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Chapter Reading And Worksheet

T h i r d E d i t i o n

G I V E M E L I B E R T Y ! A n A m e r i c a n H i s t o r y

B W . W . N O R T O N & C O M PA N Y . N E W Y O R K . L O N D O N

G I V E M E L I B E R T Y ! �� b y E R I C F O N E R

A N A M E R I C A N H I S T O R Y T h i r d E d i t i o n

W. W. Norton & Company has been independent since its founding in 1923, when William

Warder Norton and Mary D. Herter Norton first published lectures delivered at the People’s

Institute, the adult education division of New York City’s Cooper Union. The firm soon

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W. W. Norton & Company stands as the largest and oldest publishing house owned wholly

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Copyright © 2011, 2008, 2005 by Eric Foner

All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America

Third Edition

Editor: Steve Forman

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Foner, Eric.

Give me liberty!: An American history / Eric Foner. — 3rd ed.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-393-93430-4 (hardcover)

1. United States—History. 2. United States—Politics and government.

3. Democracy—United States—History. 4. Liberty—History. I. Title.

E178.F66 2010

973—dc22

2010015330

W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 500 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10110

www.wwnorton.com

W. W. Norton & Company Ltd., Castle House, 75/76 Wells Street, London W1T 3QT

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0

ISBN 978-0-393-11911-4 (pdf ebook)

