The American Pageant

You may not think that a history book could make you laugh, but THE AMERICAN PAGEANT just might. It's known for being one of the most popular, effective and entertaining texts on American history. Colorful anecdotes, first-person quotations and the authors' trademark wit bring history to life. Learning aids make the book as accessible as it is enjoyable: part openers and chapter-ending chronologies provide a context for the major periods in American history, while primary sources and introductions to key historical figures give you a front row seat to the nation's past. Important Notice: Media content referenced within the product description or the product text may not be available in the ebook version.

THE AMERICAN PAGEANT enjoys a reputation as one of the most popular, effective, and entertaining texts on American history. The colorful anecdotes, first-person quotations, and trademark wit bring American history to life. The 16th edition includes a major revision of Part Six (the period from 1945 to the present), reflecting recent scholarship and providing greater thematic coherence. The authors also condensed and consolidated material on the Wilson presidency and World War I (formerly Chapters 29 and 30) into a new single chapter. A new feature, “Contending Voices,” offers paired quotes from original historical sources, accompanied by questions that prompt students to think about conflicting perspectives on controversial subjects. Additional pedagogical aids make THE AMERICAN PAGEANT accessible to students: part openers and chapter-ending chronologies provide a context for the major periods in American history, while other features present additional primary sources, scholarly debates, and key historical figures for analysis. Available in the following options: THE AMERICAN PAGEANT, Sixteenth Edition (Chapters 1−41); Volume 1: To 1877 (Chapters 1−22); Volume 2: Since 1865 (Chapters 22−41). Important Notice: Media content referenced within the product description or the product text may not be available in the ebook version.

Traces the history of the United States from the arrival of the first Indian people to the present day.

Traces the history of the United States from the arrival of the first Indian people to the present day.

THE AMERICAN PAGEANT enjoys a reputation as one of the most popular, effective, and entertaining texts on American history. The colorful anecdotes, first-person quotations, and trademark wit bring American history to life. The 16th edition includes a major revision of Part Six (the period from 1945 to the present), reflecting recent scholarship and providing greater thematic coherence. The authors also condensed and consolidated material on the Wilson presidency and World War I (formerly Chapters 29 and 30) into a new single chapter. A new feature, “Contending Voices,” offers paired quotes from original historical sources, accompanied by questions that prompt students to think about conflicting perspectives on controversial subjects. Additional pedagogical aids make THE AMERICAN PAGEANT accessible to students: part openers and chapter-ending chronologies provide a context for the major periods in American history, while other features present additional primary sources, scholarly debates, and key historical figures for analysis. Available in the following options: THE AMERICAN PAGEANT, Sixteenth Edition (Chapters 1-41); Volume 1: To 1877 (Chapters 1-22); Volume 2: Since 1865 (Chapters 22-41). Important Notice: Media content referenced within the product description or the product text may not be available in the ebook version.

Winner of the Popular Culture Association’s Emily Toth Best Book in Women’s Studies Award From an author praised for writing “delicious social history” (Dwight Garner, The New York Times) comes a lively account of memorable Miss America contestants, protests, and scandals—and how the pageant, now in its one hundredth year, serves as an unintended indicator of feminist progress Looking for Miss America is a fast–paced narrative history of a curious and contradictory institution. From its start in 1921 as an Atlantic City tourist draw to its current incarnation as a scholarship competition, the pageant has indexed women’s status during periods of social change—the post–suffrage 1920s, the Eisenhower 1950s, the #MeToo era. This ever–changing institution has been shaped by war, evangelism, the rise of television and reality TV, and, significantly, by contestants who confounded expectations. Spotlighting individuals, from Yolande Betbeze, whose refusal to pose in swimsuits led an angry sponsor to launch the rival Miss USA contest, to the first black winner, Vanessa Williams, who received death threats and was protected by sharpshooters in her hometown parade, Margot Mifflin shows how women made hard bargains even as they used the pageant for economic advancement. The pageant’s history includes, crucially, those it excluded; the notorious Rule Seven, which required contestants to be “of the white race,” was retired in the 1950s, but no women of color were crowned until the 1980s. In rigorously researched, vibrant chapters that unpack each decade of the pageant, Looking for Miss America examines the heady blend of capitalism, patriotism, class anxiety, and cultural mythology that has fueled this American ritual.

THE AMERICAN PAGEANT enjoys a reputation as one of the most popular, effective, and entertaining texts on American history. The colorful anecdotes, first-person quotations, and trademark wit bring American history to life. The 16th edition includes a major revision of Part Six (the period from 1945 to the present), reflecting recent scholarship and providing greater thematic coherence. The authors also condensed and consolidated material on the Wilson presidency and World War I (formerly Chapters 29 and 30) into a new single chapter. A new feature, “Contending Voices,” offers paired quotes from original historical sources, accompanied by questions that prompt students to think about conflicting perspectives on controversial subjects. Additional pedagogical aids make THE AMERICAN PAGEANT accessible to students: part openers and chapter-ending chronologies provide a context for the major periods in American history, while other features present additional primary sources, scholarly debates, and key historical figures for analysis. Available in the following options: THE AMERICAN PAGEANT, Sixteenth Edition (Chapters 1-41); Volume 1: To 1877 (Chapters 1-22); Volume 2: Since 1865 (Chapters 22-41). Important Notice: Media content referenced within the product description or the product text may not be available in the ebook version.

A Washington Post style editor’s fascinating and irresistible look back on the Miss America pageant as it approaches its 100th anniversary. The sash. The tears. The glittering crown. And of course, that soaring song. For all its pomp and kitsch, the Miss America pageant is indelibly written into the American story of the past century. From its giddy origins as a summer’s-end tourist draw in Prohibition-era Atlantic City, it blossomed into a televised extravaganza that drew tens of millions of viewers in its heyday and was once considered the highest honor that a young woman could achieve. For two years, Washington Post reporter and editor Amy Argetsinger visited pageants and interviewed former winners and contestants to unveil the hidden world of this iconic institution. There She Was spotlights how the pageant survived decades of social and cultural change, collided with a women’s liberation movement that sought to abolish it, and redefined itself alongside evolving ideas about feminism. For its superstars—Phyllis George, Vanessa Williams, Gretchen Carlson—and for those who never became household names, Miss America was a platform for women to exercise their ambitions and learn brutal lessons about the culture of fame. Spirited and revelatory, There She Was charts the evolution of the American woman, from the Miss America catapulted into advocacy after she was exposed as a survivor of domestic violence to the one who used her crown to launch a congressional campaign; from a 1930s winner who ran away on the night of her crowning to a present-day rock guitarist carving out her place in this world. Argetsinger dissects the scandals and financial turmoil that have repeatedly threatened to kill the pageant—and highlights the unexpected sisterhood of Miss Americas fighting to keep it alive.