Life In These United States

The American spirit is alive and well in this collection of heartwarming, often hilarious anecdotes about life in big cities, small towns, and hidden hamlets from coast to coast. Selected from thousands of contributions submitted to Reader's Digest each year, these delightful glimpses of our national preoccupations, regional points of pride, and down-home wisdom capture the idiosyncracies, interests, and ideals of ordinary people. 200+ color illustrations.

During the 1920s and 1930s, changes in the American population, increasing urbanization, and innovations in technology exerted major influences on the daily lives of ordinary people. Explore how everyday living changed during these years when use of automobiles and home electrification first became commonplace, when radio emerged, and when cinema, with the addition of sound, became broadly popular. Find out how worklife, domestic life, and leisure-time activities were affected by these factors as well as by the politics of the time. Details of matters such as the creation of the pickup truck, the development of radio programming, and the first mass use of cosmetics provide an enjoyable read that brings the period clearly into focus. Centering its attention on the broad masses of the population, this animated reference resource emphasizes the wide variety of experiences of people living through The Roaring Twenties and The Great Depression. Readers will be surprised to discover that some of the assumptions we have about the lives of average Americans during these eras are historically inaccurate. A final chapter provides a unique look at six American communities and gives a vivid sense of the diversity of American experience over the course of these tumultuous years.

Since its original landmark publication in 1980, A People's History of the United States has been chronicling American history from the bottom up, throwing out the official version of history taught in schools -- with its emphasis on great men in high places -- to focus on the street, the home, and the, workplace. Known for its lively, clear prose as well as its scholarly research, A People's History is the only volume to tell America's story from the point of view of -- and in the words of -- America's women, factory workers, African-Americans, Native Americans, the working poor, and immigrant laborers. As historian Howard Zinn shows, many of our country's greatest battles -- the fights for a fair wage, an eight-hour workday, child-labor laws, health and safety standards, universal suffrage, women's rights, racial equality -- were carried out at the grassroots level, against bloody resistance. Covering Christopher Columbus's arrival through President Clinton's first term, A People's History of the United States, which was nominated for the American Book Award in 1981, features insightful analysis of the most important events in our history. Revised, updated, and featuring a new after, word by the author, this special twentieth anniversary edition continues Zinn's important contribution to a complete and balanced understanding of American history.

For the first time the social history of the United States is examined in four chronological periods: 1960-1966, when modern ideals flourished and then began to fade; 1967-1974, when cultural changes began to remake America; 1975-1980, when the cultural changes led to standoffs between opposing sides; and the 1980s, when postmodern conditions broadened their influence and discord became more pronounced.

"... [A] rare and remarkable insight into an Indian woman's take on American culture in the 19th century, refracted through her own experiences with British colonialism, Indian nationalism, and Christian culture on no less than three continents.... a fabulous resource for undergraduate teaching." —Antoinette Burton In the 1880s, Pandita Ramabai traveled from India to England and then to the U.S., where she spent three years immersed in the milieu of progressive social reform movements of the day. Born into a Brahmin family and widowed while still young, she converted to Christianity while in England. In India, she was an activist for the education of women and the improvement of the status of widows. Abroad, she was iconized as a champion of the "oppressed Hindu woman." The Peoples of the United States is Ramabai's comprehensive description of American life, ranging from government to economy, education to domestic activity. As an account of a Western society by an Indian woman and a feminist, it reverses the established equation of male, Orientalist travel narratives. First published in Marathi in 1889, it is offered here in an elegant and engaging English translation by Meera Kosambi, who also provides a critical introduction and extensive annotations.

This book is a slave narrative, written by former slave, Moses Grandy.

President Franklin Roosevelt told Americans in a 1936 fireside chat, “I do not look upon these United States as a finished product. We are still in the making.” These United States builds on this foundation to present a readable, accessible history of the United States throughout the twentieth century—an ongoing and inspiring story of great leaders and everyday citizens marching, fighting, voting, and legislating to make the nation’s promise of democracy a reality for all Americans. In the college edition of These United States, Gilmore and Sugrue seamlessly weave insightful analysis with all of the support tools needed by students and instructors alike, including paired primary source documents, review questions, key terms, maps, and figures in a dynamic four-color design.