www.wwnorton.com
For my mother, Liza Foner (1909–2005), an

accomplished artist who lived through most of the

twentieth century and into the twenty-first

This page intentionally left blank

Contents � L I S T O F MA P S , TA B L E S , A N D F I G U R E S • xxix

A B O U T T H E AU T H O R • xxxiii

P R E FA C E • xxxv

P a r t 1 A m e r i c a n C o l o n i e s t o 1 7 6 3

1. A NEW WORLD • 4

THE FIRST AMERICANS • 8

The Settling of the Americas • 8 • Indian Societies of the

Americas • 9 • Mound Builders of the Mississippi River

Valley • 11 • Western Indians • 11 • Indians of Eastern

North America • 12 • Native American Religion • 14 •

Land and Property • 14 • Gender Relations • 15 •

European Views of the Indians • 16

INDIAN FREEDOM, EUROPEAN FREEDOM • 17

Indian Freedom • 17 • Christian Liberty • 18 • Freedom

and Authority • 19 • Liberty and Liberties • 19

THE EXPANSION OF EUROPE • 20

Chinese and Portuguese Navigation • 20 • Portugal and

West Africa • 21 • Freedom and Slavery in Africa • 22 •

The Voyages of Columbus • 23

CONTACT • 24

Columbus in the New World • 24 • Exploration and

Conquest • 24 • The Demographic Disaster • 26

THE SPANISH EMPIRE • 27

Governing Spanish America • 27 • Colonists in Spanish

America • 28 • Colonists and Indians • 29 •

Justifications for Conquest • 30 • Spreading the

Faith • 31 • Piety and Profit • 31 • Las Casas’s

Complaint • 32 • Reforming the Empire • 33 • Exploring North

America • 34 • Spanish Florida • 35 • Spain in the Southwest • 35

• The Pueblo Revolt • 37

VOICES OF FREEDOM: From Bartolomé de Las Casas, History of the

Indies (1528), and From “Declaration of Josephe” (December 19,

1681) • 38

THE FRENCH AND DUTCH EMPIRES • 40

French Colonization • 40 • New France and the Indians • 41 •

VISIONS OF FREEDOM • 43 • The Dutch Empire • 45 • Dutch

Freedom • 45 • Freedom in New Netherland • 45 • Settling

New Netherland • 47 • New Netherland and the Indians • 47

2. BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH AMERICA, 1607–1660 • 52

ENGLAND AND THE NEW WORLD • 55

Unifying the English Nation • 55 • England and Ireland • 56 •

England and North America • 56 • Spreading Protestantism • 57 •

Motives for Colonization • 57 • The Social Crisis • 58 • Masterless

Men • 59

THE COMING OF THE ENGLISH • 59

English Emigrants • 59 • Indentured Servants • 60 • Land and

Liberty • 60 • Englishmen and Indians • 61 • The Transformation

of Indian Life • 62 • Changes in the Land • 62

SETTLING THE CHESAPEAKE • 63

The Jamestown Colony • 63 • From Company to Society • 64 •

Powhatan and Pocahontas • 64 • The Uprising of 1622 • 65 •

A Tobacco Colony • 66 • Women and the Family • 67 • The

Maryland Experiment • 68 • Religion in Maryland • 68

THE NEW ENGLAND WAY • 69

The Rise of Puritanism • 69 • Moral Liberty • 70 • The Pilgrims

at Plymouth • 70 • The Great Migration • 71 • VISIONS OF

FREEDOM • 72 • The Puritan Family • 73 • Government and

Society in Massachusetts • 74 • Puritan Liberties • 75

NEW ENGLANDERS DIVIDED • 76

Roger Williams • 76 • Rhode Island and Connecticut • 77

VOICES OF FREEDOM: From John Winthrop, Speech to the

Massachusetts General Court (July 3, 1645), and From Roger

Williams, Letter to the Town of Providence (1655) • 78

The Trials of Anne Hutchinson • 80 • Puritans and Indians • 81 •

The Pequot War • 81 • The New England Economy • 82 • The

Merchant Elite • 83 • The Half-Way Covenant • 84

RELIGION, POLITICS, AND FREEDOM • 84

The Rights of Englishmen • 84 • The English Civil War • 85 •

England’s Debate over Freedom • 86 • English Liberty • 87 •

v i i i C o n t e n t s

Content s i x

The Civil War and English America • 87 • The Crisis in Maryland •

88 • Cromwell and the Empire • 88

3. CREATING ANGLO-AMERICA, 1660–1750 • 92

GLOBAL COMPETITION AND THE EXPANSION OF

ENGLAND’S EMPIRE • 95

The Mercantilist System • 95 • The Conquest of New Netherland •

97 • New York and the Rights of Englishmen and Englishwomen • 97

• New York and the Indians • 98 • The Charter of Liberties • 98 •

The Founding of Carolina • 99 • The Holy Experiment • 100 •

Quaker Liberty • 100 • Land in Pennsylvania • 101

ORIGINS OF AMERICAN SLAVERY • 101

Englishmen and Africans • 102 • Slavery in History • 102 • Slavery

in the West Indies • 103 • Slavery and the Law • 105 • The Rise of

Chesapeake Slavery • 105 • Bacon’s Rebellion: Land and Labor in

Virginia • 106 • The End of the Rebellion, and Its Consequences •

107 • A Slave Society • 107 • Notions of Freedom • 108

COLONIES IN CRISIS • 108

The Glorious Revolution • 109 • The Glorious Revolution in America

• 110 • The Maryland Uprising • 110 • Leisler’s Rebellion • 111 •

Changes in New England • 111 • The Prosecution of Witches • 111

• The Salem Witch Trials • 112

THE GROWTH OF COLONIAL AMERICA • 113

A Diverse Population • 113 • Attracting Settlers • 114 • The

German Migration • 116 • Religious Diversity • 116

VOICES OF FREEDOM: From Letter by a Female Indentured Servant

(September 22, 1756), and From Letter by a Swiss-German

Immigrant to Pennsylvania (August 23, 1769) • 118

Indian Life in Transition • 120 • Regional Diversity • 120 • The

Consumer Revolution • 121 • Colonial Cities • 122 • Colonial

Artisans • 122 • An Atlantic World • 123

SOCIAL CLASSES IN THE COLONIES • 124

The Colonial Elite • 124 • Anglicization • 125 • The South

Carolina Aristocracy • 126 • Poverty in the Colonies • 127 • The

Middle Ranks • 128 • Women and the Household Economy • 128 •

VISIONS OF FREEDOM • 129 • North America at Mid-Century • 130

4. SLAVERY, FREEDOM, AND THE STRUGGLE FOR EMPIRE TO 1763 • 134

SLAVERY AND EMPIRE • 137

Atlantic Trade • 138 • Africa and the Slave Trade • 139 • The

Middle Passage • 141 • Chesapeake Slavery • 141 • Freedom

and Slavery in the Chesapeake • 143 • Indian Slavery in Early

Carolina • 143 • The Rice Kingdom • 144 • The Georgia

Experiment • 144 • VISIONS OF FREEDOM • 145 • Slavery in the

North • 146

SLAVE CULTURES AND SLAVE RESISTANCE • 147

Becoming African-American • 147 • African-American Cultures

• 147 • Resistance to Slavery • 148 • The Crisis of 1739–1741 • 149

AN EMPIRE OF FREEDOM • 150

British Patriotism • 150 • The British Constitution • 150 • The

Language of Liberty • 151 • Republican Liberty • 152 • Liberal

Freedom • 152

THE PUBLIC SPHERE • 154

The Right to Vote • 154 • Political Cultures • 155 • Colonial

Government • 156 • The Rise of the Assemblies • 156 • Politics in

Public • 157 • The Colonial Press • 157 • Freedom of Expression

and Its Limits • 158 • The Trial of Zenger • 159 • The American

Enlightenment • 160

THE GREAT AWAKENING • 160

Religious Revivals • 161 • The Preaching of Whitefield • 161 • The

Awakening’s Impact • 162

IMPERIAL RIVALRIES • 163

Spanish North America • 163 • The Spanish in California • 164 •

The French Empire • 165

BATTLE FOR THE CONTINENT • 166

The Middle Ground • 166 • The Seven Years’ War • 168 • A World

Transformed • 169 • Pontiac’s Rebellion • 169 • The Proclamation

Line • 170 • Pennsylvania and the Indians • 170

VOICES OF FREEDOM: From The Interesting Narrative of the Life of

Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African (1789), and

From Pontiac, Speeches (1762 and 1763) • 172

Colonial Identities • 174

P a r t 2 A N e w N a t i o n , 1 7 6 3 – 1 8 4 0

5. THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, 1763–1783 • 182

THE CRISIS BEGINS • 185

Consolidating the Empire • 185 • Taxing the Colonies • 186 • The

Stamp Act Crisis • 187 • Taxation and Representation • 187 •

Liberty and Resistance • 188 • Politics in the Streets • 188 • The

Regulators • 190 • The Tenant Uprising • 190

x C o n t e n t s

THE ROAD TO REVOLUTION • 191

The Townshend Crisis • 191 • Homespun Virtue • 191 • The Boston

Massacre • 192 • VISIONS OF FREEDOM • 193 • Wilkes and Liberty •

194 • The Tea Act • 194 • The Intolerable Acts • 194

THE COMING OF INDEPENDENCE • 195

The Continental Congress • 195 • The Continental Association •

196 • The Sweets of Liberty • 196 • The Outbreak of War • 197 •

Independence? • 198 • Common Sense • 199

VOICES OF FREEDOM: From Thomas Paine, Common Sense (1776), and

From James Chalmers, Plain Truth, Addressed to the Inhabitants

of America (1776) • 200

Paine’s Impact • 202 • The Declaration of Independence • 202 •

The Declaration and American Freedom • 203 • An Asylum for

Mankind • 204 • The Global Declaration of Independence • 204

SECURING INDEPENDENCE • 205

The Balance of Power • 205 • Blacks in the Revolution • 207 •

The First Years of the War • 208 • The Battle of Saratoga • 209 •

The War in the South • 210 • Victory at Last • 212

6. THE REVOLUTION WITHIN • 218

DEMOCRATIZING FREEDOM • 221

The Dream of Equality • 221 • Expanding the Political Nation • 222

• The Revolution in Pennsylvania • 223 • The New Constitutions •

224 • The Right to Vote • 224 • Democratizing Government • 225

TOWARD RELIGIOUS TOLERATION • 226

Catholic Americans • 226 • The Founders and Religion • 227 •

Separating Church and State • 227 • Jefferson and Religious

Liberty • 228 • The Revolution and the Churches • 229 •

A Virtuous Citizenry • 230

DEFINING ECONOMIC FREEDOM • 230

Toward Free Labor • 230 • The Soul of a Republic • 231 • The

Politics of Inflation • 232 • The Debate over Free Trade • 232

THE LIMITS OF LIBERTY • 233

Colonial Loyalists • 233 • The Loyalists’ Plight • 234 • The Indians’

Revolution • 236 • White Freedom, Indian Freedom • 237

SLAVERY AND THE REVOLUTION • 238

The Language of Slavery and Freedom • 238 • Obstacles to

Abolition • 239 • The Cause of General Liberty • 240 • Petitions

for Freedom • 241 • British Emancipators • 242 • Voluntary

Emancipations • 243

VOICES OF FREEDOM: From Abigail Adams to John Adams, Braintree,

Mass. (March 31, 1776), and From Petitions of Slaves to the

Massachusetts Legislature (1773 and 1777) • 244

Content s x i

Abolition in the North • 246 • Free Black Communities • 246 •

VISIONS OF FREEDOM • 247

DAUGHTERS OF LIBERTY • 248

Revolutionary Women • 248 • Gender and Politics • 249 •

Republican Motherhood • 250 • The Arduous Struggle for

Liberty • 251

7. FOUNDING A NATION, 1783–1789 • 256

AMERICA UNDER THE CONFEDERATION • 259

The Articles of Confederation • 259 • Congress and the West • 261

• Settlers and the West • 261 • The Land Ordinances • 262 • The

Confederation’s Weaknesses • 264 • Shays’s Rebellion • 265 •

Nationalists of the 1780s • 266

A NEW CONSTITUTION • 267

The Structure of Government • 267 • The Limits of Democracy • 268

• The Division and Separation of Powers • 269 • The Debate over

Slavery • 270 • Slavery in the Constitution • 271 • The Final

Document • 272

THE RATIFICATION DEBATE AND THE ORIGIN OF THE BILL

OF RIGHTS • 273

The Federalist • 273 • “Extend the Sphere” • 274 • The Anti-

Federalists • 275

VOICES OF FREEDOM: From David Ramsay, The History of the

American Revolution (1789), and From James Winthrop,

Anti-Federalist Essay Signed “Agrippa” (1787) • 276

The Bill of Rights • 278 • VISIONS OF FREEDOM • 279

“WE THE PEOPLE” • 282

National Identity • 282 • Indians in the New Nation • 283 • Blacks

and the Republic • 285 • Jefferson, Slavery, and Race • 287 •

Principles of Freedom • 288

8. SECURING THE REPUBLIC, 1790–1815 • 292

POLITICS IN AN AGE OF PASSION • 295

Hamilton’s Program • 295 • The Emergence of Opposition • 296 •

The Jefferson-Hamilton Bargain • 297 • The Impact of the

French Revolution • 297 • Political Parties • 299 • The Whiskey

Rebellion • 299 • The Republican Party • 300 • An Expanding

Public Sphere • 301 • The Democratic-Republican Societies • 301

VOICES OF FREEDOM: From Address of the Democratic-Republican

Society of Pennsylvania (December 18, 1794), and From Judith

Sargent Murray, “On the Equality of the Sexes” (1790) • 302

The Rights of Women • 304 • Women and the Republic • 305

x i i C o n t e n t s

THE ADAMS PRESIDENCY • 305

The Election of 1796 • 305 • The “Reign of Witches” • 306 • The

Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions • 307 • The “Revolution of 1800”

