Table 3: U.S. Presidents and Their Administrations
Year President (Party) Opponent
1. 1789 George Washington - V-P: John Adams
1792 George Washington - V-P: John Adams
2. 1796 John Adams (Federalist) Thomas Jefferson V-P: Thomas Jefferson
3. 1800 Thomas Jefferson (Dem.- John Adams/Rep.) Aaron Burr V-P: Aaron Burr
Prior to the evolution of a clear two-party system and separate election of the President and Vice-President, there were often three or four contenders for the presidency, often from the same party. The most famous instance of this came in 1800. Jefferson, who was unofficially his party's candidate for President, and Burr, both Democratic-Republicans, tied with seventy-three electoral votes. The two opposing Federalist candidates, John Adams and Charles C. Pinckney trailed with sixty-five and sixty-four, respectively. The election was decided in the House of Representatives in the so-called Revolution of 1800 (see Chapter 3).
Table 4
Year President (Party) Opponent
3. 1804 Thomas Jefferson (Dem.- Charles Pinckney Rep.) V-P: George Clinton
4. 1808 James Madison (Dem.-Rep.) Charles Pinckney V-P: George Clinton
1812 James Madison (Dem.-Rep.) De Witt Clinton V-P: Elbridge Gerry
5. 1816 James Monroe (Dem.-Rep.) Rufus King V-P: Daniel D. Tompkins
1820 James Monroe (Dem.-Rep.) John Q. Adams V-P: Daniel D. Tompkins
6. 1824 John Quincy Adams (Dem.- Andrew Jackson Rep.) V-P: John C. Calhoun
In the 1824 election, there were four legitimate candidates for the presidency: John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, Henry Clay, and William H. Crawford. Jackson won the most popular and electoral votes, but lacked the majority of electoral votes needed. The election was thrown to the House of Representatives, which went for John Quincy Adams when Clay, a powerful House leader, threw his support to the New Englander in the so-called Corrupt Bargain.
Table 5
Year President (Party) Opponent
7. 1828 Andrew Jackson (Dem.) John Q. Adams V-P: John C. Calhoun
1832 Andrew Jackson (Dem.) Henry Clay V-P: Martin Van Buren
8. 1836 Martin Van Buren (Dem.) William Harrison V-P: Richard M. Johnson
9. 1840 William Henry Harrison Martin Van Buren(Whig) V-P: John Tyler
10. 1841 John Tyler (Whig)
On Harrison's death of pneumonia a few months after his inauguration, Tyler became the first Vice-President to succeed to the office due to the death of a sitting President. Tyler kept Harrison's Cabinet, but named no new Vice-President. There was no constitutional provision for replacing a Vice-President until ratification of the Twenty-fifth Amendment in 1967.
Table 6
Year President (Party) Opponent
11. 1844 James K. Polk (Dem.) Henry Clay
V-P: George M. Dallas
12. 1848 Zachary Taylor (Whig) Lewis Cass
V-P: Millard Fillmore
13. 1850 Millard Fillmore
(Succeeded Taylor on his
death.)
14. 1852 Franklin Pierce (Dem.) Winfield Scott
V-P: William R. King
15. 1856 James Buchanan (Dem.) John C. Fremont
V-P: John C. Breckinridge
16. 1860 Abraham Lincoln (Rep.) Stephen Douglas
V-P: Hannibal Hamlin
1864 Abraham Lincoln (Rep.) George McClellan
V-P: Andrew Johnson
17. 1865 Andrew Johnson
(Succeeded Lincoln follow-
ing his assassination.)
18. 1868 Ulysses S. Grant (Rep.) Horatio Seymour
V-P: Schuyler Colfax
1872 Ulysses S. Grant (Rep.) Horace Greeley
V-P: Henry Wilson
19. 1876 Rutherford B. Hayes (Rep.) Samuel J. Tilden
V-P: William A. Wheeler
Tilden won a small majority in the popular vote and the electoral college, but was one short of the required number of electoral votes. Twenty electoral votes were in dispute. To win, Tilden needed just one of these; Hayes needed all twenty. The chairman of the Republican Party claimed Hayes had won all twenty votes, and the dispute lasted until March 1877. The vote was accompanied by widespread fraud, especially in the South. Congress was left to decide the issue, and an electoral commission was established to settle the question. Splitting on straight partisan lines, the commission gave the election to Hayes, who had promised the South that he would bring an end to Reconstruction and withdraw federal troops from their states.
Table 7
Year President (Party) Opponent
20. 1880 James A. Garfield (Rep.) Winfield Hancock
V-P: Chester A. Arthur
21. 1881 Chester A. Arthur
(Succeeded Garfield follow-
ing his assassination.)
22. 1884 Grover Cleveland (Dem.) James G. Blaine
V-P: Thomas A. Hendricks
23. 1888 Benjamin Harrison (Rep.) Grover Cleveland
V-P: Levi P. Morton
In the election of 1888, Cleveland won the popular vote with 48.6 percent of the votes cast, but lost the election in the electoral college, where Harrison won 233-168.
Table 8
Year President (Party) Opponent
24. 1892 Grover Cleveland (Dem.) Benjamin Harrison
V-P: Adlai E. Stevenson
25. 1896 William McKinley (Rep.) William J. Bryan
V-P: Garret Hobart
1900 William McKinley (Rep.) William J. Bryan
V-P: Theodore Roosevelt
26. 1901 Theodore Roosevelt (Rep.)
(Succeeded McKinley
following his assassina-
tion.)
1904 Theodore Roosevelt (Rep.) Alton B. Parker
V-P: Charles Warren Fair-
banks
27. 1908 William H. Taft (Rep.) William J. Bryan
V-P: James S. Sherman
28. 1912 Woodrow Wilson (Dem.) Theodore
V-P: Thomas R. Marshall Roosevelt
1916 Woodrow Wilson (Dem.) Charles E. Hughes
V-P: Thomas R. Marshall
29. 1920 Warren G. Harding (Rep.) James M. Cox
V-P: Calvin Coolidge
30. 1923 Calvin Coolidge (Rep.)
