Kategoria BISAC: History >> United States - General

From the Thirteenth century through the Nineteenth, the waterways of the world provided the major means of transportation for exploration, trade, the military, and even criminals. Find out what life was like for those who chose to sail the high seas, as well as for those who didn't choose to be on board, like wives brought to sea by husbands and slaves en route to the auction block. What were their quarters like? What did they eat? How did they pass their long days at sea? These and other questions are answered in animated prose that brings the lives of ordinary people who oftentimes...

From the Abscam investigation to Judge Susan Webber Wright, who presided over the Paula Jones case, this ready-reference encyclopedia provides 264 alphabetically organized entries on the ethics controversies, political scandals, investigations, reforms, and the people involved in them from the formation of the Republic through the year 2000. Throughout American history, political scandals and political reforms have helped to shape the nation's political system. Extensive entries on the activities and players in the Whitewater investigation, Watergate, impeachment proceedings in history,...

1876 is considered to mark the beginning of the modern library movement in the United States, but Americans created and used thousands of libraries before that date. While the history of American libraries has not been neglected by scholars, none has examined in detail where in the different parts of the country various libraries came into existence over any extended period of time. The present work does that, detailing the kinds of libraries that existed before 1876 and including 80 to 85 kinds, depending on the way the collections are classified.

This book presents a comprehensive overview of Black leadership in every aspect of American life, including movements for social justice, education, business, and politics. In the quest for human rights and social advancement, African-American leaders have emerged to lead the fight to overcome racial and economic barriers. This struggle has influenced the exercise of Black leadership in many other areas and the author uses an interdisciplinary approach to reveal the changes, continuities, and variety of African-American approaches to effective leadership. The book also suggests a...

This volume examines letters, newspaper articles, and eyewitness accounts from 1776-1794, documenting James Monroe's time in the Continental Army, in state and national government, and as an attorney, while also revealing aspects of his personal life. These rarely seen documents provide great insight into both Monroe's public activities and his private life. Read letters he wrote from the battlefield to George Washington. Better understand his political views by reading the correspondence he had with Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry. Read a letter Monroe wrote to his wife--the only...

From the beginning of the Republic to the controversial outcome in 2000, election day has been a time of great importance-the climax of a multifaceted drama that has escalated and intensified for several months. Yet studies of the election process rarely devote space to the day itself. This book tells the story of how election day has evolved over the centuries, using contemporary documents to provide a sense of its past and present flavor. The words of participants-voters, candidates, election officials-foreign travelers, reporters, and historians illuminate the elaborate celebrations of...

Interest in ethnic studies and multiculturalism has grown considerably in the years since the 1992 publication of the first edition of this work. Co-editors Ratner and Buenker have revised and updated the first edition of "Multiculturalism in the United States" to reflect the changes, patterns, and shifts in immigration showing how American culture affects immigrants and is affected by them. Common topics that helped determine the degree and pace of acculturation for each ethnic group are addressed in each of the 17 essays, providing the reader with a comparative reference tool. Seven new...

Ellis Island, at the southern tip of Manhattan, was the major portal for European immigrants to the United States and looms large in 19th century and early 20th century history. After extensive restoration, today it is a national symbol and important museum. Authored by a noted historian and librarian at the Ellis Island Immigration Museum, this is the first encyclopedia devoted to the Island, documenting its various incarnations. It contains more than 430 essay entries on the crucial people, operations, rooms and buildings, events, immigration laws and acts, organizations, and other terms...

Through biographical examinations of some of the key figures in the debate on conservation, this book seeks to explore a range of subjects, such as the evolution of the conservation movement, its implications for policy-makers, and how it impacts the daily lives of people everywhere. The varying approaches taken by these individuals will serve to emphasize that there are many definitions of conservation, and that many viewpoints are valid. Detailed observations of important figures on both sides of the debate, including some of the most famous and familiar and some less so, provide readers...

From tax rebels to religious dissidents, it's amazing that the United States of America haven't fallen apart, though it has not been for lack of trying. While the Confederate States of America is the best-known secessionist movement in our history, the South is far from the only example of Americans' declaring independence from Washington DC and the federal government. From runaway slaves to religious visionaries, from Native Americans to tax-shelter seeking wealthy, the quest for political, religious, and economic independence has been a constant force in our country over the centuries.

While soldiers were off fighting on the fields of war, civilians on the home front fought their own daily struggles, sometimes removed from the violence but often enough from deep within the maelstrom of conflict. Chapters provide readers with an excellent, detailed description of how women, children, slaves, and Native Americans coped with privation and looming threat, and how they often used, or tried to use, periods of turmoil to their own advantage. While it is the soldiers who are often remembered for their strength, honor, and courage, it is the civilians who keep life going during...

In post-Civil War America, civilians were ordinarily far-removed from the actual fighting. War brought about tremendous and far-reaching changes to America's society, politics, and economy nonetheless. Readers are offered detailed glimpses into the lives of ordinary folk struggling with the privations, shortages, and anxieties brought on by U.S. entry into war. They are also shown how they strove to turn changing times to their advantage, especially civically and economically, as minorities pressed for political inclusion and traders profited from government contracts and women took on...

Why has a nation founded upon precepts of freedom and universal humanity continually produced, through its preoccupation with race, a divided and constrained populace? Scott Malcomson's search for an answer took him across the country--to the Cherokee Nation, an all-black town, and a white supremacist enclave in Oklahoma--back though the tangled red-white-and-black history of America from colonial times onward, and to his own childhood in racially fractured Oakland, California. By not only recounting our shared tragicomedy of race but helping us to own it--even to embrace it--this...