• 308 • Slavery and Politics • 309 • The Haitian Revolution • 309 •

Gabriel’s Rebellion • 310

JEFFERSON IN POWER • 311

Judicial Review • 312 • The Louisiana Purchase • 312 • Lewis and

Clark • 314 • Incorporating Louisiana • 315 • The Barbary Wars •

315 • The Embargo • 317 • Madison and Pressure for War • 317

THE “SECOND WAR OF INDEPENDENCE” • 318

The Indian Response • 318 • Tecumseh’s Vision • 319 • The War of

1812 • 319 • VISIONS OF FREEDOM • 320 • The War’s Aftermath • 323

• The End of the Federalist Party • 324

9. THE MARKET REVOLUTION, 1800–1840 • 328

A NEW ECONOMY • 331

Roads and Steamboats • 333 • The Erie Canal • 334 • Railroads

and the Telegraph • 335 • The Rise of the West • 336 • The Cotton

Kingdom • 339 • The Unfree Westward Movement • 340

MARKET SOCIETY • 340

Commercial Farmers • 342 • The Growth of Cities • 342 • The

Factory System • 343 • The Industrial Worker • 347 • The “Mill

Girls” • 347 • The Growth of Immigration • 348 • Irish and

German Newcomers • 348 • The Rise of Nativism • 350 • The

Transformation of Law • 351

THE FREE INDIVIDUAL • 351

The West and Freedom • 352 • The Transcendentalists • 353 •

Individualism • 353

VOICES OF FREEDOM: From Ralph Waldo Emerson, “The American

Scholar” (1837), and From ‘‘Factory Life as It Is, by an Operative’’

(1845) • 354

The Second Great Awakening • 357 • The Awakening’s Impact •

358 • VISIONS OF FREEDOM • 359

THE LIMITS OF PROSPERITY • 360

Liberty and Prosperity • 360 • Race and Opportunity • 361 • The

Cult of Domesticity • 362 • Women and Work • 363 • The Early

Labor Movement • 365 • The “Liberty of Living” • 366

10. DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA, 1815–1840 • 370

THE TRIUMPH OF DEMOCRACY • 373

Property and Democracy • 373 • The Dorr War • 373 • Tocqueville

on Democracy • 374 • The Information Revolution • 375 • The

Content s x i i i

x i v C o n t e n t s

Limits of Democracy • 376 • A Racial Democracy • 377 • Race and

Class • 377

NATIONALISM AND ITS DISCONTENTS • 378

The American System • 378 • Banks and Money • 379 • The Panic

of 1819 • 380 • The Politics of the Panic • 380 • The Missouri

Controversy • 381 • The Slavery Question • 382

NATION, SECTION, AND PARTY • 383

The United States and the Latin American Wars of

Independence • 383

VOICES OF FREEDOM: From James Monroe’s Annual Message to

Congress (1823), and From John C. Calhoun, “A Disquisition on

Government” (ca. 1845) • 384

The Monroe Doctrine • 386 • The Election of 1824 • 387 • The

Nationalism of John Quincy Adams • 388 • “Liberty Is Power” • 389

• Martin Van Buren and the Democratic Party • 389 • The Election

of 1828 • 390

THE AGE OF JACKSON • 391

The Party System • 391 • VISIONS OF FREEDOM • 392 • Democrats and

Whigs • 393 • Public and Private Freedom • 394 • Politics and

Morality • 395 • South Carolina and Nullification • 395 •

Calhoun’s Political Theory • 396 • The Nullification Crisis • 397 •

Indian Removal • 398 • The Supreme Court and the Indians • 398

THE BANK WAR AND AFTER • 401

Biddle’s Bank • 401 • The Pet Banks and the Economy • 403 • The

Panic of 1837 • 403 • Van Buren in Office • 404 • The Election of

1840 • 405 • His Accidency • 406

P a r t 3 S l a v e r y, F r e e d o m , a n d t h e C r i s i s o f t h e U n i o n , 1 8 4 0 – 1 8 7 7