(Succeeded Harding, who
died of a heart attack.)
1924 Calvin Coolidge (Rep.) John W. Davis
V-P: Charles G. Dawes
31. 1928 Herbert C. Hoover (Rep.) Alfred E. Smith
V-P: Charles Curtis
32. 1932 Franklin D. Roosevelt Herbert Hoover
(Dem.)
V-P: John Nance Garner
1936 Franklin D. Roosevelt Alfred M. Landon
(Dem.)
V-P: John Nance Garner
1940 Franklin D. Roosevelt Wendell Willkie
(Dem.)
V-P: Henry A. Wallace
1944 Franklin D. Roosevelt Thomas E. Dewey
(Dem.)
V-P: Harry S. Truman
33. 1945 Harry S. Truman (Dem.)
(Succeeded Roosevelt at his
death.)
1948 Harry S. Truman (Dem.) Thomas E. Dewey
V-P: Alben W. Barkley
34. 1952 Dwight D. Eisenhower Adlai Stevenson
(Rep.)
V-P: Richard M. Nixon
1956 Dwight D. Eisenhower Adlai Stevenson
(Rep.)
V-P: Richard M. Nixon
35. 1960 John F. Kennedy (Dem.) Richard M. Nixon
V-P: Lyndon B. Johnson
36. 1963 Lyndon B. Johnson
(Succeeded Kennedy
following his assassina-
tion.)
1964 Lyndon B. Johnson (Dem.) Barry Goldwater
V-P: Hubert H. Humphrey
37. 1968 Richard M. Nixon (Rep.) Hubert Humphrey
V-P: Spiro T. Agnew
1972 Richard M. Nixon (Rep.) George McGovern
V-P: Spiro T. Agnew/
Gerald Ford
Nixon's running mate Agnew, the former governor of Maryland, was accused of tax fraud and having taken bribes while a county executive. He later pleaded no-contest to the tax-evasion charge and resigned as Vice-President. Under the Twenty-fifth Amendment, enacted in 1967 to ensure orderly succession in the event of a President's death or resignation, Nixon appointed Representative Gerald Ford as Vice-President, and he was confirmed by Congress.
Table 9
Year President (Party) Opponent
38. 1974 Gerald Ford (Rep.)
Ford succeeded Nixon following his resignation in the wake of the Watergate scandal. Governor Nelson Rockefeller of New York was appointed Vice-President by Ford under the 25th Amendment.
Table 10
Year President (Party) Opponent
39. 1976 Jimmy Carter (Dem.) Gerald Ford
V-P: Walter Mondale
40. 1980 Ronald Reagan (Rep.) Jimmy Carter
V-P: George Bush
1984 Ronald Reagan (Rep.) Walter Mondale
V-P: George Bush
41. 1988 George Bush (Rep.) Michael Dukakis
V-P: J. Danforth Quayle
§
Selected Readings
The following list includes general books and histories that cover broad themes and large sections of American history. This list of general readings is followed by a listing of books keyed by chapter to the present work.
The individual chapter sections also include selected fiction titles that are appropriate to the period covered. Relying on fiction for history can be a tricky business, but the selected novels offer a vivid picture of life in a particular period, or interesting interpretations of, and insights into, historical events or characters. They are recommended for their literary value and not necessarily for their perfect historical accuracy. Novelists are permitted license the historian is denied, but when read in tandem with accurate histories, these historical novels can be quite revealing.
The great breadth and number of sources used in documenting this history would have made standard footnoting cumbersome. For the sake of readibility, I have chosen to attribute any direct citations in the text; all other sources used are included in the following annotated listings.
I have attempted to use only those sources that are either still in print or generally available through public libraries. Asterisks (*) denote paperback editions.
Bennett, Lerone, Jr. Before the Mayflower: A History of Black America (5th edition). Chicago: Johnson Publishing, 1982; New York: *Penguin, 1984. A standard work that assesses the impact of blacks in America and the course of black American history.
Boller, Paul F., Jr. Presidential Campaigns. London: Oxford University Press, 1984; *Oxford University Press, 1985. A refreshingly humorous look at the history of America's curious process of selecting presidents. Anecdotal and entertaining as well as fascinating history.
Brandon, William. The American Heritage Book of Indians. New York: American Heritage, 1963; Boston: *Houghton Mifflin, 1985. A lavishly illustrated history with much fascinating detail about Indian life and history.
Burns, James McGregor. The American Experiment: The Vineyard of Liberty. New York: Knopf, 1982; New York: *Vintage, 1983.
_____. The American Experiment: The Workshop of Democracy. New York: Knopf, 1985; New York: *Vintage, 1986.
_____. The American Experiment: The Crosswinds of Freedom. New York: Knopf, 1989. A political scientist and mainly a middle-of-the-roader in terms of interpretation, Burns is always lucid and entertaining. The above three volumes cover the period from the making of the Constitution through the Reagan years.
Cunliffe, Marcus. The Presidency. New York: American Heritage, 1968; Boston: *Houghton Mifflin, 1987. A thematic approach rather than a simple chronology, this is the work of a historian who analyzes the men who shaped the office.
Evans, Sara M. Born for Liberty: A History of Women in America. New York: Free Press, 1989.
Fitzgerald, Frances. America Revised: History Schoolbooks in the Twentieth Century. Boston: Little, Brown, 1979; New York: *Vintage, 1980. A revealing study of the textbooks that shaped American impressions of our history.
Grun, Bernard. The Timetables of History: A Horizontal Linkage of People and Events. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1975; New York: *Touchstone, 1982. A chronology of world history, tracing developments in politics, culture, science, and other fields. Useful for seeing American history in the larger context of world events.
Heffner, Richard D. A Documentary History of the United States. New York: *New American Library, 1985. American history through major speeches, writings, court decisions, and other written documents.
