Best Selling Books by James M. McPherson

LIBERTY, EQUALITY, POWER offers students a clear, concise understanding of how America transformed itself, in a relatively short time, from a land inhabited by hunter-gatherer and agricultural Native American societies into the most powerful industrial nation on earth. The authors promote this understanding by telling the story of America through the lens of three major themes: liberty, equality, and power. This approach helps students understand not only the effect of the notions of liberty and equality, which are often associated with the American story, but also how dominant and subordinate groups have affected and been affected by the ever-shifting balance of power. The Concise Fifth Edition incorporates the work of new coauthor, Alice Fahs (University of California, Irvine), an accomplished historian of the 19th and 20th centuries, with special expertise in cultural history and the history of gender. LIBERTY, EQUALITY, POWER continues to offer strong political, social, and cultural coverage and valuable pedagogical tools including History Through Film (now in every chapter) to help draw students into the material and show the relevance of history to their own lives. LIBERTY, EQUALITY, POWER: A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE, CONCISE, 5e is available in the following volume splits: LIBERTY, EQUALITY, POWER: A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE, CONCISE FIFTH EDITION (Chapters 1-32), ISBN: 978-1-43908495-3; LIBERTY, EQUALITY, POWER: A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE, CONCISE 5e, VOLUME I: TO 1877, (Chapters 1-17), ISBN: 978-0-495-90382-6; and LIBERTY, EQUALITY, POWER: A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE, CONCISE 5e, VOLUME II: SINCE 1863, (Chapters 17-32), ISBN: 978-0-495-90383-3. Important Notice: Media content referenced within the product description or the product text may not be available in the ebook version.

A highly respected, balanced, and thoroughly modern approach to US History, LIBERTY, EQUALITY, POWER, uses these three themes to show how the United States was transformed from hunter-gatherer and agricultural Native American societies into the most powerful industrial nation on earth. This approach helps students understand the impact of the notions of liberty and equality, which are often associated with the American story, and also how dominant and subordinate groups have affected and been affected by the ever-shifting balance of power. The text integrates the best of recent social and cultural scholarship -- including fun material on music and movies -- into a political story, offering students the most comprehensive and complete understanding of American history available. Available in the following split options: LIBERTY, EQUALITY, POWER, Sixth Edition (Chapters 1-32), ISBN: 978-0-495-90499-1; Volume 1: To 1877 (Chapters 1-17), ISBN: 978-0-495-91587-4; Volume 2: Since 1863 (Chapters 17-32), ISBN: 978-0-495-91588-1. Important Notice: Media content referenced within the product description or the product text may not be available in the ebook version.

Volumes 1 through 5 cover the major battles of the Civil War chronologically from 1861 to 1865. Volume 6 contains biographies of key figures in this conflict.

A description of the many, varied roles African Americans played in the American Civil War.

This book is neither a simple bibliography nor an interpretive survey of the history and culture of black people in the United States. Rather it is an attempt to combine narrative, interpretation, and bibliography in a chronological and topical framework that will provide teachers, students, and interested readers with an up-to-date guide to Afro-American history and culture. Utilizing an interdisciplinary approach, the authors have organized the history of black Americans into 100 topics, from Africa and the slave trade to life-styles in the urban ghettos of 1970. Many of the topics are divided into subtopics, and our aim has been to provide annotated references to the best and most useful literature on the most important aspects of race relations and the black community in the United States.

How did America transform itself, in a relatively short time, from a land inhabited by hunter-gatherer and agricultural Native American societies into the most powerful industrial nation on earth? You'll find out in LIBERTY, EQUALITY, POWER: A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE, CONCISE Sixth Edition. The authors tell this story through the lens of three major themes: liberty, equality, and power. You'll learn not only the impact of the notions of liberty and equality but also how dominant and subordinate groups have affected and been affected by the ever-shifting balance of power. Important Notice: Media content referenced within the product description or the product text may not be available in the ebook version.

How did America transform itself, in a relatively short time, from a land inhabited by hunter-gatherer and agricultural Native American societies into the most powerful industrial nation on earth? You'll find out in LIBERTY, EQUALITY, POWER: A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE, CONCISE Sixth Edition. The authors tell this story through the lens of three major themes: liberty, equality, and power. You'll learn not only the impact of the notions of liberty and equality but also how dominant and subordinate groups have affected and been affected by the ever-shifting balance of power. Important Notice: Media content referenced within the product description or the product text may not be available in the ebook version.

Developed to meet the demand for a low-cost, high-quality history book, this economically priced version of LIBERTY, EQUALITY, POWER, Sixth Edition offers the complete narrative while limiting the number of features, photos, and maps. All volumes feature a paperback, two-color format that appeals to those seeking a comprehensive, trade-sized history text. A highly respected, balanced, and thoroughly modern approach to U.S. History, LIBERTY, EQUALITY, POWER uses these three themes in a unique approach to show how the United States was transformed, in a relatively short time, from a land inhabited by hunter-gatherer and agricultural Native American societies into the most powerful industrial nation on earth. This approach helps readers understand not only the impact of the notions of liberty and equality, which are often associated with the American story, but also how dominant and subordinate groups have affected and been affected by the ever-shifting balance of power. The text integrates the best of recent social and cultural scholarship into a political story, offering readers the most comprehensive and complete understanding of American history available. Important Notice: Media content referenced within the product description or the product text may not be available in the ebook version.