11. THE PECULIAR INSTITUTION • 414

THE OLD SOUTH • 417

Cotton Is King • 417 • The Second Middle Passage • 419 • Slavery

and the Nation • 419 • The Southern Economy • 420 • Plain Folk of

the Old South • 421 • The Planter Class • 422 • The Paternalist

Ethos • 423 • The Code of Honor • 423 • The Proslavery Argument

• 424 • Abolition in the Americas • 425 • VISIONS OF FREEDOM • 426

• Slavery and Liberty • 427 • Slavery and Civilization • 428

LIFE UNDER SLAVERY • 429

Slaves and the Law • 429 • Conditions of Slave Life • 429

VOICES OF FREEDOM: From Letter by Joseph Taber to Joseph

Long (1840), and From the Rules of Highland

Plantation (1838) • 430

Free Blacks in the Old South • 432 • The Upper and Lower South •

433 • Slave Labor • 434 • Gang Labor and Task Labor • 435 •

Slavery in the Cities • 437 • Maintaining Order • 437

SLAVE CULTURE • 438

The Slave Family • 438 • The Threat of Sale • 439 • Gender Roles

among Slaves • 440 • Slave Religion • 440 • The Gospel of

Freedom • 441 • The Desire for Liberty • 442

RESISTANCE TO SLAVERY • 443

Forms of Resistance • 443 • Fugitive Slaves • 443 • The Amistad •

445 • Slave Revolts • 445 • Nat Turner’s Rebellion • 447

12. AN AGE OF REFORM, 1820–1840 • 452

THE REFORM IMPULSE • 454

Utopian Communities • 456 • The Shakers • 457 • The Mormons’ Trek

• 458 • Oneida • 458 • Worldly Communities • 459 • The Owenites

• 459 • Religion and Reform • 461 • The Temperance Movement •

461 • Critics of Reform • 462 • Reformers and Freedom • 462 • The

Invention of the Asylum • 463 • The Common School • 464

THE CRUSADE AGAINST SLAVERY • 465

Colonization • 465 • Blacks and Colonization • 466 • Militant

Abolitionism • 466 • The Emergence of Garrison • 467 • Spreading

the Abolitionist Message • 467 • Slavery and Moral Suasion • 469 •

Abolitionists and the Idea of Freedom • 469 • A New Vision of

America • 470

BLACK AND WHITE ABOLITIONISM • 471

Black Abolitionists • 471 • Abolitionism and Race • 472 • Slavery

and American Freedom • 473 • Gentlemen of Property and Standing

• 474 • Slavery and Civil Liberties • 475

THE ORIGINS OF FEMINISM • 476

The Rise of the Public Woman • 476 • VISIONS OF FREEDOM • 477 •

Women and Free Speech • 478 • Women’s Rights • 479

VOICES OF FREEDOM: From Angelina Grimké, Letter in The Liberator

(August 2, 1837), and From Frederick Douglass, Speech on July 5,

1852, Rochester, New York • 480

Feminism and Freedom • 482 • Women and Work • 482 • The

Slavery of Sex • 484 • “Social Freedom” • 484 • The Abolitionist

Schism • 485

Content s x v

13. A HOUSE DIVIDED, 1840–1861 • 490

FRUITS OF MANIFEST DESTINY • 493

Continental Expansion • 493 • VISIONS OF FREEDOM • 494 • The

Mexican Frontier: New Mexico and California • 495 • The Texas

Revolt • 496 • The Election of 1844 • 498 • The Road to War • 499

• The War and Its Critics • 499 • Combat in Mexico • 500 • Race

and Manifest Destiny • 502 • Redefining Race • 503 • Gold-Rush

California • 503 • California and the Boundaries of Freedom • 504

• The Other Gold Rush • 505 • Opening Japan • 505

A DOSE OF ARSENIC • 506

The Wilmot Proviso • 507 • The Free Soil Appeal • 507 • Crisis and

Compromise • 508 • The Great Debate • 509 • The Fugitive Slave

Issue • 510 • Douglas and Popular Sovereignty • 511 • The

Kansas-Nebraska Act • 511

THE RISE OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY • 513

The Northern Economy • 513 • The Rise and Fall of the Know-

Nothings • 515 • The Free Labor Ideology • 516 • Bleeding Kansas

and the Election of 1856 • 517

THE EMERGENCE OF LINCOLN • 519

The Dred Scott Decision • 519 • The Decision’s Aftermath • 520 •

Lincoln and Slavery • 520 • The Lincoln-Douglas Campaign • 521

VOICES OF FREEDOM: From the Lincoln-Douglas Debates (1858) • 522

John Brown at Harpers Ferry • 524 • The Rise of Southern

Nationalism • 525 • The Democratic Split • 527 • The Nomination

of Lincoln • 527 • The Election of 1860 • 528

THE IMPENDING CRISIS • 528

The Secession Movement • 528 • The Secession Crisis • 529 • And

the War Came • 531

14. A NEW BIRTH OF FREEDOM: THE CIVIL WAR, 1861–1865 • 536

THE FIRST MODERN WAR • 539

The Two Combatants • 540 • The Technology of War • 541 • The

Public and the War • 542 • Mobilizing Resources • 543 • Military

Strategies • 544 • The War Begins • 544 • The War in the East, 1862

• 545 • The War in the West • 546

THE COMING OF EMANCIPATION • 548

Slavery and the War • 548 • The Unraveling of Slavery • 548 •

Steps toward Emancipation • 549 • Lincoln’s Decision • 550 • The

Emancipation Proclamation • 551 • VISIONS OF FREEDOM • 552 •

Enlisting Black Trops • 554 • The Black Soldier • 555

x v i C o n t e n t s

THE SECOND AMERICAN REVOLUTION • 556

Liberty and Union • 556 • Lincoln’s Vision • 557 • From Union to

Nation • 558 • The War and American Religion • 558 • Liberty in

Wartime • 559

VOICES OF FREEDOM: From Speech of Alexander H. Stephens, Vice

President of the Confederacy (March 21, 1861), and From

Abraham Lincoln, Address at Sanitary Fair, Baltimore

(April 18, 1864) • 561

The North’s Transformation • 562 • Government and the Economy •

562 • Building the Transcontinental Railroad • 563 • The War and

Native Americans • 563 • A New Financial System • 564 • Women

and the War • 565 • The Divided North • 567

THE CONFEDERATE NATION • 568

Leadership and Government • 568 • The Inner Civil War • 569 •

Economic Problems • 569 • Southern Unionists • 570 • Women and

the Confederacy • 571 • Black Soldiers for the Confederacy • 571

TURNING POINTS • 572

Gettysburg and Vicksburg • 572 • 1864 • 573

REHEARSALS FOR RECONSTRUCTION AND THE END OF THE WAR • 574

The Sea Island Experiment • 574 • Wartime Reconstruction in the

West • 575 • The Politics of Wartime Reconstruction • 576 • Victory

at Last • 576 • The War and the World • 579 • The War in

American History • 580

15. “WHAT IS FREEDOM?”: RECONSTRUCTION, 1865–1877 • 584

THE MEANING OF FREEDOM • 587

Blacks and the Meaning of Freedom • 587 • Families in Freedom •

588 • Church and School • 588 • Political Freedom • 589 • Land,

Labor, and Freedom • 590 • Masters without Slaves • 591 • The

Free Labor Vision • 592 • The Freedmen’s Bureau • 592 • The

Failure of Land Reform • 593 • Toward a New South • 594 • The

White Farmer • 595

VOICES OF FREEDOM: From Petition of Committee in Behalf of the

Freedmen to Andrew Johnson (1865), and From a Sharecropping

Contract (1866) • 596

The Urban South • 598 • Aftermaths of Slavery • 598

THE MAKING OF RADICAL RECONSTRUCTION • 600

Andrew Johnson • 600 • The Failure of Presidential Reconstruction

• 600 • The Black Codes • 601 • The Radical Republicans • 602 •

The Origins of Civil Rights • 602 • The Fourteenth Amendment • 603

• The Reconstruction Act • 604 • Impeachment and the Election of

Grant • 605 • The Fifteenth Amendment • 605 • The “Great

Content s x v i i

Constitutional Revolution” • 606 • Boundaries of Freedom • 607 •

The Rights of Women • 608 • Feminists and Radicals • 609

RADICAL RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH • 610

“The Tocsin of Freedom” • 610 • The Black Officeholder • 611 •

VISIONS OF FREEDOM • 613 • Carpetbaggers and Scalawags • 614 •

Southern Republicans in Power • 614 • The Quest for Prosperity • 615

THE OVERTHROW OF RECONSTRUCTION • 616

Reconstruction’s Opponents • 616 • “A Reign of Terror” • 617 • The

Liberal Republicans • 618 • The North’s Retreat • 619 • The

Triumph of the Redeemers • 620 • The Disputed Election and

Bargain of 1877 • 621 • The End of Reconstruction • 622

P a r t 4 T o w a r d a G l o b a l P r e s e n c e , 1 8 7 0 – 1 9 2 0

16. AMERICA’S GILDED AGE, 1870–1890 • 630

THE SECOND INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION • 633

The Industrial Economy • 634 • Railroads and the National Market

• 635 • The Spirit of Innovation • 636 • Competition and

Consolidation • 638 • The Rise of Andrew Carnegie • 638 • The

Triumph of John D. Rockefeller • 639 • Workers’ Freedom in an

Industrial Age • 641 • Sunshine and Shadow: Increasing Wealth

and Poverty • 642

THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE WEST • 643

A Diverse Region • 644 • Farming on the Middle Border • 645 •