Hirsch, E. D., Jr. Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1987; New York: *Vintage, 1988. What we don't know and why.
_____, Joseph F. Kett, and James Trefil. The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1988. What we need to know, in bite-sized portions.
Hofstadter, Richard, and Clarence L. Ver Steeg. Great Issues in American History: From Settlement to Revolution, 1584-1776. New York: *Vintage, 1958. This and the succeeding volumes in the series are a presentation of history through major writings, speeches, and court decisions, with interpretive essays.
_____. Great Issues in American History: From the Revolution to the Civil War, 1765-1865. New York: *Vintage, 1958.
_____. Great Issues in American History: From Reconstruction to the Present Day, 1865-1981. New York: *Vintage, 1958.
Hoyt, Edwin P. America's Wars and Military Excursions. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1987. An encyclopedic but entertaining overview of America's battles, large and small, naughty and nice.
Hymowitz, Carol, and Michaele Weissman. A History of Women in America. New York: *Bantam, 1978. A useful overview of women's achievements and their role in American history and society.
Lavender, David. The American Heritage History of the West. New York: American Heritage, 1965; Boston: *Houghton Mifflin, 1985.
McEvedy, Colin. The Penguin Atlas of North American History to 1870. New York: *Penguin, 1988. Using a progressively changing map of North America, the author traces the course of American history from prehistory to the Civil War.
Morison, Samuel Eliot. The Oxford History of the American People. London: Oxford University Press, 1965; New York: *Mentor (3 volumes), 1972. This is history pretty much the way you may have learned it in school, a highly traditional approach that tends to skim over the unsavory moments in American history and celebrates the nobility of American progress.
Ravitch, Diane, and Chester Finn. What Do Our Seventeen-Year-Olds Know? New York: Harper & Row, 1987; *Harper & Row, 1988. This is the controversial study, funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, that created a furor when its findings were released showing an astonishing lack of fundamental knowledge of American history and literature among high school juniors.
Ross, Shelley. Fall From Grace: Sex, Scandal and Corruption in American Politics from 1702 to the Present. New York: *Ballantine, 1988. An amusing overview of the seamier side of American political life that proves there is nothing modern about corruption in high places.
Schlesinger, Arthur M., general editor. The Almanac of American History. New York: Putnam, 1983; New York: *Perigee, 1983. A "day-by-day" chronology of American history, with several interpretive essays by prominent American historians.
Wade, Wyn Craig. The Fiery Cross: The Ku Klux Klan in America. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1987; New York: *Touchstone, 1988. Traces the development of the Klan from post Civil War days to modern times.
Williams, T. Harry. The History of American Wars: From 1745 to 1918. New York: Knopf, 1985; Baton Rouge: *Louisiana State University Press, 1985. Unfinished at the time of the author's death, this book presents a solid historical interpretation of events in America's wars.
Whitney, David C. The American Presidents. Garden City, N.Y.: Double-day, 1985. A very basic reference to the American presidents through Reagan, with biographical sketches and a brief overview of events during each administration.
World Almanac. The Little Red, White and Blue Book. New York: *Pharos Books, 1987. A brief chronology of American history dating from Columbus.
Zinn, Howard. A People's History of the United States. New York: Harper & Row, 1980; New York: *Perennial, 1980. Looking at American history from the view of the "losers" (Indians, women, blacks, the poor, etc.), this is revisionist history at its best, and serves as a useful and necessary corrective to such traditional views as those of Morison and other standard American historians.
Chapter 1. Brave New World
Bailyn, Bernard. The Peopling of British North America. Knopf, 1986; New York: *Vintage, 1987.
_____. Voyagers to the West: A Passage in the Peopling of America on the Eve of the Revolution. New York: Knopf, 1986; New York: *Vintage, 1988.
Boorstin, Daniel J. The Americans: The Colonial Experience. New York: Random House, 1958; New York: *Vintage, 1985.
Granzotto, Gianni. Christopher Columbus. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1985. By an Italian historian, a comprehensive and realistic portrait of America's European discoverer.
Jennings, Francis. The Invasion of America: Indians, Colonialism and the Cant of Conquest. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina, 1975; New York: *Norton, 1976. As the title implies, this book departs from the traditional view of a European "discovery" of America, calling it instead an "invasion."
Klein, Herbert S. The Middle Passage: Comparative Studies in the Atlantic Slave Trade. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1978. A standard history of the slave trade.
Lauber, Patricia. Who Discovered America. New York: Random House, 1970. A young-adult book that provides a very adequate introduction to pre-Columbian history of the Americas.
Magnusson, Magnus, and Hermann Palsson. The Vinland Sagas: The Norse Discovery of America. New York: *Penguin, 1965.
Morison, Samuel Eliot. Christopher Columbus, Mariner. New York: New American Library, 1985.
_____. The European Discovery of America: The Northern Voyages. London: Oxford University Press, 1971.
_____. The European Discovery of America: The Southern Voyages. London: Oxford University Press, 1974. These two volumes have been abridged and combined by Morison in The Great Explorers. New York: Oxford University Press, 1978; New York: *Oxford University Press, 1986.
Nash, Gary. Red, White and Black: The Peopling of Early America. New York: Prentice-Hall, 1974; *Prentice-Hall, 1982.
Parkman, Francis. France and England in America (two volumes). New York: Library of America, 1983. Writing for the general public during the mid-nineteenth century, Parkman was one of America's first great historian-writers.
Quinn, David Beers. England and the Discovery of America: 1481-1620. New York: Knopf, 1974.
_____. Set Fair for Roanoke: Voyages and Colonies, 1584-1606. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1985.
Smith, John. Captain John Smith's History of Virginia. New York: Bobbs-Merrill, 1970.
Snell, Tee Loftin. The Wild Shores: America's Beginnings. Washington: National Geographic Society, 1974.
Selected Fiction:
In most historical fiction, the emphasis is on fiction rather than on history. However, there are some very good novels that bring the two together and can be read to get an honest sense of time and place, as long as the reader remembers they are works of the imagination.
