury, ‘The Indians’ Old World: native Americans and the coming of the Europeans’ in William and Mary Quarterly (July 1996) is a useful overview of the literature. On the growth of the southern

17 colonies see Edmund S. Morgan Slavery and Freedom: the ordeal of Colonial Virginia, Wesley Frank Craven’s incisive essay on White, Red and Black and his more general survey of The Southern colonies in the seventeenth century. Lois G. Carr et al (eds) Colonial Chesapeake Society is an excellent collection of recent essays with a good historiographical introduction. The development of black slavery is traced in Philip D. Curtin, The Atlantic Slave Trade and its effects examined in Peter Wood, Black Majority: Negroes in South Carolina and Winthrop Jordan, White Over Black: American attitudes toward the Negro to 1812. Important later changes in the Chesapeake are analysed at the top in Jack P. Greene, Quest for Power: the Lower House in the Southern Colonies and from below in Rhys Issac, The transformation of Virginia, 1740-90. The evolution of New England is traced in two complementary generational studies: Richard S. Dunn, Puritans and Yankees and Philip Greven, Four Generations and in two complementary studies of settlement, Richard L. Bushman From Puritan to Yankee and Kenneth Lockridge, The New England town. The career of New England Puritanism is traced in Edmund Morgan, The Puritan dilemma: the story of John Winthrop and Larzer Ziff, Puritanism in America and provocatively in Andrew Delbanco The Puritan Ordeal. Emery Battis, Saints and Sectaries offers a dependable if slightly dated account of Anne Hutchinson and the antinomian controversy. Intellectual and ideological changes in New England of a broader nature are considered in two excellent works, Perry Miller, The New England Mind (2 vols) and T.H. Breen, The character of the good ruler. And their operation in the microcosm of the town of Salem are examined from different perspectives in Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum, Salem Possessed and John Demos, Entertaining Satan. Stephen Innes, Creating the

18 Commonwealth: the economic culture of Puritan New England offers a useful corrective to the religious and intellectual emphasis of older classical studies. The integration of the colonies within the Imperialist system is surveyed in Jack P. Greene’s Peripheries & Centre and analysed from two different viewpoints in Stephen S. Webb l676 and Richard S. Johnston Adjustment to Empire. The development of the colonies into provinces of the Empire in the early eighteenth century is discussed in James F. Shepherd and Garry Walton The economic rise of early America, James A. Henretta The evolution of American Society and Jack P. Greene Pursuits of Happiness: the social development of the early modern British colonies and the formation of American culture. Specific examples of this phenomenon are the subject’s of R.S Dunn, Puritans and Yankees: the Winthrop dynasty of New England, R.L. Bushman, From Puritan to Yankee and Michael Zuckerman, Peaceable Kingdoms: Massachusetts towns in the eighteenth century. The crucial role of European migration in hastening this development is the subject of two major studies: Bernard Bailyn, Voyagers to the West: a passage in the peopling of America, and David H. Fischer, Albion’s Seed: four British folkways in America. Ernest May, The Enlightenment in America investigates colonial high culture while Patricia U. Bonomi offers in Under the Cape of Heaven a valuable survey of the forms of popular religion in the eighteenth century colonies. Though its overall interpretation now seems outdated, several chapters in Daniel Boorstin, The Americans: the Colonial Experience remain of great value for an understanding of colonial culture.

19 (b) Revolutionary America Esmond Wright, Fabric of Freedom, 1763 - 1800 and Edmund Morgan, The birth of the republic, 1763-1789 are dependable overviews. Robert Middlekauff, The Glorious Cause, 1763 -1789 is a detailed and judicious narrative. The administrative and political structures of the eighteenth century Empire are surveyed in general in Lawrence H. Gipson The coming of the American Revolution and examined in more detail in Michael Kammen, Empire and Interest and A.G. Olson Anglo- American politics. In a close but highly entertaining study Edmund and Helen Morgan give an account of a crucial prelude to the revolution: The Stamp Act Crisis. Bernard Bailyn’s seminal works, The Origins of American Politics and The Ideological origins of the American Revolution analyse the assumptions and arguments of the revolutionary gentry. The drift from protest to revolution is examined from two different perspectives in Pauline Maier, From Resistance to Revolution: Colonial radicals and the development of American opposition to Britain, 1765-76 and Jerrilyn Marston, King and Congress: the transfer of political legitimacy, 1774-76. Different perspectives on the revolution in action are supplied by Eric Foner, Tom Paine and Revolutionary America, in the general survey by Edward Countryman, The American Revolution and in Robert A. Gross’s detailed local study, The minutemen and this world. An important study of a factor often under-rated in explanations of the revolution is John Shy Toward Lexington: the role of the British Army in the coming of the American Revolution. But by far the most challenging alternative to the dominant view that the Revolution was an essentially conservative movement has been provided by Gordon Wood, The Radicalism of the American Revolution.