Bonanza Farms • 646 • Large-Scale Agriculture in California • 647

• The Cowboy and the Corporate West • 647 • The Subjugation of

the Plains Indians • 648 • “Let Me Be a Free Man” • 649

VOICES OF FREEDOM: From Chief Joseph of the Nez Percé Indians,

Speech in Washington, D.C. (1879), and From “A Second

Declaration of Independence” (1879) • 650

Remaking Indian Life • 653 • The Dawes Act • 654 • Indian

Citizenship • 655 • The Ghost Dance and Wounded Knee • 655 •

Settler Societies and Global Wests • 655

POLITICS IN A GILDED AGE • 656

The Corruption of Politics • 656 • The Politics of Dead Center • 658

• Government and the Economy • 659 • Reform Legislation • 659 •

Political Conflict in the States • 660

FREEDOM IN THE GILDED AGE • 661

The Social Problem • 661 • Freedom, Inequality, and Democracy • 661

• Social Darwinism in America • 662 • VISIONS OF FREEDOM • 663 •

Liberty of Contract • 664 • The Courts and Freedom • 664

x v i i i C o n t e n t s

LABOR AND THE REPUBLIC • 666

“The Overwhelming Labor Question” • 666 • The Knights of Labor

and the “Conditions Essential to Liberty” • 666 • Middle-Class

Reformers • 667 • Progress and Poverty • 668 • The Cooperative

Commonwealth • 669 • Bellamy’s Utopia • 669 • A Social Gospel

• 670 • The Haymarket Affair • 670 • Labor and Politics • 671

17. FREEDOM’S BOUNDARIES, AT HOME AND ABROAD, 1890–1900 • 676

THE POPULIST CHALLENGE • 679

The Farmers’ Revolt • 679 • The People’s Party • 680 • The Populist

Platform • 681 • The Populist Coalition • 682 • The Government

and Labor • 684 • Debs and the Pullman Strike • 685 • Population

and Labor • 685 • Bryan and Free Silver • 686 • The Campaign of

1896 • 687

THE SEGREGATED SOUTH • 688

The Redeemers in Power • 688 • The Failure of the New South Dream

• 689 • Black Life in the South • 689 • The Kansas Exodus • 690 •

The Decline of Black Politics • 691 • The Elimination of Black Voting

• 692 • The Law of Segregation • 693 • Segregation and White

Domination • 694 • The Rise of Lynching • 695 • The Politics of

Memory • 696

REDRAWING THE BOUNDARIES • 697

The New Immigration and the New Nativism • 698 • Chinese Exclusion

and Chinese Rights • 698 • The Emergence of Booker T. Washington •

700 • The Rise of the AFL • 701 • The Women’s Era • 701

BECOMING A WORLD POWER • 703

The New Imperialism • 703 • American Expansionism • 704 • The

Lure of Empire • 704 • The “Splendid Little War” • 705 • Roosevelt

at San Juan Hill • 706 • An American Empire • 707 • VISIONS OF

FREEDOM • 709 • The Philippine War • 710

VOICES OF FREEDOM: From Interview with President McKinley

(1899), and From “Aguinaldo’s Case against the United States”

(1899) • 712

Citizens or Subjects? • 714 • Drawing the Global Color Line • 715 •

“Republic or Empire?” • 717

18. THE PROGRESSIVE ERA, 1900–1916 • 722

AN URBAN AGE AND A CONSUMER SOCIETY • 726

Farms and Cities • 726 • The Muckrakers • 728 • Immigration as a

Global Process • 728 • The Immigrant Quest for Freedom • 731 •

Consumer Freedom • 732 • VISIONS OF FREEDOM • 733 • The Working

Woman • 734 • The Rise of Fordism • 735 • The Promise of

Abundance • 736 • An American Standard of Living • 737

Content s x i x

VARIETIES OF PROGRESSIVISM • 738

Industrial Freedom • 738 • The Socialist Presence • 739

VOICES OF FREEDOM: From Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Women and

Economics (1898), and From John Mitchell, “The Workingman’s

Conception of Industrial Liberty” (1910) • 741

The Gospel of Debs • 742 • AFL and IWW • 743 • The New

Immigrants on Strike • 743 • Labor and Civil Liberties • 745 •

The New Feminism • 746 • The Rise of Personal Freedom • 747 •

The Birth-Control Movement • 747 • Native-American

Progressivism • 748

THE POLITICS OF PROGRESSIVISM • 749

Effective Freedom • 749 • State and Local Reforms • 749 •

Progressive Democracy • 750 • Government by Expert • 751 • Jane

Addams and Hull House • 752 • “Spearheads for Reform” • 752 •

The Campaign for Women’s Suffrage • 753 • Maternalist Reform •

754 • The Idea of Economic Citizenship • 756

THE PROGRESSIVE PRESIDENTS • 756

Theodore Roosevelt • 757 • Roosevelt and Economic Regulation •

757 • The Conservation Movement • 758 • Taft in Office • 759 •

The Election of 1912 • 760 • New Freedom and New Nationalism •

760 • Wilson’s First Term • 761 • The Expanding Role of

Government • 762

19. SAFE FOR DEMOCRACY: THE UNITED STATES AND WORLD WAR I, 1916–1920 • 766

AN ERA OF INTERVENTION • 770

“I Took the Canal Zone” • 771 • The Roosevelt Corollary • 772 •

Moral Imperialism • 773 • Wilson and Mexico • 774

AMERICA AND THE GREAT WAR • 775

Neutrality and Preparedness • 776 • The Road to War • 777 • The

Fourteen Points • 778

THE WAR AT HOME • 779

The Progressives’ War • 779 • The Wartime State • 780 • The

Propaganda War • 781 • “The Great Cause of Freedom” • 782 •

The Coming of Woman Suffrage • 783 • Prohibition • 784 •

Liberty in Wartime • 785 • The Espionage Act • 786 • Coercive

Patriotism • 787

VOICES OF FREEDOM: From Eugene V. Debs, Speech to the Jury before

Sentencing under the Espionage Act (1918), and From W. E. B.

Du Bois, “Returning Soldiers,” The Crisis (1919) • 788

WHO IS AN AMERICAN? • 790

The “Race Problem” • 790 • Americanization and Pluralism • 790 •

VISIONS OF FREEDOM • 791 • The Anti-German Crusade • 793 •

Toward Immigration Restriction • 794 • Groups Apart: Mexicans,

x x C o n t e n t s

Puerto Ricans, and Asian-Americans • 794 • The Color Line • 795 •

Roosevelt, Wilson, and Race • 796 • W. E. B. Du Bois and the Revival

of Black Protest • 796 • Closing Ranks • 798 • The Great Migration

and the “Promised Land” • 798 • Racial Violence, North and South •

799 • The Rise of Garveyism • 799

1919 • 800

A Worldwide Upsurge • 800 • Upheaval in America • 801 • The

Great Steel Strike • 802 • The Red Scare • 802 • Wilson at

Versailles • 803 • The Wilsonian Moment • 805 • The Seeds of

Wars to Come • 807 • The Treaty Debate • 807

P a r t 5 D e p r e s s i o n a n d W a r s , 1 9 2 0 – 1 9 5 3

20. FROM BUSINESS CULTURE TO GREAT DEPRESSION: THE TWENTIES, 1920–1932 • 816

THE BUSINESS OF AMERICA • 820

A Decade of Prosperity • 820 • A New Society • 821 • The Limit of

Prosperity • 822 • The Farmers’ Plight • 823 • The Image of

Business • 824 • The Decline of Labor • 825 • The Equal Rights

Amendment • 825 • Women’s Freedom • 826

BUSINESS AND GOVERNMENT • 828

The Retreat from Progressivism • 828 • The Republican Era • 828 •

Corruption in Government • 829

VOICES OF FREEDOM: From André Siegfried, “The Gulf Between,”

Atlantic Monthly (March 1928), and From Majority Opinion,

Justice James C. McReynolds, in Meyer v. Nebraska (1923) • 830

The Election of 1924 • 832 • Economic Diplomacy • 833

THE BIRTH OF CIVIL LIBERTIES • 833

The “Free Mob” • 834 • A “Clear and Present Danger” • 835 • The

Court and Civil Liberties • 835

THE CULTURE WARS • 836

The Fundamentalist Revolt • 836 • VISIONS OF FREEDOM • 837 • The

Scopes Trial • 839 • The Second Klan • 840 • Closing the Golden

Door • 841 • Race and the Law • 842 • Pluralism and Liberty •

844 • Promoting Tolerance • 844 • The Emergence of Harlem • 845

• The Harlem Renaissance • 846

THE GREAT DEPRESSION • 847

The Election of 1928 • 847 • The Coming of the Depression • 849 •

Americans and the Depression • 850 • Resignation and Protest •

851 • Hoover’s Response • 852 • The Worsening Economic Outlook

• 853 • Freedom in the Modern World • 854

Content s x x i

21. THE NEW DEAL, 1932–1940 • 858

THE FIRST NEW DEAL • 861

FDR and the Election of 1932 • 861 • The Coming of the New Deal •

863 • The Banking Crisis • 864 • The NRA • 865 • Government

Jobs • 866 • Public-Works Projects • 866 • The New Deal and

Agriculture • 867 • The New Deal and Housing • 869 • The Court

and the New Deal • 870

THE GRASSROOTS REVOLT • 871

Labor’s Great Upheaval • 871 • The Rise of the CIO • 872 • Labor

and Politics • 874 • Voices of Protest • 874

THE SECOND NEW DEAL • 875

The WPA and the Wagner Act • 876 • The American Welfare State •

877 • The Social Security System • 878

A RECKONING WITH LIBERTY • 878

FDR and the Idea of Freedom • 879

VOICES OF FREEDOM: From Franklin D. Roosevelt, “Fireside Chat”