Jennings, Gary. Aztec. New York: Atheneum, 1980; New York: *Avon Books, 1981.
Marlowe, Stephen. The Memoirs of Christopher Columbus. New York: Scribner's, 1987; New York: *Ballantine, 1989.
Settle, Mary Lee. Prisons. New York: Putnam, 1973.
Chapter 2. Say You Want a Revolution
Alden, John R. George Washington: A Biography. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1970; New York: *Dell, 1987. A sound and readable one-volume biography.
Butterfield, L. H., Marc Friedlander, and Mary-Jo Kline, eds. The Book of Abigail and John: Selected Letters of the Adams Family. Boston: *Harvard University Press, 1975.
Commager, Henry Steele. The Empire of Reason: How Europe Imagined and America Realized the Enlightenment. Doubleday/Anchor, 1977; London: *Oxford University Press, 1982.
Cunliffe, Marcus. George Washington: Man and Monument. Boston: Little, Brown, 1958; New York: *New American Library, 1984, (revised edition).
Demos, John P. Entertaining Satan: Witchraft and the Culture of Early New England. London: *Oxford University Press, 1982.
Flexner, James Thomas. Washington: The Indispensable Man. Boston: Little, Brown, 1969; New York: *New American Library, 1979. This single volume reduces the material found in Flexner's four-volume study, another standard among Washington biographies.
Franklin, Benjamin. The Autobiography and Other Writings. New York: *Signet, 1961.
Freeman, Douglas S. George Washington: A Biography. New York: *Scribners, 1985. An abridgment of the seven volumes that constitute Freeman's biography, considered to be the standard history of Washington.
Hofstadter, Richard. America at 1750: A Social History. New York: Knopf, 1971.
Kerber, Linda K. Women of the Republic: Intellect and Ideology in Revolutionary America. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1980; New York: *Norton, 1986.
Kitman, Marvin. George Washington's Expense Account. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1970; New York: *Harper Perennial, 1988. A funny and even revealing book that does a line-by-line examination of the account the commander submitted to Congress after the war.
Langguth, A. J. Patriots: The Men Who Started the American Revolution. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1988; *Simon and Schuster, 1989. A vividly readable history of the Revolution and the personalities behind it.
Levin, Phyllis Lee. Abigail Adams: A Biography. New York: St. Martin's, 1987; New York: *Ballantine, 1988.
Nash, Gary B. The Urban Crucible: Northern Seaports and the Origins of the American Revolution. Boston: *Harvard University Press, 1986.
Norton, Mary Beth. Liberty's Daughters: The Revolutionary Experience of American Women. Boston: Little, Brown, 1980. A recent book exploring a vastly overlooked segment of American history, the role of women during the War for Independence.
Paine, Thomas. Common Sense, The Rights of Man and Other Essential Writings. New York: *Meridian, 1984.
Peterson, Marshall D., ed. The Portable Thomas Jefferson. New York: Viking, 1975; *Viking, 1976.
Quarles, Benjamin. The Negro in the American Revolution. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press; New York: *Norton, 1973.
Rossiter, Clinton. The First American Revolution. New York: *Harcourt Brace World, 1956. This paperback standard contains part one of Rossiter's book Seedtime of the Republic.
_____, ed. The Federalist Papers: Hamilton, Madison and Jay. New York: *Mentor, 1961.
Tuchman, Barbara W. The First Salute: A View of the American Revolution. New York: Knopf, 1988. The two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner examines key points in the American Revolution, focusing on the intervention of France and Holland and the war's decisive campaign culminating in the victory at Yorktown.
Wills, Garry, Inventing America: Jefferson's Declaration of Independence. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1978; New York: *Vintage, 1979.
Selected Fiction:
Fast, Howard. April Morning. New York: Crown, 1961.
_____. Citizen Tom Paine. New York: World Publishing, 1943.
_____. Conceived in Liberty. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1939.
Settle, Mary Lee. Beulah Land. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1956.
Chapter 3. Growth of a Nation
Adams, Henry. History of the U.S.A. During the Administration of Thomas Jefferson, 1801-1805. New York: Library of America, 1986.
_____. History of the U.S.A. During the Administration of James Madison, 1809-1817. New York: Library of America, 1986.
Adler, Mortimer J. We Hold These Truths: Understanding the Ideas and Ideals of the Constitution. New York: Macmillan, 1987.
Bergon, Frank, ed. The Journals of Lewis and Clark. New York: Viking Penguin, 1989; *Penguin, 1989.
Brodie, Fawn. Thomas Jefferson: An Intimate History. New York: Norton, 1974; New York: *Bantam, 1975. The controversial "psycho-biography" that first raised the issue of Jefferson's relationship with his slave Sally Hemmings.
Dabney, Virginius. The Jefferson Scandals: A Rebuttal. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1981; *Dodd, 1988. A Pulitzer prize-winning writer's investigation into the Sally Hemmings case, which denies the relationship existed.
Daniels, Jonathan. Ordeal of Ambition: Jefferson, Hamilton and Burr. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1970.
Ehle, John. Trail of Tears: The Rise and Fall of the Cherokee Nation. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1988; New York: *Anchor, 1989.
Gutman, Herbert G. The Black Family in Slavery and Freedom. New York: Random House, 1976; New York: *Vintage, 1977.
Hendrickson, Robert A. The Rise and Fall of Alexander Hamilton. Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1981. An abridgment of the author's Hamilton I and Hamilton II.
Jahoda, Gloria. The Trail of Tears: The Story of the American Indian Removal, 1813-1855. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1975.
Kitman, Marvin. The Making of the President, 1789. New York: Harper & Row, 1989.
Lavender, David. The Way to the Western Sea: Lewis and Clark Across the Continent. New York: Harper & Row, 1989. An exciting narrative account of the epic expedition undertaken after the Louisiana Purchase.
Lester, Julius. To Be a Slave. New York: Dial, 1968; New York: *Scholastic, 1986. An excellent book aimed at young adults recapturing the life of a slave.
