American Issues ─ To 1877: A Primary Source Reader in United States History

In this first in a two-volume series, Unger (New York U.) and Tomes (St. John's U.) collect 150 primary documents in US history meant to stimulate critical thinking and active learning in students. Documents range from colonization to 1877 and address political, social, cultural, economic, and gender issues like religion, slavery, Native Americans, the Constitution, Jacksonian democracy, women's rights, the Mexican War, the Civil War, and Reconstruction. This edition has new documents that relate the past to current issues; new readings on economic conditions and issues and their relevance to today; an expanded perspective on diversity; and more on the history of American women, social history and the impact of political and economic trends on the lives of ordinary people, and cultural history as revealed through traditional archival and alternative primary sources such as folk songs, ballads, and legends in social and political context. No index is provided. Annotation c2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Pulitzer Prize winning historian Irwin Unger has been teaching American history for over forty years on both coasts. Born and largely educated in New York, he has lived in California, Virginia, and Washington State. He is married to Debi Unger and they have five children, now all safely past their college years. Professor Unger formerly taught at California State University at Long Beach, the University of California at Davis, and New York University. He is now professor emeritus at NYU. Professor Unger’s professional interests have ranged widely within American history. He has written on Reconstruction, the Progressive Era, and on the 1960s. His first book, The Greenback Era, won a Pulitzer Prize in 1965. Since then he has written The Movement: The New Left and (with Debi Unger) The Vulnerable Years, Turning Point: 1968, The Best of Intentions (about the Great Society), LBJ: A Life, The Guggenheims, A Family History. He has just completed a book on the 1960s and he and Debi Unger are working on a biography of General George C. Marshall.