(1934), and From John Steinbeck, The Harvest Gypsies: On the

Road to the Grapes of Wrath (1938) • 880

The Election of 1936 • 882 • The Court Fight • 883 • The End of the

Second New Deal • 884

THE LIMITS OF CHANGE • 884

The New Deal and American Women • 885 • The Southern Veto •

886 • The Stigma of Welfare • 886 • The Indian New Deal • 887 •

The New Deal and Mexican-Americans • 887 • Last Hired, First Fired

• 888 • A New Deal for Blacks • 888 • Federal Discrimination • 889

A NEW CONCEPTION OF AMERICA • 890

The Heyday of American Communism • 890 • Redefining the People • 891

• Promoting Diversity • 892 • VISIONS OF FREEDOM • 893 • Challenging the

Color Line • 894 • Labor and Civil Liberties • 896 • The End of the New

Deal • 897 • The New Deal in American History • 897

22. FIGHTING FOR THE FOUR FREEDOMS: WORLD WAR II , 1941–1945 • 902

FIGHTING WORLD WAR II • 906

Good Neighbors • 906 • The Road to War • 907 • Isolationism • 908

• War in Europe • 908 • Toward Intervention • 909 • Pearl Harbor •

910 • The War in the Pacific • 911 • The War in Europe • 913

THE HOME FRONT • 915

Mobilizing for War • 915 • Business and the War • 916 • Labor in

Wartime • 917 • Fighting for the Four Freedoms • 918 • Freedom

from Want • 918 • VISIONS OF FREEDOM • 919 • The Office of War

Information • 920 • The Fifth Freedom • 920 • Women at

War • 921 • Women at Work • 922

x x i i C o n t e n t s

VISIONS OF POSTWAR FREEDOM • 923

Toward an American Century • 923 • “The Way of Life of Free

Men” • 924 • An Economic Bill of Rights • 924 • The Road to

Serfdom • 925

THE AMERICAN DILEMMA • 926

Patriotic Assimilation • 926 • The Bracero Program • 928 •

Mexican-American Rights • 928 • Indians during the War • 929 •

Asian-Americans in Wartime • 929 • Japanese-American

Internment • 930 • Blacks and the War • 932 • Blacks and

Military Service • 932 • Birth of the Civil Rights Movement • 933

VOICES OF FREEDOM: From Henry R. Luce, The American Century

(1941), and From Charles H. Wesley, “The Negro Has always

Wanted the Four Freedoms,” in What the Negro Wants

(1944) • 934

The Double-V • 936 • What the Negro Wants • 936 • An American

Dilemma • 938 • Black Internationalism • 939

THE END OF THE WAR • 940

“The Most Terrible Weapon” • 940 • The Dawn of the Atomic Age •

941 • The Nature of the War • 941 • Planning the Postwar World •

942 • Yalta and Bretton Woods • 942 • The United Nations • 943 •

Peace, but Not Harmony • 944

23. THE UNITED STATES AND THE COLD WAR, 1945–1953 • 948

ORIGINS OF THE COLD WAR • 951

The Two Powers • 951 • The Roots of Containment • 952 • The Iron

Curtain • 953 • The Truman Doctrine • 953 • The Marshall Plan •

954 • The Reconstruction of Japan • 955 • The Berlin Blockade and

NATO • 955 • The Growing Communist Challenge • 956 • The

Korean War • 958 • Cold War Critics • 960 • Imperialism and

Decolonization • 961

THE COLD WAR AND THE IDEA OF FREEDOM • 961

The Cultural Cold War • 962 • Freedom and Totalitarianism • 963 •

The Rise of Human Rights • 964 • Ambiguities of Human Rights •

964 • VISIONS OF FREEDOM • 965

THE TRUMAN PRESIDENCY • 966

The Fair Deal • 966 • The Postwar Strike Wave • 967 • The

Republican Resurgence • 967 • Postwar Civil Rights • 968 • To

Secure These Rights • 969 • The Dixiecrat and Wallace Revolts •

970 • The 1948 Campaign • 970

THE ANTICOMMUNIST CRUSADE • 971

Loyalty and Disloyalty • 972 • The Spy Trials • 973 • McCarthy

and McCarthyism • 974 • An Atmosphere of Fear • 975 • The Uses

of Anticommunism • 976 • Anticommunist Politics • 976 • The Cold

Content s x x i i i

War and Organized Labor • 977 • Cold War Civil Rights • 977

VOICES OF FREEDOM: From National Security Council, NSC-68 (1950),

and From Henry Steele Commager, “Who Is Loyal to America?”

Harper’s (September 1947) • 978

P a r t 6 W h a t K i n d o f N a t i o n ? 1 9 5 3 – 2 0 1 0

24. AN AFFLUENT SOCIETY, 1953–1960 • 988

THE GOLDEN AGE • 991

A Changing Economy • 992 • A Suburban Nation • 993 • The Growth

of the West • 993 • A Consumer Culture • 994 • The TV World • 995

• A New Ford • 996 • Women at Work and at Home • 997 • A

Segregated Landscape • 999 • Public Housing and Urban Renewal •

1000 • The Divided Society • 1001 • The End of Ideology • 1002 •

Selling Free Enterprise • 1003 • People’s Capitalism • 1003 • The

Libertarian Conservatives • 1004 • The New Conservatism • 1005

THE EISENHOWER ERA • 1006

Ike and Nixon • 1006 • The 1952 Campaign • 1006 • Modern

Republicans • 1007 • The Social Contract • 1008 • Massive

Retaliation • 1009 • Ike and the Russians • 1009 • The Emergence

of the Third World • 1011 • The Cold War in the Third World • 1012

• Origins of the Vietnam War • 1013 • Mass Society and Its Critics •

1014 • Rebels without a Cause • 1015 • The Beats • 1015

VOICES OF FREEDOM: From The Southern Manifesto (1956), and From

Martin Luther King Jr., Speech at Montgomery, Alabama

(December 5, 1955) • 1016

THE FREEDOM MOVEMENT • 1018

Origins of the Movement • 1019 • The Legal Assault on Segregation

• 1019 • The Brown Case • 1020 • The Montgomery Bus Boycott •

1021 • The Daybreak of Freedom • 1022 • The Leadership of King

• 1023 • Massive Resistance • 1024 • VISIONS OF FREEDOM • 1025 •

Eisenhower and Civil Rights • 1026 • The World Views the United

States • 1027

THE ELECTION OF 1960 • 1027

Kennedy and Nixon • 1027 • The End of the 1950s • 1029

25. THE SIXTIES, 1960–1968 • 1034

THE FREEDOM MOVEMENT • 1037

The Rising Tide of Protest • 1037 • Birmingham • 1038 • The

March on Washington • 1039

x x i v C o n t e n t s

THE KENNEDY YEARS • 1040

Kennedy and the World • 1041 • The Missile Crisis • 1041 •

Kennedy and Civil Rights • 1042

LYNDON JOHNSON’S PRESIDENCY • 1043

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 • 1043 • Freedom Summer • 1044 • The