Malone, Dumas. Jefferson and His Times (six volumes). Boston: Little, Brown; *Little, Brown, 1948-81. This is the widely accepted, standard biography of Jefferson.
Morris, Richard. The Forging of the Union: 1781-1789. New York: Harper & Row, 1987; New York: *Harper Perennial, 1988. A basic recounting of the creation of the Constitution.
_____. Witnesses at the Creation: Hamilton, Madison, Jay and the Constitution. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1985; New York: *Plume, 1989; New York: *Mentor, 1989. Examines the impact of these three men on the writing and ratification of the Constitution.
Padover, Saul K. Jefferson. New York: Harcourt Brace & World, 1942; New York: *Mentor (abridged edition), 1952. A sound one-volume biography.
Rogin, Michael P. Fathers and Children: Andrew Jackson and the Destruction of the American Indian. New York: Knopf, 1975.
Rossiter, Clinton, ed. The Federalist Papers: Hamilton, Madison and Jay. New York: *Mentor, 1961. A collection of the famous essays, with interpretive notes and introduction.
Selected Fiction:
Guthrie, A. B. The Big Shy. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1947.
Styron, William. The Confessions of Nat Turner. New York: Random House, 1967.
Vidal, Gore. Burr. New York: Random House, 1973.
Chapter 4. Apocalypse Then
Catton, Bruce. The American Heritage Picture History of the Civil War. New York: American Heritage, 1960; Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1987.
_____. The Coming Fury. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1961. New York: *Washington Square Press, 1967.
_____. Gettysburg, the Final Fury. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1968; New York: *Washington Square Press, 1969.
_____. Never Call Retreat. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1965; New York: *Washington Square Press, 1967.
_____. A Stillness at Appomattox. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1953; New York: *Washington Square Press, 1958.
_____. Terrible Swift Sword. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1963; New York: *Washington Square Press, 1967.
_____. This Hallowed Ground. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1956; New York: *Washington Square Press, 1969.
Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. New York: *Signet, 1968. Originally written and published in 1845, this auto-biography by a self-taught slave is an American classic, perhaps the most eloquent indictment of slavery ever written.
Eisenhower, John S. D. So Far From God: The U.S. War With Mexico, 1846-1848. New York: Random House, 1989. The most recent narrative account of the war with Mexico.
Foner, Eric. Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution. New York: Harper & Row, 1988; New York: *Harper Perennial, 1989. A massive book that examines the social, political, and economic aspects of this controversial period.
Foote, Shelby. The Civil War: A Narrative (3 volumes). New York: Random House, 1958-74. New York: *Vintage, 1986.
Kaplan, Justin. Walt Whitman: A Life. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1980; New York: *Touchstone, 1986.
Litwack, Leon F. Been in the Storm So Long: The Aftermath of Slavery. New York: Knopf, 1979; New York: *Vintage, 1980.
McFeely, William S. Grant: A Biography. New York: Norton, 1981; *Norton, 1982. A recent single-volume life of the soldier and president.
McPherson, James M. Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era. London: Oxford University Press, 1988; New York: *Ballantine Books, 1989. This recent prize-winning book is an indispensable single-volume history of the war and the events leading up to it.
Mellon, James. Bullwhip Days: The Slaves Remember. New York: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1988. Compiled during the Depression, this volume brings together reminiscences of life by the last surviving slaves.
Mitchell, Lt. Col. Joseph B. Decisive Battles of the Civil War. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1955; New York: *Fawcett, 1983.
Oates, Stephen B. Fires of Jubilee: Nat Turner's Fierce Rebellion. New York: Harper & Row, 1975; New York: *New American Library, 1983.
_____. To Purge This Land With Blood: A Biography of John Brown. New York: Harper & Row, 1970; Amherst: *University of Massachusetts Press, 1984.
_____. With Malice Toward None: The Life of Abraham Lincoln. New York: Harper & Row, 1977; New York: *Mentor, 1978. This recent biography of Lincoln is probably the best and most balanced single-volume history of Lincoln's life and times.
Rosengarten, Theodore. Tombee: Portrait of a Cotton Planter. New York: Morrow, 1986; New York: *McGraw-Hill, 1988. Using diaries, the author recreates a vivid portrait of southern plantation life in this prize-winning best-seller.
Sears, Stephen W. The Landscape Turned Red: The Battle of Antietam. New York: Ticknor & Fields, 1983; New York: *Warner Books, 1985. A compelling account of one of the bloodiest battles in American history.
Stampp, Kenneth M. The Peculiar Institution: Slavery in the Ante-Bellum South. New York: Knopf, 1956; New York: *Vintage, 1989.
_____, ed. The Causes of the Civil War. New York: *Spectrum Books/ Prentice-Hall, 1974. A collection of scholarly essays that discuss the full range of social, economic, political and moral causes of the war.
Selected Fiction:
Crane, Stephen. The Red Badge of Courage. New York. Appleton, 1895.
Kantor, MacKinlay. Andersonville. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1955.
Keneally, Thomas. Confederates. New York: Harper & Row, 1979.
Morrison, Toni. Beloved. New York: Knopf, 1987.
Safire, William. Freedom. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1987.
Shaara, Micheal. The Killer Angels. New York: David McKay, 1974.
Stowe, Harriet Beecher. Uncle Tom's Cabin. Boston: John P. Jowett, 1852.
Vidal, Gore. Lincoln. New York: Random House, 1984.
Chapter 5. When Monopoly Wasn't A Game
Adams, Henry. The Education of Henry Adams: An Autobiography. Boston: *Houghton Mifflin, 1988.
Addams, Jane. Twenty Years at Hull-House. New York: Macmillan, 1910; New York: *Signet, 1960. The personal account of the remarkable reformer who started one of the nation's first settlement houses in Chicago.
Brady, Kathleen. Ida Tarbell: Portrait of a Muckraker. New York: Putnam, 1984.