20 (c) The New Republic Merrill Jensen, The New Nation, 1776-1789, J.C. Miller The Federalist Era, 1789-1800 and Marshall Smelser The Democratic Republic, 1800- 1815 provide a continuous account of the years between 1776 and 18l5, though they are now somewhat dated. Robert Wiebe,The Opening of American Society is a sophisticated and richly informative interpretative survey of the years between 1789 and 1861. Daniel Walker Howe What hath God wrought: the transformation of America, 1815 – 48 is a recent addition to the Oxford History of the United States.

Peter Onuf The Northwest Ordinance and Daniel Szatmary, Shay’s Rebellion examine respectively the achievements and the problems of government under the Articles of Confederation. Leonard.W. Levy (ed) Essays on the making of the Constitution provides a useful introduction to the difficult but brilliant argument in Gordon Wood, The Creation of the American Republic. Garry Wills Explaining America is a provocative interpretation of The Federalist. Jackson T. Main offers a more sympathetic account of The Anti-Federalists than that provided in Cecilia M. Kenyon The Anti-Federalists. The continuity of ideological debate in the young republic is traced in Richard Buel, Securing the revolution: Ideology in American Politics, 1789-1815 and Lance Banning The Jeffersonian Persuasion while its implicit economic assumptions are revealed in Drew R. McCoy, The Elusive Republic. The emphasis on ideals rather than interests shared in these different interpretations is challenged by Joyce Appleby, Capitalism and a New Social Order. The emergence of a legitimate party system is traced from a theoretical perspective in Richard Hofstadter’s The idea of a party system and from a practical one in W.P. Chambers Political

21 Parties in a new nation. Both approaches are synthesised and considerably developed in John Hoadley Origins of American Political Parties, 1789-1803. The major personalities of the period are the subjects of some excellent biographical studies: see Garry Wills, Cincinnatus (on Washington), Jacob E. Cooke, Alexander Hamilton and Merrill Peterson, Thomas Jefferson and the New Nation. For the closing years of the period Drew R. McCoy, The last of the Fathers: James Madison and the Republican Legacy is quite revealing. Persevering readers will find Ronald P. Formisano, The transformation of American political culture very rewarding, but the early chapters of Merrill Peterson, The Great Triumvirate: Webster, Clay and Calhoun provide a more accessible introduction to the issues emerging in the period.

(d) The Jacksonian Era, 1820 - 40 The works of Wiebe and Howe cited above are of continuing relevance to this section of the course. Charles G. Sellers, The market revolution offers a new and extremely thoughtful overview of the entire Jacksonian period. Sean Wilentz, The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln, takes a different perspective but is equally illuminating. Harry L. Watson Liberty and Property: the politics of Jacksonian America is less powerfully argued and less detailed than either of these but is a useful synthesis. Charles M. Wiltse The New Nation, and Glyndon Van Deusen The Jacksonian Era though aging remain generally dependable overviews. On the economic expansion of the early l9th century see Douglas C. North The economic growth of the United States, Daniel Boorstin, The National Experience and George R. Taylor, The Transportation Revolution. Edward P. Pessen,

