Recommended Texts for Term Paper: U.S. History 1607- 1865 - Michael Dubin A-K
46 Pages by
Thomas Paine, a native of Thetford, England, arrived in America's coloines with little in the way of money, reputation, or prospects, though he did have a letter of recommendation in his pocket from Benjamin Franklin. Paine also had a passion for liberty in all its forms, and an abiding hatred of tyranny. His forceful, direct expression of those principles found voice in a pamphlet he wrote entitled Common Sense, which proved to be the most influential political work of the time. Ultimately, Paine's treatise provided inspiration to the second Continental Congress for the drafting of the Declaration of Independence. 46 Pages is a dramatic look at a pivotal moment in our country's formation, a scholar's meticulous recreation of the turbulent years leading up to the Revolutionary War, retold with excitement and new insight.
ISBN: 076241507X
The American Revolution by
An elegant synthesis done by the leading scholar in the field, which nicely integrates the work on the American Revolution over the last three decades but never loses contact with the older, classic questions that we have been arguing about for over two hundred years.-Joseph J. Ellis
ISBN: 0812970411
The American Revolution by
This book traces the development of the United States from the 1760s to the consolidation of the federal government during the 1790s. The author argues that the creation of the American republic was a major revolution; by the time it was complete the United States was radically different from Britain and the colonies out which it had emerged.
ISBN: 0813913470
American Revolutions by ISBN: 9780393082814
Angel in the whirlwind : the triumph of the American Revolution by
"Overwhelmed with debt following its victory in the French and Indian Wars, England began imposing harsh new tariffs and taxes on the colonies in the 1760s. When it did, the independence movement grew in strength until protest and rebellion eventually erupted into war." "But despite the charismatic leadership of the independence movement, more than half the colonists remained loyal to England. Benson Bobrick casts light on such important, often overlooked aspects of the American Revolution, and offers compelling portraits of the major figures, as well as some illuminating observations by some of their lesser-known contemporaries." "He thrillingly describes the major battles, from Lexington and Concord to Bunker Hill, Trenton, Saratoga, Camden, and Kings Mountain, and then the climactic siege of Yorktown when the British flag of empire was finally lowered before patriots guns. At the same time, Angel in the Whirlwind weaves together the social and political as well as the military history of the struggle into one epic tale. A variety of voices is represented: English and American, patriot and loyalist, soldier and civilian, foreign adventurer having come to aid the Revolution and German mercenary hired to serve in the army of the king. Their vivid presence brings life to every page."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
ISBN: 0684810603
The barbarous years : the peopling of British North America : the conflict of civilizations, 1600-1675 by
Bernard Bailyn gives us a compelling account of the first great transit of people from Britain, Europe, and Africa to British North America, their involvements with each other, and their struggles with the indigenous peoples of the eastern seaboard.
ISBN: 9780394515700
Belated Feudalism by
Consider interlibrary loan. Traditional theories of American political development depict the American state as a thoroughly liberal state from its very inception. In this book, first published in 1992, Karen Orren challenges that account by arguing that a remnant of ancient feudalism was, in fact, embedded in the American governmental system, in the form of the law of master and servant, and persisted until well into the twentieth century. The law of master and servant was, she reveals, incorporated in the US Constitution and administered from democratic politics. The fully legislative polity that defines the modern liberal state was achieved in America, Orren argues, only through the initiatives of the labor movement in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and was finally ushered in as part of the processes of collective bargaining instituted by the New Deal. This book represents a fundamental reinterpretation of constitutional change in the United States and of the role of American organized labor, which is shown to be a creator of liberalism, rather than a spoiler of socialism.
ISBN: 9780521410397- Believing Skeptics byconsider InterLibrary Loan
Benjamin Constant and the Making of Modern Constitutionalism by Out of Print. Not available at the Madison College Libraries; Consider InterLibrary Loan.
The birth of the Republic, 1763-89 by
In one remarkable quarter-century, thirteen quarrelsome colonies were transformed into a nation. Edmund S. Morgan's classic account of the Revolutionary period shows how the challenge of British taxation started the Americans on a search for constitutional principles to protect their freedom and eventually led to the Revolution. Morgan demonstrates that these principles were not abstract doctrines of political theory but grew instead out of the immediate needs and experiences of the colonists. They were held with passionate conviction, and incorporated, finally, into the constitutions of the new American states and of the United States. Though the basic theme of the book and his assessment of what the Revolution achieved remain the same, Morgan has updated the revised edition of The Birth of the Republic (1977) to include some textual and stylistic changes as well as a substantial revision of the Bibliographic Note.