Brown, Dee. Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An American Indian History of the American West. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1970; New York: *Washington Square Press, 1981.
Collier, Peter, and David Horowitz. The Rockefellers: An American Dynasty. New York: *New American Library, 1977. A popular history of the family by a pair of modern "muckraking" journalists, this book covers the rise of John D. Rockefeller.
Connell, Evan S. Son of the Morning Star: Custer and the Little Bighorn. Berkeley: North Point Press, 1984; New York: *Harper Perennial, 1985.
Fussell, Paul. The Great War and Modern Memory. London: Oxford University Press, 1975; *Oxford University Press, 1977. An award-winning book about the British experience in trench warfare from 1914 to 1918, emphasizing the literature that experience produced.
Hofstadter, Richard. The Age of Reform: From Bryan to F.D.R., 1890-1940. New York: Knopf, 1955; New York: *Vintage, 1960.
Jackson, Stanley. J. P. Morgan. New York: Stein & Day, 1983.
Josephson, Matthew, The Politicos. New York: *Harcourt Brace, 1963.
_____. The Robber Barons. New York: Harcourt Brace, 1934; New York: *Harvest, 1962.
Kaplan, Justin. Lincoln Steffens: A Biography. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1974; New York: *Touchstone, 1988. A life of one of the most prominent of the "muckrakers."
_____. Mr. Clemens and Mark Twain. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1966; New York: *Touchstone, 1983.
Karnow, Stanley. In Our Image: America's Experience in the Philippines. New York: Random House, 1989. A fascinating study of America's long entanglement in the Philippines, dating from the time of the Spanish-American War and the Insurrection, and carrying through to recent events following the overthrow of the Marcos dictatorship by Corazon Aquino.
Manchester, William. The Arms of Krupp: 1587-1968. Boston: Little, Brown, 1964; New York: *Bantam, 1983. This history of the German munitions and armament family provides a fascinating account of the rise of militarism in Germany that played prominently in both World Wars.
Marshall, S. L. A. World War I. New York: American Heritage, 1964; Boston: *Houghton Mifflin, 1987. A military historian, the author concentrates on the armed confrontations, with far less emphasis on the causes and effects of the war or its long-term consequences.
McCullough, David. The Great Bridge. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1972; New York: *Touchstone, 1983. The story of the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge.
_____. Mornings on Horseback. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1981; New York: *Touchstone, 1982. A biography of the young Teddy Roosevelt.
_____. The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1977; New York: *Touchstone, 1978.
Morris, Edmund. The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt. New York: Coward, McCann & Geohegan, 1979; New York: *Ballantine, 1980. An admiring yet balanced and excellent account of Roosevelt's life, to his first inauguration.
Painter, Nell Irvin. Standing at Armageddon: The United States, 1877-1919. New York: Norton, 1987. A fascinating portrait of the country during this period of transition from minor power to empire.
Tuchman, Barbara. The Guns of August. New York: Macmillan, 1962; New York: *Bantam, 1976. The Pulitzer Prize-winning account of European events leading to World War I and the first fighting at the Battle of the Marne.
_____. The Zimmerman Telegram. New York: Macmillan, 1966; New York: *Ballantine, 1985. An account of the diplomatic turmoil and conspiracy between Germany and Mexico that helped push America into World War I.
Williams, John Hoyt. A Great and Shining Road: The Epic Story of the Transcontinental Railroad. New York: Times Books, 1988.
Woodward, C. Vann. The Strange Career of Jim Crow. London: Oxford University Press, 1955; *Oxford University Press (third revised edition), 1974.
Selected Fiction:
Adams, Henry. Democracy: An American Novel (1883). New York: Henry Holt, 1908.
Bellamy, Edward. Looking Backward (1888). Boston: Tickner, 1888.
Brown, Dee. Creek Mary's Blood. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1980.
Doctorow, E. L. Ragtime. New York: Random House, 1975.
Dos Passos, John. The U.S.A. Trilogy: The 42nd Parallel (1930); 1919 (1932); The Big Money (1936).
Norris, Frank. The Octopus. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1901.
Remarque, Erich Maria. All Quiet on the Western Front. Boston: Little, Brown, 1929.
Settle, Mary Lee. The Scapegoat. New York: Random House, 1980.
Sinclair, Upton. The Jungle. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page, 1906.
Twain, Mark, and Charles Dudley Warner. The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today. Hartford: American Publishing Company, 1873.
Vidal, Gore. 1876. New York: Random House, 1976.
_____. Empire. New York: Random House, 1987.
Chapter 6. From Boom To Bust To Big Boom
Allen, Frederick Lewis. The Big Change: America Transforms Itself: 1900-1950. New York: Harper & Row, 1952; New York: *Harper Perennial, 1969.
_____. Only Yesterday: An Informal History of the 1920s. New York: Harper & Row, 1931; New York: *Harper Perennial, 1986.
_____. Since Yesterday: The 1930s in America. New York: Harper & Row, 1939; New York: *Harper Perennial, 1972. A social and cultural history of life in the Depression years by one of America's great social historians.
Armor, John, and Peter Wright. Manzanar: Photographs by Ansel Adams; Commentary by John Hersey. New York: Times Books, 1988. A detailed chronicle of the Japanese-American internment camp, illustrated by Ansel Adams's photo-documentary of the camp.
Blum, John Morton. V Was for Victory: Politics and American Culture During World War II. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1976; New York: *Harvest, 1977.
Brooks, John. Once in Golconda: A True Drama of Wall Street, 1920-1938. New York: Norton, 1969.
Collier, Peter, and David Horowitz. The Fords: An American Epic. New York: Summit, 1987; *Summit, 1988.
Davis, Kenneth S. FDR: The New York Years, 1928-1933. New York: Random House, 1985.
_____. FDR: The New Deal Years, 1933-1937. New York: Random House, 1986.
Fest, Joachim C. Hitler. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1974; New York: *Vintage, 1975. A thorough single-volume biography of the Nazi leader.
