- Increased Global Coverage!--As always, each of the book’s six parts begins
with an essay setting American events in a global context. In the fourth edition,
this perspective is carried farther with related material woven throughout
the natural narrative flow of each chapter. Good examples of this are in Chapter
2, West Africa and the scope of the African Slave Trade in the early modern
period, and in Chapter 23, the Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and its global implications.
- New prologue! "Settling and Civilizing the Americas", devoted entirely to
the Pre-Columbian Americas, emphasizes the influence of classical civilizations
in ancient Mesoamerica upon many North American societies.
- New chapter order Part 4! Now begins with "The New South and the TransMississippi
West" followed by "The New Industrial Order" and "The Rise of an Urban Order"
to reflect the way most professors teach the course.
- Chapters 25 and 26 condensed into one chapter. Now, Chapter 24 "The New
Era" covers through the Great Crash, while Chapter 25 covers both the Depression
and the New Deal.
- Part 6 completely revised to provide stronger themes in order to address
a chronic problem with American History survey texts: the difficulty of providing
a coherent narrative of more recent events, whose importance are only slowly
being sorted out. Therefore:
- Chapter 28, the Suburban Era, now takes its coverage through the Cuban Missile
Crisis of 1962, enabling students to focus more clearly on the arc of the
first half of the Cold War.
- Chapter 29 has been recast as Civil Rights and the Crisis of Liberalism.
In the 3rd edition this chapter was simply entitled "Liberalism and Beyond".
The new chapter focus will better illustrate how the Civil Rights crusade
was the defining social movement of the era.
- Chapter 30, the Vietnam Era, reorients its coverage of minority activists
by focusing on the theme of identity group politics. Coverage of the feminist
movement, ERA and abortion rights has been moved to this chapter from "The
Age of Limits" to join expanded coverage of Latino protests, Native Americans,
Asian Americans and gay activism.
- Chapter 32 now focuses on the Conservative Rebellion and covers from 1980-1992.
- NEW CHAPTER! Chapter 33, Nation of Nations in a Global Community, provides
an up-to-date, yet more coherent and thematic coverage than most surveys of
events from 1992 to the present. The chapter stresses the global connections
in today’s American history. First a section on the new immigration of the
1980’s and 90’s, then sections on Clinton foreign and domestic policy; a section
on the rise of the Internet and its social implications, and ending with a
focus on Multiculturalism and the contested American identity.
- Each chapter now begins with a succinct PREVIEW in large type that highlights
the chapter’s key theme. This helps students to focus in to major points in
the chapter before reading the chapter.
- New chapter summaries are given in bulleted outline form, allowing major
points to stand out clearly. This feature helps students review and study
the material they just covered in the reading.
- New layout and design visually shows concepts from the narrative.
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