In this succinct text, Jonathan Michaels examines the rise of anti-communist sentiment in the postwar United States, exploring the factors that facilitated McCarthyism and assessing the long-term effects on US politics and culture. McCarthyism: The Realities, Delusions and Politics Behind the 1950s Red Scare offers an analysis of the ways in which fear of communism manifested in daily American life, giving readers a rich understanding of this era of postwar American history. Including primary documents and a companion website, Michaels' text presents a fully integrated picture of...

In this succinct text, Jonathan Michaels examines the rise of anti-communist sentiment in the postwar United States, exploring the factors that facilitated McCarthyism and assessing the long-term effects on US politics and culture. McCarthyism: The Realities, Delusions and Politics Behind the 1950s Red Scare offers an analysis of the ways in which fear of communism manifested in daily American life, giving readers a rich understanding of this era of postwar American history. Including primary documents and a companion website, Michaels' text presents a fully integrated picture of...

Rock and roll music evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and 1950s, as a combination of African American blues, country, pop, and gospel music produced a new musical genre. Even as it captured the ears of the nation, rock and roll was the subject of controversy and contention. The music intertwined with the social, political, and economic changes reshaping America and contributed to the rise of the youth culture that remains a potent cultural force today. A comprehensive understanding of post-World War II U.S. history would be incomplete without a basic knowledge of this...

The 1980 Presidential Election of Ronald Reagan marked in important moment in domestic and international politics, American conservatism, the Republican party, and the economic trajectory of the nation. Scholars and instructors return to this era, a period that includes the Star Wars Crisis, the Iran-Contra scandal, as a crystallization of the 70s, an introduction to the 80s, and a lynchpin of contemporary history.

In five short chapters and historical documents, The 1980 Presidential Election situates the contentious history of this famous election while teaching students about the...

In 1803, the U.S. purchased 828,000 square miles of land from France at approximately three cents per acre. The final decision came after President Thomas Jefferson struggled for three years with the choice that many believed to be unconstitutional, during which the land changed hands between the French and the Spanish. In what was perhaps the nation's most formative development since the Revoluationary War, the the eventual deal secured the U.S. fifteen new states, although it started more polemic and public arguments about the American Frontier, and ensured Jefferson a complicated legacy...

On March 7, 1965, a peaceful voting rights demonstration in Selma, Alabama, was met with an unprovoked attack of shocking violence that riveted the attention of the nation. In the days and weeks following "Bloody Sunday," the demonstrators would not be deterred, and thousands of others joined their cause, culminating in the successful march from Selma to Montgomery. The protest marches led directly to the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, a major piece of legislation, which, ninety-five years after the passage of the Fifteenth Amendment, made the practice of the right to vote...

On March 7, 1965, a peaceful voting rights demonstration in Selma, Alabama, was met with an unprovoked attack of shocking violence that riveted the attention of the nation. In the days and weeks following "Bloody Sunday," the demonstrators would not be deterred, and thousands of others joined their cause, culminating in the successful march from Selma to Montgomery. The protest marches led directly to the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, a major piece of legislation, which, ninety-five years after the passage of the Fifteenth Amendment, made the practice of the right to vote...

In 1918, a devastating world-wide influenza epidemic hit the United States. Killing over 600,000 Americans and causing the national death rate to jump 30% in a single year, the outbreak obstructed the country's participation in World War I and imposed terrible challenges on communities across the United States.

This epidemic provides an ideal lens for understanding the history of infectious disease in the United States. "The Flu Epidemic of 1918 "examines the impact of the outbreak on health, medicine, government, and individual people's lives, and also explores the puzzle of Americans'...

Between 1948 and 1951, the Marshall Plan delivered an unprecedented $12.3 billion in U.S. aid to help Western European countries recover from the destruction of the Second World War, and forestall Communist influence in that region. The Marshall Plan: A New Deal for Europe examines the aid program, its ideological origins and explores how ideas about an Americanized world order inspired and influenced the Marshall Plan s creation and execution. The book provides a much-needed re-examination of the Plan, enabling students to understand its immediate impact and its political, social,...