Flood, Charles Bracelen. Hitler: The Path to Power. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1989. A recent biography that documents Hitler's rise to unquestioned power in the aftermath of World War I and the Depression.
Fussell, Paul. Wartime: Understanding and Behavior in the Second World War. London: Oxford University Press, 1989.
Galbraith, John Kenneth. The Great Crash. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1961; *Houghton Mifflin, 1988.
_____. A Life in Our Times: Memoirs. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1981. An autobiography by the economist, diplomat, and historian, especially interesting for Galbraith's experiences as a member of the bombing survey team that toured both Germany and Japan after the war and concluded that American saturation bombing was inconclusive in both instances.
Hersey, John. Hiroshima. New York: Knopf, 1946; New York: *Vintage, 1989. The classic account of the aftermath of the bombing of Hiroshima.
Kazin, Alfred. On Native Grounds. New York: Harcourt Brace & World, 1942; New York: *Harvest, 1983. A fascinating and very readable collection of literary criticism, focusing on major American writers of the 1930s and 1940s.
Lash, Joseph P. Eleanor and Franklin. New York: Norton, 1971; New York: *New American Library, 1973.
Leckie, Robert. Delivered from Evil: The Saga of World War II. New York: Harper & Row, 1987; New York: *Harper Perennial, 1988. A massive and updated single-volume history of the war.
Manchester, William. American Caesar: Douglas MacArthur, 1880-1964. Boston: Little, Brown, 1978; New York: *Dell, 1983. This splendid biography of MacArthur is admiring but not blind to the general's shortcomings. MacArthur's life as a soldier - as well as his father's before him - covers almost every facet of American military involvement from the Spanish-American War to the Korean War.
_____. The Glory and the Dream: A Narrative History of America, 1932-1972. Boston: Little, Brown, 1974; New York: *Bantam, 1975.
_____. Goodbye, Darkness: A Memoir of the Pacific. Boston: Little, Brown, 1979; New York: *Dell, 1987. The historian's recreation of the Pacific fighting in which he was a participant as a U.S. Marine.
Mencken, H. L. A Choice of Days. New York: *Vintage, 1980. This is a collection of pieces from three autobiographical works by the American journalist and social critic.
Morgan, Ted. FDR: A Biography. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1985; New York: *Touchstone, 1986. A sound and accessible popular one-volume biography.
Powers, Richard Gid. Secrecy and Power: The Life of J. Edgar Hoover. New York: Free Press, 1987; *Free Press, 1988. A solid and unbiased account of the life of one of America's most powerful men, the Director of the FBI.
Rhodes, Richard. The Making of the Atomic Bomb. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1987; New York: *Touchstone, 1988. An award-winning history of the development of the first bomb.
Taylor, A. J. P. The War Lords. New York: *Penguin, 1976. A collection of lectures given by a prominent British historian, this book offers a neat capsule biography of the personalities of the five men who conducted the Second World War: Mussolini, Hitler, Churchill, Stalin, and Roosevelt.
Terkel, Studs. "The Good War": An Oral History of World War II. New York: Pantheon, 1984; New York: *Ballantine, 1985.
_____. Hard Times: An Oral History of the Great Depression. New York: Pantheon, 1970; New York: *Pocket Books, 1978. Life in the worst years of the Depression, as told to the journalist.
Toland, John. Adolf Hitler. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1976; New York: *Ballantine, 1984. A best-selling life of Hitler by a popular historian.
_____. Infamy: Pearl Harbor and Its Aftermath. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1982; New York: *Berkley, 1984.
_____. Rising Sun: The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire. New York: Random House, 1970; New York: *Bantam, 1982.
Watt, Donald Cameron. How War Came: The Immediate Origins of the Second World War. New York: Pantheon, 1989.
Wyden, Peter. Day One: Before Hiroshima and After. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1984; *Simon and Schuster, 1989.
Selected Fiction:
Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. New York: Scribner's, 1925.
Hemingway. Ernest. A Farewell to Arms. New York: Scribner's, 1929.
_____. For Whom the Bell Tolls. New York: Scribner's, 1940.
Jones, James. The Thin Red Line. New York: Scribner's, 1962.
Mailer, Norman. The Naked and the Dead. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1948.
Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath. New York: Viking, 1939.
Chapter 7. Commies, Containment, And Cold War
Blair, Clay. The Forgotten War: America in Korea, 1950-1953. New York: Times Books, 1987; New York: *Anchor Books, 1989.
Caute, David. The Great Fear: The Anti-Communist Purge Under Truman and Eisenhower. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1978.
Garrow, David J. Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. New York: Morrow, 1986; New York: *Vintage, 1988. A balanced and honest award-winning biography of the civil-rights leader and the movement he led.
Kluger, Richard. Simple Justice: The History of Brown v. Board of Education and Black America's Struggle for Equality. New York: Knopf, 1976; New York: *Vintage, 1977.
Miller, Merle. Plain Speaking. New York: Putnam, 1974; New York: *Berkley, 1986. This "oral history" presents a vivid picture of the president who has grown in stature as time has passed.
Newhouse, John. War and Peace in the Nuclear Age. New York: Knopf, 1988. A companion to the PBS television series detailing the history of nuclear arms and superpower rivalries.
Oakley, J. Ronald. God's Country: America in the Fifties. New York: Dembner Books, 1986.
Radosh, Ronald, and Joyce Milton. The Rosenberg File: A Search for the Truth. New York: *Vintage, 1984. A widely accepted investigation into the notorious case.
Schneir, Walter and Miriam. Invitation to an Inquest. New York: Pantheon, 1965; *Pantheon, 1983. Another investigation of the Rosenberg case, taking a very sympathetic view of the executed couple.
Selected Fiction:
Doctorow, E. L. The Book of Daniel. New York: Random House. 1971.
Chapter 8. The Torch Is Passed
Barrett, Lawrence I. Gambling with History: Reagan in the White House. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1983; New York: *Penguin, 1984. Written by a Time magazine correspondent, this was one of the first books to assess the Reagan years negatively, and it provides a useful history of his earliest days in office.