From James M. McPherson, here is a brilliant and passionate examination of nationalism in today's world and yesterday's. McPherson focuses on the current crisis in Canada ignited by Quebec's bid for independence and draws startling parallels between that stalemate and the schism between North and South that launched the American Civil War. From the former Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia to Rwanda and Burundi, nationalism, both ethnic and civic, remains one of the most dangerous and inflammatory of human sentiments. McPherson persuasively demonstrates that an understanding of the past can help us see the present more clearly.

Roswell Lamson was one of the boldest and most skillful young officers in the Union navy. Second in the class of 1862 at Annapolis (he took his final exam while at sea during the war), he commanded more ships and flotillas than any other officer of his age or rank in the service, climaxed by his captaincy of the navy's fastest ship in 1864, USS Gettysburg. Now, in Lamson of the Gettysburg, we have the war-time letters of this striking naval figure. What's more, these are letters of exceptional quality. James M. McPherson, co-editor of the collection with his wife Patricia and one of America's preeminent Civil War historians, writes that "few sets of letters equal and none surpass those of Lamson for richness of description, scope of coverage, or keenness of perception and analysis." Indeed, the McPhersons term Lamson's correspondence "the best Civil War navy letters we have ever read or expect to read." Throughout the war, Lamson always seemed to be where the action was on the South Atlantic coast, and these letters describe with striking immediacy the part he played in these events. While serving on the USS Wabash, for instance, he directed the big deck guns that did the most damage to enemy forts at Hatteras Inlet and Port Royal, two major naval victories. He was the officer who took command of the CSS Planter in May 1862, when slaves led by Robert Smalls ran her past Confederate fortifications in Charleston harbor and delivered her to the Union fleet. He commanded a gunboat fleet on the Nansemond River that helped stop James Longstreet's advance on Norfolk. In a daring attempt to blow up Fort Fisher, the huge earthwork fortress that guarded the entrance into the Cape Fear river, he towed the USS Louisiana (packed with more than two hundred tons of gunpowder) directly under the guns of the fort, sneaking into the shallows behind a rebel blockade runner, (Lamson describes "a terrific explosion. An immense column of flame rose towards the sky, and four distinct reports like that of sharp heavy thunder were heard and a dense mass of smoke enveloped everything"). And a few weeks later, he led a contingent of seventy men from the Gettysburg as part of the January 15, 1865 assault on the sea-face parapets of Fort Fisher, where he himself was wounded and his close friend, Samuel W. Preston, died. The letters also capture the spirited personality of Lamson himself, resolved to "stand by the Union as long as there is a plank afloat," but also deeply ambivalent about the war. In a moving passage early in the collection, he describes leaving Annapolis for war duty on the USS Constitution (Old Ironsides): "We gave three cheers for Capt R., three for the troops, and for old friendship's sake three for those of our number who intending to resign [to join the Confederacy] were requested not to go on board. Some of my best friends were among them. This will be a sad sad war. It will be more painful to strike than to be struck." The publication of the letters of Roswell Lamson marks a major addition to Civil War literature. Featuring superb introductions to each section as well as informative notes that explain references in the correspondence to people, ships, land and sea battles, or homefront news, Lamson of The Gettysburg now joins the first rank of Civil War sources. One of the few accounts we have from the perspective of a navy officer, it is a book that everyone interested in the Civil War or in American naval history will want to read.

LIBERTY, EQUALITY, POWER offers students a clear, concise understanding of how America transformed itself, in a relatively short time, from a land inhabited by hunter-gatherer and agricultural Native American societies into the most powerful industrial nation on earth. The authors promote this understanding by telling the story of America through the lens of three major themes: liberty, equality, and power. An approach which helps students understand not only the effect of the notions of liberty and equality, which are often associated with the American story, but also how dominant and subordinate groups have affected and been affected by the ever-shifting balance of power. The Concise Fifth Edition incorporates the work of new coauthor, Alice Fahs (University of California, Irvine), an accomplished historian of the 19th and 20th centuries, with special expertise in cultural history and the history of gender. LIBERTY, EQUALITY, POWER continues to offer strong political, social, and cultural coverage and valuable pedagogical tools including History Through Film (now one in every chapter) to help draw students into the material and show the relevance of history to their own lives. LIBERTY, EQUALITY, POWER: A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE, CONCISE, 5e is available in the following volume splits: LIBERTY, EQUALITY, POWER: A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE, CONCISE FIFTH EDITION (Chapters 1-32), ISBN: 9781439084953; LIBERTY, EQUALITY, POWER: A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE, CONCISE 5e, VOLUME I: TO 1877, (Chapters 1-17), ISBN: 9780495903826; and LIBERTY, EQUALITY, POWER: A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE, CONCISE 5e, VOLUME II: SINCE 1863, (Chapters 17-32), ISBN: 9780495903833. Important Notice: Media content referenced within the product description or the product text may not be available in the ebook version.

American history is people, events, places, documents, art, inventions, literature. In other words -- American history is everything about the adventures of all Americans -- past and present. Only by learning about your nation's past can you understand what it means to be an American today. The American Journey helps you learn about your nation's past by organizing its history around 10 themes. - p. xvi.