ISBN: 0226537579
The Book of Abigail and John by
The lives of this remarkable couple unfold alongside events of the Revolutionary War era, a time in which John left his family for prolonged periods to serve his colony and country. Their engaging exchanges follow John's career from provincial lawyer and farmer in Braintree, Massachusetts, to delegate to the Continental Congresses in Philadelphia, to diplomatic success in Europe. John reveals himself as an ambitious, determined, and self-doubting statesman with a trusting, deeply affectionate character and an earthy sense of humor. Abigail's lively and captivating letters show the trials of an intelligent, strong, and resourceful woman who managed the family's farm and business affairs and reared the pair's four children during her husband's long absences. Her missives to John are filled with outspoken remarks on politics, public figures, and world-shaking events. An independent thinker and advocate of equal rights for women, she urged him in one spirited letter to "Remember the Ladies" in framing the new government. Abigail also vividly documents domestic life in eighteenth-century America, providing enlightening details on health problems, childbirth, education, women's activities, the difficulties of travel, and the impact of wartime inflation. The 226 letters contained in this volume are supplemented with a few to third parties and a sampling of diary entries. Altogether, the words and thoughts of these warm, if occasionally fallible, human beings richly convey the experience of the Revolutionary generation in a most personal and authentic way.
ISBN: 1555535224
Cannibals all! or, Slaves without masters by ISBN: 9781429016438- Citizens and Citoyens: Republicans and Liberals in America and France bynot available at our libraries; Consider InterLibrary Loan
- The Creation of the American Republic, 1776-1787 by One of the half dozen most important books ever written about the American Revolution. "New York Times Book Review"ISBN: 0393006441
The Crooked Timber of Humanity - Chapters in the History of Ideas by ISBN: 0691058385
Democracy in America by
Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-59) came to America in 1831 to see what a great republic was like. What struck him most was the country's equality of conditions, its democracy.
ISBN: 0226805328- The Federalist by The Federalist : a commentary on the Constitution of the United States : being a collection of essays written in support of the Constitution agreed upon September 17, 1787, by the Federal Convention
The Federalist Papers by
Paperback edition of the classic Federalist Papers. Also available as digital edition for Kindle: ASIN B0037HOQFS
ISBN: 1441413049
Feudal Society by ISBN: 0226059782
The fiery trial : Abraham Lincoln and American slavery by
Foner begins with Lincoln's youth in Indiana and Illinois and follows the trajectory of his career across an increasingly tense and shifting political terrain from Illinois to Washington, D.C.
ISBN: 9780393066180
Forever free : the story of emancipation and Reconstruction by
examination of the vitally important years of Emancipation and Reconstruction during and immediately following the Civil War.
ISBN: 0375402594- A history of American slavery bynot at MATC library; consider interlibrary loan
- A History of the American Presidency bynot at MATC Libraries; consider interlibrary loan
Holy madness : romantics, patriots, and revolutionaries, 1776-1871 by
"Holy Madness provides not only a fluid history of the tumultuous years that embraced the American and French revolutions, the Irish Rebellion, the Polish uprisings, the liberation of South America, and the Italian Risorgimento, it also probes the spiritual and emotional forces responsible for the founding events of the modern world. Zamoyski also captures the passionate revolutionary figures Lafayette, Napoleon, Benjamin franklin, Bolivar, Rousseau, and countless others who were caught up in the fervor of the nationalist crusade. As the cult of the nation rises again around the world, Holy Madness is a history that takes on chilling relevance in today's society."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
ISBN: 0670892718
Idealism, Politics and History by ISBN: 9780521143226
The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution by
In this book, Bailyn discusses the intense, nation-wide debate on the ratification of the Constitution, stressing the continuities between that struggle over the foundations of the national government and the original principles of the Revolution.
ISBN: 0674443020
An imperfect god : George Washington, his slaves, and the creation of America by
A major new biography of Washington, and the first to explore his engagement with American slavery When George Washington wrote his will, he made the startling decision to set his slaves free; earlier he had said that holding slaves was his "only unavoidable subject of regret." In this groundbreaking work, Henry Wiencek explores the founding father's engagement with slavery at every stage of his life--as a Virginia planter, soldier, politician, president and statesman.
