This book focuses on the historic ramifications of a handful of essential events that shaped the American past. It describes the causes of a select number of epoch-making events and examines the short- and long-term consequences of these critical turning point moments.

Suitable for an introductory American history instructor who wants to make the subject more appealing, this book focuses on "personalized history" presented through biographies of famous and less-well-known figures from 1865.

Coming for to Carry Me Home examines the history of the politics surrounding U.S. race relations during the half century between the rise of the abolitionist movement in the 1830s and the dawn of the Jim Crow era in the 1880s. J. Michael Martinez argues that Abraham Lincoln and the Radical Republicans in Congress were the pivotal actors, albeit not the architects, that influenced this evolution. To understand how Lincoln and his contemporaries viewed race, Martinez first explains the origins of abolitionism and the tumultuous decade of the 1830s, when that generation of political leaders came of age. He then follows the trail through Reconstruction, Redemption, and the beginnings of legal segregation in the 1880s. This book addresses the central question of how and why the concept of race changed during this period.

For a brief time following the end of the U.S. Civil War, American political leaders had an opportunity—slim, to be sure, but not beyond the realm of possibility—to remake society so that black Americans and other persons of color could enjoy equal opportunity in civil and political life. It was not to be. With each passing year after the war—and especially after Reconstruction ended during the 1870s—American society witnessed the evolution of a new white republic as national leaders abandoned the promise of Reconstruction and justified their racial biases based on political, economic, social, and religious values that supplanted the old North-South/slavery-abolitionist schism of the antebellum era. A Long Dark Night provides a sweeping history of this too often overlooked period of African American history that followed the collapse of Reconstruction—from the beginnings of legal segregation through the end of World War II. Michael J. Martinez argues that the 1880s ushered in the dark night of the American Negro—a night so dark and so long that the better part of a century would elapse before sunlight broke through. Combining both a “top down” perspective on crucial political issues and public policy decisions as well as a “bottom up” discussion of the lives of black and white Americans between the 1880s and the 1940s, A Long Dark Night will be of interest to all readers seeking to better understand this crucial era that continues to resonate throughout American life today.

This book focuses on the historic ramifications of a handful of essential events that shaped the American past. It describes the causes of a select number of epoch-making events and examines the short- and long-term consequences of these critical turning point moments.

The history of the United States is a fascinating tale of intrigue, adventure, and progress, with many surprising twists and turns--and Currents in American History is designed to convey the defining elements of the story in an engaging, quick-paced narrative. Rather than covering a bit of everything, this volume traces the American people's drive to expand liberty and equality through important turning points as represented by eight pivotal days from from colonial times through 1877. Far shorter than most standard texts, this affordable work makes it possible for students to conceptualize America's complex history by assessing the causes and consequences of eight momentous days that changed the nation's course. Currents in American History includes an online Student Learning Center that provides access to primary sources; audio and visual materials; original maps, photos, drawings, posters, and paintings; self-testing quizzes; tools for organizing, printing, and exporting primary documents; and more. Visit the online Student Learning Center at http://www.sharpelearning.com/history/currents.

Focuses on the history of the South post-civil war as well as the old west.