22 Jacksonian America offers a critical synthesis of the period’s social and political history. On Jackson himself see the biography by Robert V. Remini and the astute essay in Richard Hofstadter, The American Political Tradition; on the ideological climate, Marvin Meyers, The Jacksonian persuasion. Two excellent studies of principal Jacksonian issues are William Freehling Prelude to Civil War (on Nullification) and William G. Shade Banks or no banks. The view that the age of Jackson was ‘the age of the common man’ is rigorously analysed in Lee Benson, The concept of Jacksonian Democracy and Edward Pessen Riches, class and power before the civil war. The political philosophy of Jackson’s major opponents is treated in Daniel W. Howe The political culture of the American Whigs, while a distinctive Jacksonian political ideology is revealed in Lawrence Kohl’s The Politics of Individualism. The most profound analysis of the Jackson era remains Alexis de Tocqueville’s magnificent contemporary account, Democracy in America. A classic of political science, it is available in a relatively cheap edition in the Library of America and is the one primary text that all students of American culture should have on their shelves.

(e) American Societies l840-l880 A general survey of social development in this period is supplied by Russell B. Nye in Society and Culture in America, 1830-60. More interpretive are the relevant chapters in Robert Wiebe, The opening of American society. See also W.R. Brock, Conflict and transformation, 1844-1877. Roy F. Nicholls, The Stakes of Power covers the same period but is more narrowly political in focus. On the early industrial and urban development of the north see Thomas Cochran Frontiers of change, Richard E. Brown,

23 Modernization: the transformation of American life, and Richard.C. Wade The Urban Frontier. Political and social tensions are considered in E. Pessen, Most uncommon Jacksonians. Michael Feldberg, The Turbulent Era, Ray Billington’s The Protestant Crusade, and Paul Johnson, Shopkeepers Millennium; and one of their effects in William Rorabaugh’s revealing study The Alcoholic Republic. Sean Wilentz, Chants Democratic: New York City and the rise of the American working class, 1780-1850 is a tour de force of social and ideological history, combining several techniques of research and interpretation and should be read alongside Edward K. Spann, The New Metropolis another important study of the growth of New York. This history of women is now the subject of several excellent books. Among many see Mary P. Ryan, Sex and class in women’s history and her detailed study of a New York community, Cradle of the middle class. An overview of developments in the South is given in Clement Eaton, The Growth of Southern Civilization. A more modern, controversial but highly informative account of the South in the early nineteenth century is given in William Freehling. The role of slavery in southern society has been an issue of continuing controversy. F. O. Gattell (ed.) American Negro Slavery and J. William Harris Society and Culture in the Slave South provide a good introduction to the questions under debate, and Kenneth M. Stampp The Peculiar Institution is a balanced general account. But the most striking contributions to the debate have been Eugene Genovese’s The political economy of slavery, The world the slaveholders made and Roll Jordan, and R.W. Fogel’s Without consent or contract. The effects of slavery upon southern white culture are considered in two excellent studies: W.J. Cash, The mind of the South, Bertram Wyatt-Brown Southern Honour. See also Bruce Collins White society in the ante-bellum south.

24 Two very different explanations of westward expansion are offered in Frederick Merk, Manifest destiny and mission in American history and Thomas Hietala, Manifest Design. The settlement of the west is discussed in detail in Ray A. Billington, Westward Expansion and The Far West Frontier. Two good studies consider the cultural implications of the west for America as a whole Henry Nash Smith Virgin Land and Kevin Starr, Americans and the California dream.

(f) The Civil War and Reconstruction

Two recent overviews of the causes of the conflict are Bruce Collins The Origins of the Civil War, and Bruce Levine, Half Slave, Half Free: the Roots of the Civil War. David M. Potter, The Impending Crisis, 1848-1861 is a detailed but brilliant account. For the best single- volume account of the war and its causes see James McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom, which is a beautifully written narrative that covers the period from the 1840s through to Reconstruction. Structural difficulties in American politics are discussed in Richard P. McCormack, The Second Party-System and Michael Holt, The Political Crisis of the l850s. And key issues are analysed in Mark Stegmaier, Texas, New Mexico and the Compromise of 1850, William Gienapp, The Origins of the Republican Party, David M. Potter, Lincoln and his Party in the Secession Crisis, and Don Fehrenbacher Dred Scott. In The Coming of the Civil War and The Growth of Southern Nationalism Avery Craven offers a sympathetic account of the South’s problems. William L. Barney, The Road to Secession is less kind. Stephen A. Channing, A Crisis of Fear: Secession in South Carolina examines a crucial case. Eric Foner, Free Soil, Free Labour, Free Men: the Ideology of the Republican Party before the Civil War. R. G. Walters The Anti-Slavery