ISBN: 0374175268
An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States by ISBN: 9780807000403Publication Date: 2014-09-16
The Irony of American History by ISBN: 9780226583983- Jackson’s Psychoanalysis and the Indians bynot at MATC Libraries; consider interlibrary loan
- Karl Marx and the Modern State by not available at the Madison College Libraries; Consider InterLibrary Loan
Recommended Titles L - Z
A leap in the dark : the struggle to create the American republic by ISBN: 0195159241- The liberal imagination byconsider InterLibrary Loan
The Liberal Tradition in America by ISBN: 0156512696
Men and Citizens by ISBN: 9780521316408
Moral Minority by
The guiding spirit of the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution, Ms. Allen explains, was not Jesus Christ but John Locke. In direct and accessible prose, she provides fascinating chapters on the religious lives of the six men she considers the key Founding Fathers: Franklin, Washington, John Adams, Jefferson, Madison, and Hamilton.
ISBN: 1566636752- Nationalism and the Modern State by not available at the Madison College Libraries; Consider InterLibrary Loan
- A Nation of Agents bynot available at our libraries; consider InterLibrary Loan
- Notes on the State of Virginia byISBN: 0844623210
Not Your Usual Founding Father by ISBN: 0300113943
The Origins of Totalitarianism by
"How could such a book speak so powerfully to our present moment? The short answer is that we, too, live in dark times, even if they are different and perhaps less dark, and "Origins" raises a set of fundamental questions about how tyranny can arise and the dangerous forms of inhumanity to which it can lead." Jeffrey C. Isaac,The Washington Post Hannah Arendt's definitive work on totalitarianism and an essential component of any study of twentieth-century political history The Origins of Totalitarianism begins with the rise of anti-Semitism in central and western Europe in the 1800s and continues with an examination of European colonial imperialism from 1884 to the outbreak of World War I. Arendt explores the institutions and operations of totalitarian movements, focusing on the two genuine forms of totalitarian government in our time--Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia--which she adroitly recognizes were two sides of the same coin, rather than opposing philosophies of Right and Left. From this vantage point, she discusses the evolution of classes into masses, the role of propaganda in dealing with the nontotalitarian world, the use of terror, and the nature of isolation and loneliness as preconditions for total domination.
ISBN: 0156701537
A People's History of the American Revolution by
"A People's History of the American Revolution skillfully weaves diaries, personal letters, memoirs, and other long-overlooked primary sources into a remarkable first-person account of the events leading up to and during the war. From this perspective, the long struggle for independence appears as far more than a simple fight to break from England. Rather, Raphael reveals a complex and far-flung struggle - for rights and recognition, for maintaining ways of life that were under siege, and for overturning an oppressive social order whose overlords were often those same Revolutionary leaders who were making headlines. With a simple shift of history's lens away from Revolutionary leaders such as George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, and onto the slaves they owned, the Indians they displaced, and the men and boys who did the fighting, Raphael brings us a true people's history of the Revolutionary experience."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
ISBN: 1565846532
The barbarous years : the peopling of British North America : the conflict of civilizations, 1600-1675 by
In this introduction to his large-scale work The Peopling of British North America, Bernard Bailyn identifies central themes in a formative passage of our history: the transatlantic transfer of people from the Old World to the North American continent that formed the basis of American society. Voyagers to the West, which covers the British migration in the years just before the American Revolution and is the first major volume in the Peopling project, is also available from Vintage Books.
ISBN: 0394757793- The Philosophy of the Enlightenment bynot available at our libraries; consider InterLibrary Loan
Politics and Ideology in the Age of the Civil War by
Insisting that politics and ideology must remain at the forefront of any examination of nineteenth-century America, Foner reasserts the centrality of the Civil War to the people of that period. Taken together, the essays work towards reintegrating the social, political, and intellectual history of the nineteenth century.
