A History of the American People"The creation of the United States of America is the greatest of all human adventures," begins Paul Johnson. "No other national story holds such tremendous lessons, for the American people themselves and for the rest of mankind." In his prize-winning classic, Johnson presents an in-depth portrait of American history from the first colonial settlements to the Clinton administration. This is the story of the men and women who shaped and led the nation and the ordinary people who collectively created its unique character. Littered with letters, diaries, and recorded conversations, it details the origins of their struggles for independence and nationhood, their heroic efforts and sacrifices to deal with the 'organic sin’ of slavery and the preservation of the Union to its explosive economic growth and emergence as a world power. Johnson discusses contemporary topics such as the politics of racism, education, the power of the press, political correctness, the growth of litigation, and the influence of women throughout history. He sees Americans as a problem-solving people and the story of their country as "essentially one of difficulties being overcome by intelligence and skill, by faith and strength of purpose, by courage and persistence... Looking back on its past, and forward to its future, the auguries are that it will not disappoint humanity." Sometimes controversial and always provocative, A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE is one author’s challenging and unique interpretation of American history. Johnson’s views of individuals, events, themes, and issues are original, critical, and in the end admiring, for he is, above all, a strong believer in the history and the destiny of the American people. |
What people are saying - Write a review
User ratings
5 stars |
| ||
4 stars |
| ||
3 stars |
| ||
2 stars |
| ||
1 star |
|
LibraryThing Review
User Review - AliceAnna - LibraryThingOMG!!!! This is a really long book (977 pages before you get to the footnotes) and it's broken up into only 8 chapters. I don't know about you, but I can't devote 4 or 5 hours in one sitting to ... Read full review
LibraryThing Review
User Review - dickmanikowski - LibraryThingI actually read this book by mistake. A good friend recommended Howard Zinn's A PEOPLES HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES, but I misremembered the title. By the time I realized the mistake, I was up to the ... Read full review
Contents
11 | |
29 | |
The First Dissentient | 47 |
The Primitive Structure of Colonial America | 63 |
Cotton Mather and the End of the Puritan Utopia | 81 |
The Rise of Philadelphia | 97 |
part | 119 |
The Role of Benjamin Franklin | 134 |
Centrality of Railroads | 533 |
Carnegie Steel and American Philanthropy | 551 |
Chicago and New York | 569 |
Church Bierstadt and the Limitless Landscape | 585 |
The Rise of Labor and Muckraking | 599 |
Populism Imperialism and the SpanishAmerican War | 609 |
PART | 625 |
McAdoo and the Coming of War | 639 |
The Galvanizing Effect of Tom Paine | 153 |
Americas First Civil War | 171 |
The Ratification Debate | 191 |
The Role of Religion in the Constitution | 205 |
Success of Washington and His Farewell Address | 222 |
Central Importance of John Marshall | 235 |
The Louisiana Purchase 2 51 | 253 |
Andrew Jackson the Deus Ex Machina | 267 |
PART THREE | 281 |
Spread of the Religious Sects | 296 |
The Missouri Compromise | 316 |
The Advent of Jacksonian Democracy | 329 |
The War against the Bank | 355 |
Polk and the Mexican War | 372 |
De Tocqueville and the Emerging Supernation | 389 |
Emerson and the Birth of an American Culture | 403 |
The Era of Pierce and Buchanan | 424 |
Centrality of Preserving the Union | 443 |
Why the South Was Virtually Bound to Lose | 461 |
The War among the Generals | 474 |
Andrew Johnson and the Two Reconstructions | 499 |
MassImmigration and Thinking Big | 512 |
Harding Normalcy and WitchHunting | 655 |
Fundamentalism and Middle America | 671 |
Cheap Electricity and Its Dramatic Impact | 689 |
Race Prejudice Popular Entertainment and Downward Mobility | 703 |
Twenties Cultural and Economic Prosperity | 717 |
Why the Depression Was So Deep and LongLasting | 735 |
The Mythology of the New Deal | 755 |
US Isolationism and Internationalism | 768 |
America in the War the Miracle in Production | 781 |
Nuclear Weapons and the Defeat of Japan | 799 |
America and the Birth of Israel | 819 |
Piety on the Potomac | 839 |
Election and the Myth of Camelot | 855 |
Lyndon Johnson and His Great Society | 869 |
Nixon and His Silent Majority | 887 |
Congressional Rule and Americas Nadir | 905 |
Rearmament and the Collapse of Soviet Power | 926 |
FindeSiècle America and Its Whims | 941 |
Language Abortion and Crime | 959 |
The Triumph of Women | 973 |
Index roë1 | 1059 |