Constructing the American Past: A Source Book of a People's History

Constructing the American Past achieves a level of inclusion and depth rarely found in other source books. Each chapter focuses on a particular problem or moment in American history, and provides students with several points of view. The photographs, posters and maps included ask the students to “read” the visual sources of American history. By exposing students to primary sources, the building blocks of history, Constructing the American Past fosters a solid foundation and invites its readers to analyze and interpret American history.

Constructing the American Past
Volume II Sixth Edition
By Elliott J. Gorn, Randy Roberts, Terry D. Bilhartz

Challenge your students to become historians with the hands-on history of letters, articles, journalistic sources, photographs and posters.

Constructing the American Past achieves a level of inclusion and depth rarely found in other source books. Each chapter focuses on a particular problem or moment in American history, providing students with several different sources and points of view. An array of written sources, photographs, posters and maps asks students to analyze the visual sources of American history. By exposing students to these “conversations” of primary sources, the building blocks of history, Constructing the American Past fosters a solid foundation and invites its readers to analyze and interpret American events as historians do.

New to the Sixth Edition

• NEW! Chapter 10 on World War II explores how Americans fought the “good war” for freedom, but how some Americans—specifically of Japanese, Mexican or African ancestry—found that the good war left a legacy of problems.
• NEW! Chapter 11 on the Cold War has been expanded to include poet Thomas McGrath’s statement to the House Un-American Activities Committee.
• NEW! Chapter 14 now includes Dennis Hayes’s inaugural Earth Day speech.
• More visual sources appear throughout the volume, including a diverse selection of poetry and newspaper advertisements.
• All of the “Additional Readings” sections have been updated to include the most recent scholarship.

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