ISBN: 0195029267
The Portable John Adams by
A new selection of the most significant writings by America's second presidentIn addition to being an uncompromising defender of liberty, esteemed diplomat, and successor to George Washington, John Adams was a passionate and prolific writer. Adams biographer John Patrick Diggins gathers an impressive variety of his works in this compact, original volume, including parts of his diary and autobiography, and selections from his rich correspondence with this wife, Abigail, Thomas Jefferson, and others. The Portable John Adams also features his most important political works: A Dissertation on Canon and Feudal Law, 'Thoughts on Government,' A Defence of Constitutions of the Unites States of America, Novanglus' and Discourses on Davila. There is no finer introduction to the protean genius of this seminal American philosopher.'At last, a manageable volume offers a brilliantly selected and annotated edition of the wisdom of John Adams, the most sardonic of the Founding Fathers.'- Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.
ISBN: 0142437786- The Puritans: The Revolution of the Saints bynot at MATC Libraries; consider interlibrary loan
The Radicalism of the American Revolution by
In a grand and immemsely readable synthesis of historical, political, cultural, and economic analysis, a prize-winning historian describes the events that made the American Revolution. Gordon S. Wood depicts a revolution that was about much more than a break from England, rather it transformed an almost feudal society into a democratic one, whose emerging realities sometimes baffled and disappointed its founding fathers.
ISBN: 0679736883
Revolutionary France 1770-1880 by
Revolutionary France is a vivid narrative history. It is also a radical reinterpretation of the period, and testimony to the power both of ideas and of personality in movements of the past.
ISBN: 0631198083
Revolutionary mothers : women in the struggle for America's independence by
The American Revolution was a home-front war that brought scarcity, bloodshed, and danger into the life of every American, and Carol Berkin shows us that women played a vital role throughout the struggle.
ISBN: 1400041635
The Roots of Democracy by
In The Roots of Democracy Robert E. Shalhope traces the dramatic shifts in attitudes and behavior from before the Revolution, through the war itself, and then on to the confederation period, the creation of republican governments, the making of the Constitution and the conflicts of the 1790s.
ISBN: 0742532658
Samuel Adams by
Samuel Adams: America's Revolutionary Politician offers a fresh full-life biography of the man Thomas Jefferson once described as the helmsman of the American Revolution. In his study, historian John K. Alexander uses narrative history to argue that Samuel Adams was both America's first professional politician and its first modern politician. Adams, Alexander argues, was an unwavering politician who strove to protect the people's basic rights and who emphasized the importance of virtue, liberty, a sense of duty, and education in fashioning a republican society. John K. Alexander's fresh reading of Adams's record, and a uniquely close look into his personal life, uncovers a masterful politician and a man consistent in his beliefs.
ISBN: 0742521141
Something that will surprise the world : the essential writings of the Founding Fathers by
The Founding Fathers--Washington, Hamilton, Jefferson, Adams, Madison. Subjects of seemingly infinite biographies, they are rarely allowed to speak to us in their own words. But it was their words that mattered most to them. As James Madison once wrote, "the biography of an author must be a history of his writings." Here, finally, these towering figures come together in one volume--in conversation with each other, and with us. The Founders were thinking revolutionaries--they read, questioned, debated, and, most of all, wrote. They theorized about government and political institutions; considered the problem of parties and factions; and reflected on religion and education. In this volume, eminent historian Susan Dunn brings together the Founders' most important letters, speeches, and essays and sets them in the context of their lives and times. Through their words, the Founders created the first democracy of the modern world. Their courage, imagination, and genius would never be surpassed. Here they are, in the present tense of their extraordinary lives. To truly understand them, this is where we must begin.
ISBN: 0465017797- The Straussians and the American empire bynot at MATC libraries; consider interlibrary loan
Team of rivals : the political genius of Abraham Lincoln by
Winner of the Lincoln Prize Acclaimed historian Doris Kearns Goodwin illuminates Lincoln's political genius in this highly original work, as the one-term congressman and prairie lawyer rises from obscurity to prevail over three gifted rivals of national reputation to become president. On May 18, 1860, William H. Seward, Salmon P. Chase, Edward Bates, and Abraham Lincoln waited in their hometowns for the results from the Republican National Convention in Chicago. When Lincoln emerged as the victor, his rivals were dismayed and angry. Throughout the turbulent 1850s, each had energetically sought the presidency as the conflict over slavery was leading inexorably to secession and civil war. That Lincoln succeeded, Goodwin demonstrates, was the result of a character that had been forged by experiences that raised him above his more privileged and accomplished rivals. He won because he possessed an extraordinary ability to put himself in the place of other men, to experience what they were feeling, to understand their motives and desires. It was this capacity that enabled Lincoln as president to bring his disgruntled opponents together, create the most unusual cabinet in history, and marshal their talents to the task of preserving the Union and winning the war. We view the long, horrifying struggle from the vantage of the White House as Lincoln copes with incompetent generals, hostile congressmen, and his raucous cabinet. He overcomes these obstacles by winning the respect of his former competitors, and in the case of Seward, finds a loyal and crucial friend to see him through. This brilliant multiple biography is centered on Lincoln's mastery of men and how it shaped the most significant presidency in the nation's history.