Belin, David. Final Disclosure: The Full Truth about the Assassination of President Kennedy. New York: Scribner's, 1988. Unlike more sensational assassination books, this book, written by a Warren Commission investigator, convincingly negates most of the conspiracy theories surrounding JFK's murder.
Bernstein, Carl, and Bob Woodward. All the President's Men. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1974; New York: *Simon and Schuster, 1987.
Carroll, Peter N. It Seemed Like Nothing Happened: The Tragedy and Promise of America in the 1970s. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1982; New York: *Henry Holt, 1984. A broad historical and cultural overview of the "me decade."
Caute, David. The Year of the Barricades: A Journey Through 1968. New York: Harper & Row, 1988; New York: *Harper Perennial, 1988.
Collier, Peter, and David Horowitz. The Kennedys: An American Drama. New York: Summit, 1984; New York: *Warner, 1988. Although it takes a tabloid approach, this presents a damning and documented account of the rise of this powerful American regal family. Particularly interesting for its discussion of the Kennedy patriarch, Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr.
Davis, John H. The Kennedys: Dynasty and Disaster. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1984; *McGraw-Hill, 1985. Another gossipy look, by a relative of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. Includes a lot of rumor and speculation, buttressed by recent documented revelations.
Dickstein, Morris, Gates of Eden: American Culture in the Sixties. New York: Basic Books, 1977; New York: *Penguin, 1989. An examination of American politics in the period, through the literature and culture of the era.
Epstein, Edward Jay. Inquest: The Warren Commission and the Establishment of Truth. New York: Viking, 1966; New York: *Viking Compass, 1969. One of the first and most influential assaults upon the Warren Commission's findings.
FitzGerald, Frances. Fire in the Lake: The Vietnamese and the Americans in Vietnam. Boston: Atlantic-Little, Brown, 1972; New York: *Vintage, 1973. A standard book on understanding the roots of the American involvement and failure in Vietnam.
Friedan, Betty. The Feminine Mystique. New York: Norton, 1963; New York: *Dell, 1984. The now-classic document on which the modern American feminist movement was built.
Gitlin, Todd. The Sixties: Years of Hope, Days of Rage. New York: Bantam, 1987; *Bantam, 1989.
Hackworth, Col. David H., and Julie Sherman. About Face: The Odyssey of an American Warrior. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1989. A fascinating, best-selling account of a soldier who fought in both Korea and Vietnam, becoming something of a renegade in Southeast Asia.
Haing Ngor. A Cambodian Odyssey. New York: Macmillan, 1987; New York: Warner 1989. A riveting first-person account of the aftermath of the fall of Cambodia to Communists, by the doctor-turned-actor who portrayed the character of Dith Pran in the film The Killing Fields.
Halberstam, David. The Best and the Brightest. New York: Random House, 1972; New York: *Penguin, 1983. The classic account of the intellectuals and academics surrounding Kennedy who pushed America into Vietnam.
Hersh, Seymour M. My Lai 4: A Report on the Massacre and Its Aftermath. New York: Random House, 1970; New York: *Vintage, 1971.
_____. The Price of Power: Kissinger in the Nixon White House. New York: Summit Books, 1983; *Summit, 1984.
Karnow, Stanley. Vietnam: A History. New York: Viking Penguin, 1983; *Penguin, 1984. An indispensable one-volume overview of the war in Vietnam.
Lukas, J. Anthony. Nightmare: The Underside of the Nixon Years. New York: Viking, 1976; New York: *Penguin, 1988. A full and comprehensive account of the entire Watergate years, and the definitive work on the fall of Nixon.
Miller, Merle. Lyndon: An Oral Biography. New York: Putnam, 1980; New York: *Ballantine, 1987.
Peers, William R. The My Lai Inquiry. New York: Norton/Presidio Press, 1979.
Safire, William. Before the Fall: An Inside View of the Pre-Watergate White House. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1975; New York: *Da Capo, 1988. Former Nixon speechwriter and current New York Times columnist, Safire presents a vivid view of Nixon in power before the fallout from Watergate.
Scheer, Robert. With Enough Shovels: Reagan, Bush and Nuclear War. New York: Random House, 1982; New York: *Vintage, 1983. A disturbing examination of the Reagan stance on arms and the "winnability" of a nuclear war.
Schieffer, Bob, and Gary Paul Gates. The Acting President. New York: E. P. Dutton, 1989. A television newsman's overview of eight years of Reagan that provides a useful capsule of the period, including the Iran-Contra situation.
Schlesinger, Arthur M. A Thousand Days: JFK in the White House. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1965; New York: *Fawcett, 19XX. A partisan insider, the famed historian writes a fascinating view of the Kennedy presidency.
Smith, Hedrick. The Power Game: How Washington Works. New York: Random House, 1988; New York: *Ballantine, 1989. A fascinating portrait of the real reins of power in Washington and how they are manipulated; especially useful in assessing the failures and successes of the Reagan administration.
Sumners, Harry G. Vietnam War Almanac. New York: *Facts on File, 1985. An encyclopedic reference guide to the war, complete with maps, historical introduction, and a detailed chronology.
Review Board: Introduction by R. W. Apple, Jr. New York: *Bantam, 1987. The damning examination of Reagan's failures in allowing the Iran-Contra scandal to occur.
White, Theodore. America in Search of Itself: The Making of the President, 1956-1980. New York: Harper & Row, 1982; New York: *Warner, 1983. A compilation of the author's "Making of" series, assessing the Presidents of the past thirty-five years.
Wyden, Peter. Bay of Pigs: The Untold Story. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1979; New York: *Touchstone, 1980. This compelling narrative account tells the complete story of the disastrous invasion of Castro's Cuba. By the author of Day One (See Chapter 6 readings.)
Title:
Don't Know Much About History
Author:
Davis, Kenneth C.
Date: New
York: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1990