25 Appeal rescue northern opponents of slavery from charges of hysteria or self-interest. David Donald’s prize-winning biography of Lincoln is a model of its kind, and can be supplemented by his collection of insightful essays Lincoln reconsidered. Perhaps the best introduction to Lincoln in G.S. Boritt’s edited collection of essays The Lincoln Enigma, while the fundamental issues at stake in the Lincoln-Douglas debates are discussed in H.V. Jaffa Crisis of the House Divided. The drift toward war is acutely analysed in Kenneth M. Stampp And the War Came. For those interested in recent fictional representations of the New York draft riots see Ivar Bernstein, The New York City Draft Riots. Battle Cry of Freedom is unsurpassed in its account of the war, but see also McPherson’s other works on the period, Drawn with the Sword, Marching Towards Freedom, Abraham Lincoln and the Second American Revolution, and his excellent study of one of the war’s bloodiest battles Antietam. There are also a number of excellent multi-volume accounts of the war. See Shelby Foote’s three volumes, The Civil War: a narrative, Bruce Catton’s The Coming Fury; Terrible Swift Sword; and Never Call Retreat, or Robert Johnson and Clarence Buel (eds) [four volumes], Battles and Leaders of the Civil War. For studies of the key Confederates see Douglas S. Freeman, Robert E. Lee and William C. Davis, Jefferson Davis. On slavery see Ira Berlin (ed.), Freedom: a documentary history and his Slaves without masters.

One of the most important books on American history to be published in the past ten years is David W. Blight, Race and Reunion: the Civil War in American Memory. This shows the development of a Lost Cause mythology after the Civil War to explain the trauma of defeat. See also Gaines M. Foster, Ghosts of the Confederacy. The problems of Reconstruction have long been debated. For a good introduction

26 and overview see Eric Foner, Reconstruction. More detailed discussion can be found in LaWanda Cox, Reconstruction and Politics, Principle and Prejudice, and David Herbert Donald, The Civil War and Reconstruction. There is also much of value in Kenneth M. Stampp, The era of reconstruction, William Gillette, Retreat from reconstruction, and especially in the ground-breaking work of C. Vann Woodward in The strange career of Jim Crow and The origins of the new south.

(g) American Society, 1860 - 1900

S.P. Hays, The response to industrialism, 1885 – 1914, provides a brisk well organized introductory sketch of the period. Robert Wiebe , The Search for Order, 1877 – 1920 is a sophisticated and highly stimulating survey. John A Garraty, The new commonwealth, l877-90 is more detailed and more accessible. Walter Licht, Industrialising America is an equally sophisticated treatment of the main economic force of the period. Edward C Kirkland, Industry comes of age and R.A. Billington, Westward expansion provide good general surveys of opposite aspects of American economic , social and spatial development in the later nineteenth century. Blake McKelvey, The urbanization of America is an excellent synthesis. Maldwyn Jones, American immigration and John Higham, Strangers in the land supply two different perspectives on the same phenomenon. Henry Pelling, American labour is a thoughtful survey by a British labour historian. Three books by Richard Hofstadter (one of the most elegant of American historical writers), Social Darwinism in American thought , The age of reform and The Paranoid style in American politics have exercised much influence and stimulated much controversy about this period. All are worth reading. Hofstadter’s perspectives have been

27 challenged, however, in several equally compelling studies among which are C. Vann Woodward, Tom Watson: agrarian rebel, and his The origins of the new south, 1877 – 1913 and Laurence Goodwyn, Democratic promise: the populist movement . On Populism see also James Turner, ‘Understanding the Populists’ in JAH, 1980.

