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This book traces the events of Kennedy’s assassination and Lyndon B. Johnson’s subsequent ascension to the presidency. Covering both the political shifts of the time and the cultural fallout of the national tragedy, this book introduces both an iconic event and the context in which that event was heralded as iconic. Drawing on newspaper articles, political speeches, letters, and diaries, the author critically re-examines the event of JFK’s death and its persistent political and cultural legacy.
For thirteen days in October of 1962, a truly perilous flirtation with nuclear war developed between the United States and USSR, as the superpowers argued over the installation of Soviet nuclear weapons in Cuba. Launched by rash judgment and concluded through circumspect leadership, the Cuban Missile Crisis acted as a catalyst for change during the Cold War. Resolved through back-channel negotiations, the moment is popularly remembered as the closest the world has ever come to full-scale nuclear war. Using government memoranda, personal letters, and newspaper articles The Cuban Missile Crisis, details the actual events of the political history, while explaining widespread public response. In six concise chapters, Alice George introduces the history of Cold War America and contextualizes its political, social, and cultural legacy. This will be a must-read for anyone looking for an in-depth summary of these important events. For additional resources please visit the companion website at http://www.routledge.com/cw/criticalmoments.
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, and cultural legacy. Including essential primary documents, this concise book will be a key resource for students of America’s role in the world at mid-century.
The United States today cries out for a robust, self-respecting, intellectually sophisticated left, yet the very idea of a left appears to have been discredited. In this brilliant new book, Eli Zaretsky rethinks the idea by examining three key moments in American history: the Civil War, the New Deal and the range of New Left movements in the 1960s and after including the civil rights movement, the women's movement and gay liberation.In each period, he argues, the active involvement of the left - especially its critical interaction with mainstream liberalism - proved indispensable. American liberalism, as represented by the Democratic Party, is necessarily spineless and ineffective without a ...
This revised and updated edition of the hugely successful American Civilization provides students of American studies with the perfect background and introductory information on contemporary American life. This sixth edition examines the central dimensions of American society from geography and the environment, government and politics, to religion, education, sports, media and the arts. This book: covers all core American studies topics at introductory level. contains essential historical background for American studies students in the twenty-first century analyzes issues of gender, class, race, and minorities in America’s cosmopolitan population. contains color photos, case studies, quest...
In June of 1876, the U.S. government’s plan to pressure the Lakota and Cheyenne people onto reservations came to a dramatic and violent end with a battle that would become enshrined in American memory. In the eyes of many Americans at the time, the Battle of Little Bighorn represented a symbolic struggle between the civilized and the savage. Known as the Battle of the Greasy Grass to the Lakota, the Battle of Little Bighorn to the people who suppressed them, and as Custer’s Last Stand in the annals of popular culture, the event continues to captivate students of American history. In The Battle of Little Bighorn, Debra Buchholtz narrates the history of the battle and critically examines the legacy it has left. Through government documents, newspaper articles, and eyewitness accounts, Buchholtz situates the material and symbolic impact of the battle at the time. Using popular film and cultural references, she investigates the ways in which the wake of the event continues to shape the way students understand indigenous peoples, the Wild West, and the history of America.
Six months after the Declaration of Independence, the American Revolution was all but lost. A powerful British force had routed the Americans at New York, occupied three colonies, and advanced within sight of Philadelphia. Yet, as David Hackett Fischer recounts in this riveting history, George Washington--and many other Americans--refused to let the Revolution die. On Christmas night, as a howling nor'easter struck the Delaware Valley, he led his men across the river and attacked the exhausted Hessian garrison at Trenton, killing or capturing nearly a thousand men. A second battle of Trenton followed within days. The Americans held off a counterattack by Lord Cornwallis's best troops, then w...
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 available to all Americans, irrespective of race. From Selma to Montgomery chronicles the marches, placing them in the context of the long Civil Rights Movement, and considers the legacy of the Act, drawing parallels with contemporary issues of enfranchisement. In five concise chapters bolstered by primary documents including civil rights legislation, speeches, and news coverage, Combs introduces the Civil Rights Movement to undergraduates through the courageous actions of the freedom marchers.