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Overview
Designed to encourage critical thinking about history, Cobbs/Blum/Walker’s “Major Problems in American History, Volume I” 5th Edition, introduces students to primary sources and analytical essays on important topics in U.S. history. The text serves as the primary anthology for the introductory survey course, covering the subject’s entire chronological span. Comprehensive topical coverage includes politics, economics, labor, gender, culture and social trends. This edition reflects two new historiographical trends: the emergence of the history of religion as an exceptionally lively field and the internationalization of American history. Chapters include images, songs and poems, giving students a better feel for the time period and events under discussion. Key elements of the text have been retained, including chapters per volume, chapter introductions, headnotes and suggested readings.
- Using primary and secondary sources enhances student analysis. Secondary essays that reference primary documents show historians using evidence integration in interpretation.
- The introduction, “How to Read Primary and Secondary Sources,” helps students distinguish types of sources and teaches them how to read and interpret critically.
- The section, “Major Problems to Consider,” leads students and teachers to consider broad historical questions as they read the primary and secondary sources.
- Chapter overviews provide broad context for the material within the chapter.
- Descriptive timelines provide context and specific events to enhance the chapter overview.
- The "Further Reading" section provides students with a wealth of classic and cutting-edge scholarships, relating to key themes in each chapter.
- Descriptive timelines are in every chapter.
- Each primary source now has contextual explanations and discussions of its uniqueness.
1. Making New Worlds.
2. Early Colonial Settlements.
3. British Colonial Developments.
4. The American Revolution.
5. Building a Nation-State.
6. The Early Republic.
7. Transportation and Commerce.
8. Slavery and Cotton.
9. Jacksonian Democracy.
10. Reform Movements.
11. Wars with Mexico.
12. Immigration and Sectionalism.
13. Toward Civil War.
14. The Civil War.
15. Reconstruction.