Hofstadter’s view of the Progressive Movement has been equally challenged by the American Marxist historian, Gabriel Kolko in The triumph of conservatism and in his Main Currents in Modern American History and from a liberal standpoint in Arthur S. Link and Richard McCormick, Progressivism

(h) Politics and Society 1900 - 1940

David K. Adams, America in the twentieth century and George E. Mowry, The urban nation, 1920-1960 are a good general surveys but a little outdated. Also of older vintage but still an excellent read is W.E. Leuchtenberg, The perils of prosperity, 1914 - 32 . Two more modern surveys are Michael E. Parrish, Anxious decades: America in prosperity and depression, 1920 – 41 and John P. Diggins, The Proud decades: America in war and peace 1941 – 60. Shorter but up-to-date and valuable is James T. Patterson, America in the 20th Century Alan Brinkley, Imaging the Twentieth Century is a highly stimulating book- length essay.

Among more detailed and valuable works on the early twentieth century see J.M. Blum, The Republican Roosevelt and his short biography of Wilson. Two books by Edmund Morris will suffice the satisfy the curiosity of anyone further interested in the complex character of Teddy Roosevelt. See his The rise of Theodore Roosevelt and Thoedore Rex. John Milton Cooper III, The warrior and the priest

28 is a stimulating essay in parallel and contrasting lives. Arthur S Link is the leading authority on Wilson’s presidency, see his Woodrow Wilson and the progressive era and The real Woodrow Wilson. Crucially important changes in American political and social life in the second decade of the twentieth century is examined in Daniel M. Smith, The great departure: the US and World War I , and an equally important shift in literary and cultural life is traced in Henry Farnham May, The end of American innocence, 1912-17.

The contrasting patterns of American political and social change in the 1920s are traced in John Donald Hicks, Republican ascendancy and in the early chapters of Donald McCoy, Coming of age: the US in the l920s and l930s. See also Burl Noggle, Into the twenties and Paul A. Carter’s short and highly provocative set of essays, Another part of the twenties. On social and cultural mores in ‘the roaring twenties’ see Paula Fass, The damned and the beautiful. An elegant and highly entertaining account of the stock market collapse, its causes and immediate consequences is J.K. Galbraith, The Great Crash.

David M. Kennedy, Freedom for fear: the American people in Depression and War, 1929 – 45 offers an authoritative and up-to date narrative of the period. William E. Leuchteburg is a leading authority on F.D.R and his presidency see his FDR and the New Deal , In the shadow of FDR: from Truman to Reagan, The FDR years and The New Deal: a documentary history. Two detailed studies of the development of federal economic policy in the late twenties and the thirties are A.U. Romasco, The poverty of abundance and his sequel The politics of recovery . A. J. Badger, The New Deal is a short but highly informative overview. An older but still very rewarding biography of Roosevelt is

29 James McGregor Burns, Roosevelt: the lion and the fox Hardy (or voracious) readers may wish to tackle Arthur Schlesinger’s three volume survey of The Age of Roosevelt

(i) American Foreign Relations and War, 1917 - 1945

The relevant chapters of Walter La Feber, The American Age supply a good introduction with useful further bibliographical references. See also Selig Adler, The uncertain giant. A conservative view of American international aims and anxieties is expounded in Foster R. Dulles, America's Rise to World Power and his Prelude to World Power; while a more radical view of Wilson which has implications for the whole of American foreign policy in this period is N. Gordon Levin, Woodrow Wilson and world politics Several of such implications are explored in Joan Hoff Wilson, American business and foreign policy, 1921 – 1933. Robert Dallek offers a balance review of Franklin Roosevelt and American foreign policy . On U.S relations with Latin America see Irwin F. Gellman , Good neighbour diplomacy; and on rapidly deteriorating relations with Japan see Walter La Feber, The clash: a history of US – Japan relations. Pearl Harbour has for decades been a favourite obsession of conspiracy theorists, for a balanced assessment (and for references to the wilder shores of American historical interpretation) see Gordon W. Prange, Pearl Harbour: the verdict of history. On the diplomacy of the Second world war see John Gaddis Smith, American diplomacy during the second world war, Edward M. Bennett, FDR and the search for victory and Warren F. Kimball, The Juggler: Franklin Roosevelt as wartime statesman. Daniel Yergin supplies a dramatic account of a crucial event in wartime diplomacy in his Yalta. Gar Alperovitz, Atomic diplomacy: Hiroshima and Potsdam is highly critical

30 of US conduct in regard to the diplomatic use of the nuclear threat. Martin Sherwin, A world destroyed: the atomic bomb and the grand alliance is more measured.