1964 Election • 1045 • The Conservative Sixties • 1046 • The Voting

Rights Act • 1047 • Immigration Reform • 1047 • The Great Society

• 1048 • The War on Poverty • 1048 • Freedom and Equality • 1049

THE CHANGING BLACK MOVEMENT • 1050

The Ghetto Uprisings • 1051 • Malcolm X • 1052 • The Rise of

Black Power • 1052

VIETNAM AND THE NEW LEFT • 1053

Old and New Lefts • 1053 • The Fading Consensus • 1054 • The

Rise of the SDS • 1055 • America and Vietnam • 1056 • Lyndon

Johnson’s War • 1057

VOICES OF FREEDOM: From Young Americans for Freedom, The Sharon

Statement (September 1960), and From Tom Hayden and Others,

The Port Huron Statement (June 1962) • 1059

The Antiwar Movement • 1061 • The Counterculture • 1062 • VISIONS OF

FREEDOM • 1063 • Personal Liberation and the Free Individual • 1064

THE NEW MOVEMENTS AND THE RIGHTS REVOLUTION • 1065

The Feminine Mystique • 1065 • Women’s Liberation • 1066 •

Personal Freedom • 1067 • Gay Liberation • 1068 • Latino

Activism • 1068 • Red Power • 1069 • Silent Spring • 1069 • The

New Environmentalism • 1070 • The Rights Revolution • 1071 •

Policing the States • 1072 • The Right to Privacy • 1072

1968 • 1073

A Year of Turmoil • 1073 • The Global 1968 • 1074 • Nixon’s

Comeback • 1075 • The Legacy of the Sixties • 1076

26. THE TRIUMPH OF CONSERVATISM, 1969–1988 • 1080

PRESIDENT NIXON • 1082

Nixon’s Domestic Policies • 1083 • Nixon and Welfare • 1084 •

Nixon and Race • 1085 • The Burger Court • 1085 • The Court and

Affirmative Action • 1086 • The Continuing Sexual Revolution •

1087 • Nixon and Détente • 1088

VIETNAM AND WATERGATE • 1089

Nixon and Vietnam • 1089 • The End of the Vietnam War • 1091 •

Watergate • 1092 • Nixon’s Fall • 1092

THE END OF THE GOLDEN AGE • 1093

The Decline of Manufacturing • 1093 • Stagflation • 1094 • The

Beleaguered Social Compact • 1095 • Labor on the Defensive • 1096

• Ford as President • 1096 • The Carter Administration • 1097 •

Content s x x v

Carter and the Economic Crisis • 1097 • The Emergence of Human

Rights Politics • 1098 • The Iran Crisis and Afghanistan • 1100

THE RISING TIDE OF CONSERVATISM • 1101

The Religious Right • 1102 • The Battle over the Equal Rights

Amendment • 1102 • The Abortion Controversy • 1103 • The Tax

Revolt • 1104 • VISIONS OF FREEDOM • 1105 • The Election of 1980 • 1106

THE REAGAN REVOLUTION • 1107

Reagan and American Freedom • 1107

VOICES OF FREEDOM: From Redstockings Manifesto (1969), and From

Jerry Falwell, Listen, America! (1980) • 1108

Reaganomics • 1110 • Reagan and Labor • 1111 • The Problem of

Inequality • 1111 • The Second Gilded Age • 1112 • Conservatives

and Reagan • 1113 • Reagan and the Cold War • 1114 • The Iran-

Contra Affair • 1115 • Reagan and Gorbachev • 1116 • Reagan’s

Legacy • 1117 • The Election of 1988 • 1117

27. GLOBALIZATION AND ITS DISCONTENTS, 1989–2000 • 1122

THE POST–COLD WAR WORLD • 1126

The Crisis of Communism • 1126 • A New World Order? • 1127 •

The Gulf War • 1128 • VISIONS OF FREEDOM • 1129 • Visions of

America’s Role • 1130 • The Election of Clinton • 1130 • Clinton in

Office • 1131 • The “Freedom Revolution” • 1132 • Clinton’s

Political Strategy • 1133 • Clinton and World Affairs • 1134 • The

Balkan Crisis • 1134 • Human Rights • 1135

A NEW ECONOMY? • 1136

The Computer Revolution • 1137 • Global Economic Problems • 1138

• The Stock Market Boom and Bust • 1138 • The Enron Syndrome •

1139 • Fruits of Deregulation • 1140 • Rising Inequality • 1141

VOICES OF FREEDOM: From Bill Clinton, Speech on Signing of NAFTA

(1993), and From Global Exchange, Seattle, Declaration for

Global Democracy (December 1999) • 1142

CULTURE WARS • 1145

The Newest Immigrants • 1145 • The New Diversity • 1147 •

African-Americans in the 1990s • 1150 • The Role of the Courts •

1151 • The Spread of Imprisonment • 1152 • The Burden of

Imprisonment • 1152 • The Continuing Rights Revolution • 1154 •

Native Americans in 2000 • 1154 • Multiculturalism • 1155 • The

Identity Debate • 1155 • Cultural Conservatism • 1156 • “Family

Values” in Retreat • 1157 • The Antigovernment Extreme • 1158

IMPEACHMENT AND THE ELECTION OF 2000 • 1159

The Impeachment of Clinton • 1159 • The Disputed Election • 1160

• The 2000 Result • 1161 • A Challenged Democracy • 1161

x x v i C o n t e n t s

FREEDOM AND THE NEW CENTURY • 1162

Exceptional America • 1162 • Varieties of Freedom • 1164

28. SEPTEMBER 11 AND THE NEXT AMERICAN CENTURY • 1168

THE WAR ON TERRORISM • 1172

Bush before September 11 • 1172 • Bush and the World • 1173 •

“They Hate Freedom” • 1174 • The Bush Doctrine • 1175 • The “Axis

of Evil” • 1176 • The National Security Strategy • 1176

AN AMERICAN EMPIRE? • 1177

VOICES OF FREEDOM: From The National Security Strategy of the

United States (September 2002), and From Barack Obama, Speech

to the Islamic World (2009) • 1178

Confronting Iraq • 1180 • The Iraq War • 1180 • Another Vietnam?

• 1181 • The World and the War • 1183

THE AFTERMATH OF SEPTEMBER 11 AT HOME • 1184

Security and Liberty • 1184 • The Power of the President • 1185 •

The Torture Controversy • 1186 • VISIONS OF FREEDOM • 1187 • The

Economy under Bush • 1188 • The “Jobless” Recovery • 1188

THE WINDS OF CHANGE • 1189

The 2004 Election • 1189 • Bush’s Second Term • 1191 • Hurricane

Katrina • 1191 • The New Orleans Disaster • 1192 • The

Immigration Debate • 1194 • The Immigrant Rights Movement •

1195 • The Constitution and Liberty • 1195 • The Court and the

President • 1196 • The Midterm Elections of 2006 • 1198 • The

Housing Bubble • 1198 • The Great Recession • 1200 • “A

Conspiracy against the Public” • 1201 • The Collapse of Market

Fundamentalism • 1202 • Bush and the Crisis • 1202

THE RISE OF OBAMA • 1203

The 2008 Campaign • 1204 • The Age of Obama? • 1205 •

Obama’s Inauguration • 1205 • Obama’s First Months • 1206

LEARNING FROM HISTORY • 1207

Content s x x v i i

A p p e n d i x

DOCUMENTS

The Declaration of Independence (1776) • A-2

The Constitution of the United States (1787) • A-4

From George Washington’s Farewell Address (1796) • A-13

The Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions (1848) • A-17

From Frederick Douglass’s “What, to the Slave, Is the Fourth of July?”

