The American Pageant I-II. [antikvár]

Revising The American Pageant for this eighth edition posed the vexing prob- lem of how to make a good thing better. The Pageant has long enjoyed a deserved reputation as one of the most accessible, popular, and effective text- books in the field of American history. Thomas A. Bailey gave to the book a distinctive personality that mirrored the vast learning and the sparkling class- room style that he had cultivated during his nearly four decades of teaching at Stanford University. He stamped every page of the text with the charm of his inventive prose, his passion for clarity, his disdain for clutter, and his mastery of the narrative form. Clearly, these outstanding attributes of the book had to be preserved, even strengthened. But like the United States itself, sometimes described as the only nation that was born perfect and yet aspired to progress, the Pageant presented possibilities for improvement in certain areas. Specifically, I have tried to pre- serve the book's basic personality while incorporating the rich new scholarship in social, economic, cultural, and intellectual history that has appeared in the last generation. I have been guided in this effort by two principles: first, the desire to bring to light the "inner" histories of people—including women, the poor, blacks, Hispanics, and certain religious communities—who until recently were only imperfectly visible to historians; second, the belief that the main drama and the urgent interest of American history reside in the public arena where these and other groups contend and cooperate with one another. In that sometimes noisy forum, Americans have shaped the civic culture in which they all necessarily live. Thus this eighth edition of The American Pageant, like earlier editions, gives special emphasis to the great public issues—such as constitution making, slavery and civil war, the rights of minorities, economic regulation, and foreign policy—that have dominated national life. It also gives considerable attention to tracing the evolution of major public institutions like the agencies of government and political parties. Public affairs, in short, form the spine of the Pageant's account of American history. This edition includes much new material on the history of the family from colonial times to the twentieth century; on the influence of religion in Ameri- can life; on the role of ideas in the making of the Revolution, the Constitution, and the two-party system, and in the struggle for women's rights; on the effects of urbanization and suburbanization; and on the causes and consequences of immigration, old and new. In addition, readers will find expanded discussion of pre-Columbian history and Native Americans; an entirely new chapter on colonial life in the sev- enteenth century; an extensively revised account of Jacksonian America, stressing the novelty of mass-based political parties and the emergence of the two-party system; new treatment of the rise of a market economy and its implications for women and families in antebellum America; an updated ac-