This volume takes a unique approach to the understanding of history, beginning with an introduction that erases the traditional separation between author and audience. Readers are welcomed to the guild of historians and encouraged to use the documents and their commentary to reach their own conclusions, becoming "co-historians" with the author. By modeling how an expert scholar interacts with primary sources, the book helps readers evaluate the key documents chronicling this major event in American history.

The book is divided into four sections. The first, "Run-Ups to...