ISBN: 0684824906
This Glorious Struggle by
George Washington wrote an astonishing number of letters, both personal and professional. The majority-about 140,000 documents-are from his years as commander in chief during the Revolutionary War, from 1775 to 1783. This Glorious Struggle presents a selection of Washington's most important and interesting letters from that time, including many that have never been published.Washington's lively and often surprisingly candid notes to his wife and family, friends, Congress, fellow soldiers-and even the enemy-chronicle his most critical tactical and strategic decisions, while offering a rare glimpse of the extremes of depression and exultation into which he was cast by the fortunes of war.
ISBN: 9780061251313
The Valley Forge Winter by
"The traditional account portrays Valley Forge in the 1770s as a desolate wilderness far removed from civilian society. Washington's army was forced to endure one of the coldest winters in memory with inadequate food and supplies, despite appeals to the Continental Congress. When the mild weather of spring finally arrived, the Prussian baron Friedrich von Steuben drilled the demoralized soldiers into a first-rate army that would go on to stunning victories at Monmouth and, eventually, at Yorktown." "Bodle presents a very different picture of Valley Forge - one that revises both popular and scholarly perceptions. Far from being set in a wilderness, the Continental Army's quarters were deliberately located in a settled area. And although there was a provisions crisis, Washington overstated the case in order to secure additional support. (A shrewd man, Washington mostly succeeded at keeping his army supplied with food, clothing, and munitions. Farmers from the interior provided food that ensured that the army didn't starve.) As for Steuben's role in training the soldiers, Bodle argues that it was not the decisive factor others have seen in the army's later victories." "The freshness of Bodle's approach is that he offers a complete picture of events both inside and outside the camp boundaries. We see what happens when two armies descend on a diverse and divided community. Anything but stoically passive, the Continentals were effective agents on their own behalf and were actively engaged with their civilian hosts and British foes. The Valley Forge Winter is an example of the "new military history" at its best - a history that puts war back into its social context."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
ISBN: 0271022302
Walden by
`The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation' In 1845 Henry David Thoreau left his home town of Concord, Massachusetts to begin a new life alone, in a rough hut he built himself a mile and a half away on the north-west shore of Walden Pond. Walden is Thoreau's classic autobiographical account of this experiment in solitary living, his refusalto play by the rules of hard work and the accumulation of wealth and above all the freedom it gave him to adapt his living to the natural world around him. This new edition of Walden traces the sources of Thoreau's reading and thinking and considers the author in the context of his birthplace and his sense of its history - social, economic and natural. In addition, an ecological appendix provides modern identifications of the myriad plants andanimals to which Thoreau gave increasingly close attention as he became acclimatized to his life in the woods by Walden Pond.
ISBN: 0192839217
What the Anti-Federalists Were For by
The Anti-Federalists, in Herbert J. Storing's view, are somewhat paradoxically entitled to be counted among the Founding Fathers and to share in the honor and study devoted to the founding. "If the foundations of the American polity was laid by the Federalists," he writes, "the Anti-Federalist reservations echo through American history; and it is in the dialogue, not merely in the Federalist victory, that the country's principles are to be discovered." It was largely through their efforts, he reminds us, that the Constitution was so quickly amended to include a bill of rights. Storing here offers a brilliant introduction to the thought and principles of the Anti-Federalists as they were understood by themselves and by other men and women of their time. His comprehensive exposition restores to our understanding the Anti-Federalist share in the founding its effect on some of the enduring themes and tensions of American political life. The concern with big government and infringement of personal liberty one finds in the writings of these neglected Founders strikes a remarkably timely note.
ISBN: 0226775747
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