HIST 2B, Survey of US History 2: New Library Books

What does it mean to be an American? The story of the African American past demonstrates the difficulty of answering this seemingly simple question. If being "American" means living in a land of freedom and opportunity, what are we to make of those Americans who were enslaved and have suffered from the limitations of second-class citizenship throughout their lives? African American history illuminates the United States' core paradoxes, inviting profound questions about what it means to be an American, a citizen, and a human being. This book considers how, for centuries, African Americans have fought for what the black feminist intellectual Anna Julia Cooper called "the cause of freedom." It begins in Jamestown in 1619, when the first shipment of enslaved Africans arrived in that settlement. It narrates the creation of a system of racialized chattel slavery, the eventual dismantling of that system in the national bloodletting of the Civil War, and the ways that civil rights disputes have continued to erupt in the more than 150 years since Emancipation. This Very Short Introduction carries forward to the Black Lives Matter movement, a grass-roots activist convulsion that declared that African Americans' present and past have value and meaning. At a moment when political debates grapple with the nation's obligation to acknowledge and perhaps even repair its original sin of racialized slavery, author Jonathan Scott Holloway tells a story about American citizens' capacity and willingness to realize the ideal articulated in America's founding document, namely, that all people were created equal.

A sweeping narrative history of American immigration from the colonial period to the present. The history of the United States has been shaped by immigration. Historians Carl J. Bon Tempo and Hasia R. Diner provide a sweeping historical narrative told through the lives and words of the quite ordinary people who did nothing less than make the nation.   Drawn from stories spanning the colonial period to the present, Bon Tempo and Diner detail the experiences of people from Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas. They explore the many themes of American immigration scholarship, including the contexts and motivations for migration, settlement patterns, work, family, racism, and nativism, against the background of immigration law and policy. Taking a global approach that considers economic and personal factors in both the sending and receiving societies, the authors pay close attention to how immigration has been shaped by the state response to its promises and challenges.

As COVID-19 made inroads in the United States in spring 2020, a common refrain rose above the din: "We're all in this together." However, the full picture was far more complicated--and far less equitable. Black and Latinx populations suffered illnesses, outbreaks, and deaths at much higher rates than the general populace. Those working in low-paid jobs and those living in confined housing or communities already disproportionately beset by health problems were particularly vulnerable. The contributors to The Pandemic Divide explain how these and other racial disparities came to the forefront in 2020. They explore COVID-19's impact on multiple arenas of daily life--including wealth, health, housing, employment, and education--while highlighting what steps could have been taken to mitigate the full force of the pandemic. Most crucially, the contributors offer concrete public policy solutions that would allow the nation to respond effectively to future crises and improve the long-term well-being of all Americans. Contributors. Fenaba Addo, Steve Amendum, Leslie Babinski, Sandra Barnes, Mary T. Bassett, Keisha Bentley-Edwards, Kisha Daniels, William A. Darity Jr., Melania DiPietro, Jane Dokko, Fiona Greig, Adam Hollowell, Lucas Hubbard, Damon Jones, Steve Knotek, Arvind Krishnamurthy, Henry Clay McKoy Jr., N. Joyce Payne, Erica Phillips, Eugene Richardson, Paul Robbins, Jung Sakong, Marta Sánchez, Melissa Scott, Kristen Stephens, Joe Trotter, Chris Wheat, Gwendolyn L. Wright

Provides a look at the origins of the culture wars of modern America and the political and economic transformation of the U.S. republic This book tells, in clear and lively prose, how Americans struggled with modernity in both its cultural and economic forms between the start of World War I and the end of World War II, focusing on the 1920s through 1930s. This edition includes revisions that expand the scope and features increased coverage of topics that will be of great interest to new readers as well as those familiar with the subject. The Birth of Modern America, 1914-1945, Second Edition begins with a discussion of the promises and perils of the progressive era. The book goes on to look at the Great War and life on the home front and explores many paradoxes that marked the birth of Modern America. Topics covered include: the pervasive racism and nativism during and after WWI; the disillusionment with Woodrow Wilson's rhetorical idealism; the emergence of national media; the Great Depression; FDR and the New Deal; the attack on Pearl Harbor; Hollywood's part during World War II; the United States' decision to drop "the bomb" on Japan; and more. Makes a strong contribution to understanding American society in the interwar years (1920s and 1930s) Disputes that American entry into WWII brought the New Deal to an end and argues that wartime measures foreshadowed postwar American practice Features more coverage of politics in the 1920s and 1930s Includes an Afterword covering the G.I. bill, postwar prosperity, Americans' move to the suburbs, the challenges to peace in Europe and Asia, and the Cold War The Birth of Modern America, 1914-1945 is an excellent book for undergraduate courses on the 20th Century and advanced placement courses. It will benefit all students and scholars of the Progressive Era, the Depression, 1920s and 1930s America, and America between the Wars.

WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE IN HISTORY - Historian Jefferson Cowie focuses on a quintessentially American place: Barbour County, Alabama, the ancestral home of political firebrand George Wallace. In a land shaped by settler colonialism and chattel slavery, white people weaponized freedom to seize Native lands, champion secession, overthrow Reconstruction, question the New Deal, and fight against the civil rights movement. A riveting history of the long-running clash between white people and federal authority, this book radically shifts our understanding of what freedom means in America.

During the 1930s, Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal carried out a program of dramatic reform to counter the unprecedented failures of the market economy exposed by the Great Depression. Contrary to the views of today's conservative critics, this book argues that New Dealers were not 'anticapitalist' in the ways in which they approached the problems confronting society. Rather, they were reformers who were deeply interested in fixing the problems of capitalism, if at times unsure of the best tools to use for the job. In undertaking their reforms, the New Dealers profoundly changed the United States in ways that still resonate today. Lively and engaging, this narrative history focuses on the impact of political and economic change on social and cultural relations.