(j) Politics and Society , 1940 - 60

Richard Polenberg, One nation divisible supplies a shorter but highly valuable account of this period in American domestic history. A more detailed narrative is James T. Patterson Grand Expectations, 1945-74 . Dewey Grantham, The US since l945: the ordeal of power and William Chafe The unfinished journey: America since WW2.are good general surveys.

John Morton Blum, V was for Victory: Politics and American culture during WW 2 is good survey of a neglected period; see also Michael C. Adams, The best war ever . On the Truman administration see Roy Jenkins, Truman, B.J. Bernstein (ed.), The Truman administration: a documentary history, Robert H. Ferrell, Harry S. Truman and the modern American presidency and his shorter, Truman, M.J. Lacey, The Truman presidency, Robert Donovan, Tumultuous years: the presidency of Harry S. Truman, and David McCullough, Truman . Robert Griffith, The politics of fear: Joseph R. McCarthy is a modern account of a recurring motif in American history which had particular effects both in the Truman and Eisenhower administrations. For Eisenhower see Stephen E. Ambrose Eisenhower [2 volumes], R.A. Divine, Eisenhower and the Cold War and R.A. Lee, Dwight P. Eisenhower. On the Kennedy administration see among a host of studies Arthur Schlesinger, The Imperial Presidency and his A Thousand Days [JFK] ; and two books by Carl M. Brauer, JFK and the

31 second reconstruction and his Presidential transitions Irving Bernstein, Promises kept: JFK’s frontier, Robert Dallek, JFK., Thomas Brown, JFK: History of an image and M.S. Goldman, JFK: portrait of a president . On the assassination and its never-ending controversy see Stephen Hoare, The assassination of JFK and Max Holland, ‘After thirty years: making sense of the assassination’ in Reviews in American History (1994) [JSTOR]. On political and cultural upheaval in the ‘60s see Theodore Roszak, The Making of a counter culture. Allen J. Matusow, The unravelling of America

(k) American Foreign policy: 1945 – 1965

The literature on the origins and development of the Cold War is of a very high standard. Walter Lafeber, America, Russia and the cold war, l945-80 and Thomas McCormick, America’s half-century are excellent introductory surveys. John Lewis Gaddis, The long peace: an inquiry into the history of the Cold War is an extremely thought provoking study.

On the origins of the Cold War John Gaddis, The United States and the origins of the Cold War and two books by Melvyn P. Leffler, A preponderance of power and his Origins of the Cold War are indispensable. And on the implications of its end see Michael J. Hogan, The end of the Cold War and H.W., Brand’s revealingly entitled, The Devil we knew

On the foreign policy of the Eisenhower administration see Robert A. Divine , Eisenhower and the Cold War and on its legacy see Trumball Higgins, The perfect failure: Kennedy, Eisenhower and the CIA at the

32 Bay of Pigs and David L. Anderson, Trapped by success: the Eisenhower administration and Vietnam. On the foreign policy of the Kennedy administration see Thomas Patterson ( ed) Kennedy’s quest for victory: American foreign policy, 1961 – 63. On the Cuban crisis see Mark White Missiles in Cuba and Graham T. Allison’s essay in managerial analysis, Essence of decision . On the aspirational side of the New Frontier see Elizabeth Hoffman, All you need is love: the Peace Corps and the spirit of the 1960s

(l) Popular Culture to Civil Rights, 1950 - 1980

Jim Cullen (ed.), Popular Culture in American History offers a good general overview of the concept and its applications. On Hollywood see John Belton, American cinema/American culture, Thomas Doherty, Pre-code Hollywood: sex, immorality and insurrection and Anthony Slide, Early American cinema.

On the struggle for civil rights see Taylor Branch, Parting the waters: America in the King years, 1954 – 1963 and Robert Weisbrot, Freedom bound: a history of America’s civil rights movement. See also Harvard Sitkoff, The Struggle for Black Equality, 1954-80, Robert Kluger, Simple Justice: the history of Brown v. Board of Education and James T. Patterson, Brown v. the Board of Education. The crucial role of the Supreme Court in advancing Civil Rights is explored in Alexander M. Bickel, The Supreme Court and the Idea of Progress and in his Politics and the Warren Court and W.E. Leuchtenberg, The Supreme Court Reborn. See also G. Theodore Mitau, Decade of decision: the Supreme

33 Court and the constitutional revolution and G. Edward White, Earl Warren The important theme Hugh Davis Graham, Civil Rights and the Presidency is accurately summarized in the title.

