Books in Profiles in American History series

This book was written to more easily pass on the rich and timeless message of the U.S. Constitution and to demonstrate how it serves us today. Easy-to-use, it makes the legalistic language and complex structure of the document accessible for all students. Using a unique, two-column format, the full text of the Constitution is presented beside an explanation of its meaning in terms students will understand. Divided into lessons of varying length, it includes thought-provoking questions and directives for outside work. The book begins with a study of the Declaration of Independence for historical perspective. 168 pp.

Voting is an important part of being an American. At one time, however, it was a right that only men enjoyed. That changed when a determined woman named Susan B. Anthony spoke up and acted on her beliefs. She was so sure of her cause that she was more than willing to go to court and state her case in front of everyone, regardless of the threat of imprisonment. Her passion showed the country that something was wrong. Women rallied behind her. Men came to see that women s voices were powerful and important not only in the home but also in the world at large. Anthony did not live long enough to see her vision for women realized. However, thanks to her years of countless speeches, writing, and hard work, along with the efforts of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Alice Paul, and many others, women finally achieved what they rightfully deserved: equal rights.

Martin Van Buren was a one-term president whose public life has long been overshadowed by the more fiery personalities of his day—Andrew Jackson, Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, and John C. Calhoun. Nevertheless, Van Buren was a transforming political figure in American history, one of the first of the new republic's professional politicians. In the early part of the nineteenth century, America was skeptical of popular politics, distrustful of political parties, and disdainful of political management. However, as prominent historian Joel H. Silbey demonstrates, Martin Van Buren took the lead among his contemporaries in remolding the old political order as he captured the New York state governorship, a seat in the United States Senate, and ultimately the Presidency. Silbey argues that Van Buren recognized the need for effective national political organization and, in the process, helped remake America's political culture. Martin Van Buren and the Emergence of American Popular Politics takes a fresh look at the life and political career of one of America's most often overlooked, yet most influential, public figures.

Contemporary American History 1: Before 1865 covers America's story from its beginning through the end of the Civil War. 20 chapters provide information about American history from economic, geographic, political, religious, technological, social, and cultural perspectives.Student Text features: Engaging four-color designUnit openers with timelines and discussion questionsPre-reading strategies and introduction activitiesReading and vocabulary supportSmall-group activitiesWriting activitiesPrimary source documentsChapter summaries with review questionsEnd of chapter skill builder

American History 2 begins with Reconstruction and the assassination of President Lincoln, and continues through the modern era. 20 chapters provide information about American history from economic, geographic, political, religious, technological, social, and cultural perspectives.Student Text features:Engaging four-color designUnit openers with timelines and discussion questionsPre-reading strategies and introduction activitiesReading and vocabulary supportSmall-group activitiesWriting activitiesPrimary source documentsChapter summaries with review questionsEnd of chapter skill builder

Almost immediately, the Civil War transformed the way Southerners ate, devastating fields and food transportation networks. The war also spurred Southerners to canonize prewar cooking styles, resulting in cuisine that retained nineteenth-century techniques in a way other American cuisines did not. This fascinating book presents a variety of Civil War-era recipes from the South, accompanied by eye-opening essays describing this tumultuous period in the way people lived and ate. The cookbooks excerpted here teem with the kinds of recipes we expect to find when we go looking for Southern food: grits and gumbo, succotash and Hopping John, catfish, coleslaw, watermelon pickles, and sweet potato pie. The cookbooks also offer plenty of surprises. This volume, the second in the American Food in History series, sheds new light on cooking and eating in the Civil War South, pointing out how seemingly neutral recipes can reveal unexpected things about life beyond the dinner plate, from responses to the anti-slavery movement to shifting economic imperatives to changing ideas about women’s roles. Together, these recipes and essays provide a unique portrait of Southern life via the flavors, textures, and techniques that grew out of a time of crisis.

Cookbooks offer a unique and valuable way to examine American life. Their lessons, however, are not always obvious. Direct references to the American Civil War were rare in cookbooks, even in those published right in the middle of it. In part, this is a reminder that lives went on and that dinner still appeared on most tables most nights, no matter how much the world was changing outside. But people accustomed to thinking of cookbooks as a source for recipes, and not much else, can be surprised by how much information they can reveal about the daily lives and ways of thinking of the people who wrote and used them. In this fascinating historical compilation, excerpts from five Civil War–era cookbooks present a compelling portrait of cooking and eating in the urban north of the 1860s United States.