The struggle for the civil rights of women is recounted in William Chafe, The American Woman and in his The paradox of change: American women in the 20th Century . See also the excellent article by Paul Baker, ‘The domestication of politics: women and American political society’ in AHR, 1984. But some path-breaking primary texts remain powerful: see Betty Friedan, The feminine mystique and Kate Millett, Sexual Politics

(m) From Vietnam to the first Gulf War

Stephen E. Ambrose, Rise to globalism is a fine introductory survey. See also the closing chapters of Walter La Feber, The American Age. Henry Kissinger, Diplomacy (and others)is both a monograph on and a primary source for American foreign policy in the post-war period. The literature on Vietnam is enormous. See among several David Anderson, The Columbia guide to the Vietnam War, Guenter Lewy, America in Vietnam, Cheng Guan Ang, The Vietnam War from the other side, Gabriel Kolko, Anatomy of a war: Vietnam, the United States and the modern historical experience, Jonathan Neale, The American war: Vietnam. On Johnson and the Great Society see Robert Dallek’s two volume biography Lone Star Rising and Flawed Giant and also Robert A. Caro, The years of Lyndon Johnson [2 vols] and on the role of the war Herbert Y. Schandler, The unmaking of a president: Lyndon Johnson and Vietnam.

34 On Nixon presidency, its fall and its consequences see Stephen Ambrose’s two volume biography of Nixon, Fred Emery, Watergate , Stanley Kutler, The wars of Watergate and Seymour Hersh, Kissinger: the price of power On Nixon’s foreign policy there is William P. Bundy, A tangled web: the making of foreign policy in the Nixon presidency

The shift to the Right in the 1970s and 1980s is chronicled in Michael Scahaller, Reckoning with Reagan. William Niskanen, Reaganomics is a good introduction to the Reagan presidency’s domestic policies. See also Jeff McMahon, Reagan and the world: imperial policy in the new Cold War (1984) and B.B. Kymlicka and J V. Matthews, The Reagan presidency: an incomplete revolution? Robert Busby, Reagan and the Iran-Contra affair supplies a lucid account, and James Chace, Endless War supplies the broader context of American involvement in Central American politics. Two books of central relevance to the final parts of the course are David W. Lesch (ed.), The United States and the Middle East and H. W. Brands, Into the labyrinth: the United States and the Middle East.

(f) Journals

A number of excellent history journals are available on the web at www.JSTOR.org. Students are encouraged to use these articles to supplement the reading list above. For example the following journals are all available online: American Historical Review; Journal of

35 Southern History; Journal of Military History; Journal of American History; African American Review. See Using the Internet below.

USING THE INTERNET

The Internet is an excellent resource and students are encouraged to use it to its full potential. However, like everything else on the web, some sites are better than others, so caution is advised. Perhaps the single greatest website for students is www.JSTOR.org which contains an excellent search engine as well as the full text of articles and book reviews. This can also be accessed through the Trinity Library homepage. Another useful site is that provided by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). See http://www.archives.gov/records_of_congress/internet_resources.html for a full listing of available primary documents, a wealth of biographical information, and invaluable material on the Constitution and government of the United States. The Library of Congress also had an excellent website: http://www.loc.gov. Here students can access the complete Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln collections that can be viewed as jpegs. Many of the presidential libraries also have some of their documents available on the web.

36 Note: Any student who passes off work found on the Internet as their own is guilty of cheating and will automatically fail the course.

The following journals can all be accessed at www.JSTOR.org on the Internet:

American Historical Review, American Quarterly, Eighteenth-Century Studies, Journal of American History, Journal of Black Studies, Journal of Economic History, Journal of Modern History, Journal of Negro Education, Journal of Negro History, Journal of Southern History, Journal of the History of Ideas, Military Affairs, Negro American Literature Forum, Renaissance Quarterly, William and Mary Quarterly, Reviews in American History, Mississippi Valley Historical Review, African American Review.