Speech (1852) • A-19

The Gettysburg Address (1863) • A-22

Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address (1865) • A-23

The Populist Platform of 1892 • A-24

Franklin D. Roosevelt’s First Inaugural Address (1933) • A-27

Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” Speech (1963) • A-29

Ronald Reagan’s First Inaugural Address (1981) • A-31

Barack Obama’s Inaugural Address (2009) • A-34

TABLES AND FIGURES

Presidential Elections • A-37

Admission of States • A-45

Population of the United States • A-46

Historical Statistics of the United States:

Labor Force—Selected Characteristics Expressed as a Percentage

of the Labor Force: 1800–2000 • A-47

Immigration, by Origin • A-47

Unemployment Rate, 1880–2010 • A-48

Union Membership as a Percentage of Nonagricultural

Employment: 1800–2009 • A-48

Voter Participation in Presidential Elections: 1824–2008 • A-48

Birthrate, 1820–2009 • A-48

G LO S S A R Y • A - 4 9

C R E D I T S • A - 6 8

I N D E X • A - 7 4

x x v i i i C o n t e n t s

MAPS

CHAPTER 1

The First Americans • 9

Native Ways of Life, ca. 1500 • 13

The Old World on the Eve of American Colonization,

ca. 1500 • 21

Voyages of Discovery • 25

Spanish Conquests and Explorations in the New

World, 1500–1600 • 36

The New World—New France and New Netherland,

ca. 1650 • 42

CHAPTER 2

English Settlement in the Chesapeake, ca. 1650 • 63

English Settlement in New England, ca. 1640 • 77

CHAPTER 3

Eastern North America in the Seventeenth and Early

Eighteenth Centuries • 96

European Settlement and Ethnic Diversity on the

Atlantic Coast of North America, 1760 • 115

CHAPTER 4

Atlantic Trading Routes • 139

The Slave Trade in the Atlantic World,

1460–1770 • 140

European Empires in North America, ca. 1750 • 164

Eastern North America after the Peace of

Paris, 1763 • 171

CHAPTER 5

The Revolutionary War in the North, 1775–1781 • 209

The Revolutionary War in the South, 1775–1781 • 211

North America, 1783 • 213

CHAPTER 6

Loyalism in the American Revolution • 235

CHAPTER 7

Western Lands, 1782–1802 • 260

Western Ordinances, 1785–1787 • 263

Ratification of the Constitution • 281

Indian Tribes, 1790 • 284

CHAPTER 8

The Presidential Election of 1800 • 310

The Louisiana Purchase • 314

The War of 1812 • 322

CHAPTER 9

The Market Revolution: Roads and Canals, 1840 • 335

The Market Revolution: Western Settlement,

1800–1820 • 338

Travel Times from New York City in 1800

and 1830 • 339

The Market Revolution: The Spread of Cotton

Cultivation, 1820–1840 • 341

Major Cities, 1840 • 344

Cotton Mills, 1820s • 346

CHAPTER 10

The Missouri Compromise, 1820 • 382

The Americas, 1830 • 387

The Presidential Election of 1824 • 388

The Presidential Election of 1828 • 391

Indian Removals, 1830–1840 • 399

The Presidential Election of 1840 • 406

CHAPTER 11

Slave Population, 1860 • 418

Size of Slaveholdings, 1860 • 424

Distribution of Free Blacks, 1860 • 435

Major Crops of the South, 1860 • 436

Slave Resistance in the Nineteenth-Century Atlantic

World • 444

L I ST O F MA P S , TA B L E S , A N D F I G U R E S

CHAPTER 12

Utopian Communities, Mid-Nineteenth

Century • 456

CHAPTER 13

The Trans-Mississippi West, 1830s–1840s • 496

The Mexican War, 1846–1848 • 501

Gold-Rush California • 503

Continental Expansion through 1853 • 506

The Compromise of 1850 • 509

The Kansas-Nebraska Act, 1854 • 512

The Railroad Network, 1850s • 514

The Presidential Election of 1856 • 519

The Presidential Election of 1860 • 528

CHAPTER 14

The Secession of Southern States, 1860–1861 • 539

The Civil War in the East, 1861–1862 • 545

The Civil War in the West, 1861–1862 • 547

The Emancipation Proclamation • 553

The Civil War, 1863 • 574

The Civil War, Late 1864–1865 • 577

CHAPTER 15

The Barrow Plantation • 589

Sharecropping in the South, 1880 • 594

The Presidential Election of 1868 • 605

Reconstruction in the South, 1867–1877 • 621

The Presidential Election of 1876 • 621

CHAPTER 16

The Railroad Network, 1880 • 636

U.S. Steel: A Vertically Integrated Corporation • 640

Indian Reservations, ca. 1890 • 653

Political Stalemate, 1876–1892 • 658

CHAPTER 17

Populist Strength, 1892 • 683

The Presidential Election of 1892 • 684

The Presidential Election of 1896 • 687

The Spanish-American War: The Pacific • 708

The Spanish-American War: The Caribbean • 708

American Empire, 1898 • 711

CHAPTER 18

The World on the Move, World Migration

1815–1914 • 729

Socialist Towns and Cities, 1900–1920 • 742

The Presidential Election of 1912 • 761

CHAPTER 19

The United States in the Caribbean,

1898–1934 • 771

The Panama Canal Zone • 772

Colonial Possessions, 1900 • 774

World War I: The Western Front • 779

Prohibition, 1915: Counties and States That

Banned Liquor before the Eighteenth

Amendment (Ratified 1919,

Repealed 1933) • 784

Europe in 1914 • 804

Europe in 1919 • 805

CHAPTER 20

The Presidential Election of 1928 • 848

CHAPTER 21

Columbia River Basin Project, 1949 • 862

The Presidential Election of 1932 • 863

The Dust Bowl, 1935–1940 • 868

CHAPTER 22

World War II in the Pacific, 1941–1945 • 912

World War II in Europe, 1942–1945 • 914

Wartime Army and Navy Bases and Airfields • 917

Japanese-American Internment, 1942–1945 • 931

CHAPTER 23

Cold War Europe, 1956 • 957

The Korean War, 1950–1953 • 959

The Presidential Election of 1948 • 971

CHAPTER 24

The Interstate Highway System • 997

The Presidential Election of 1952 • 1007

The Presidential Election of 1960 • 1028

x x x L i s t o f M a p s , T a b l e s , a n d F i g u r e s

CHAPTER 25

The Presidential Election of 1964 • 1045

The Vietnam War, 1964–1975 • 1060

The Presidential Election of 1968 • 1075

CHAPTER 26

Center of Population, 1790–2000 • 1083

The Presidential Election of 1976 • 1097

The Presidential Election of 1980 • 1106

The United States in the Caribbean and Central

America, 1954–2004 • 1116

CHAPTER 27

Eastern Europe after the Cold War • 1128

The Presidential Election of 1992 • 1131

Maps of Diversity, 2000 • 1146

The Presidential Election of 2000 • 1161

CHAPTER 28

U.S. Presence in the Middle East,

1947–2010 • 1182

Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza Strip • 1183

The Presidential Election of 2004 • 1190

The Presidential Election of 2008 • 1204

TABLES AND F IGURES

CHAPTER 1

Table 1.1 Estimated Regional Populations:

The Americas, ca. 1500 • 35

Table 1.2 Estimated Regional Populations:

The World, ca. 1500 • 35

CHAPTER 3

Table 3.1 Origins and Status of Migrants to British

North American Colonies, 1700–1775 • 114

CHAPTER 4

Table 4.1 Slave Population as Percentage of

Total Population of Original Thirteen Colonies,

1770 • 147

CHAPTER 7

Table 7.1 Total Population and Black Population of

the United States, 1790 • 286

CHAPTER 9

Table 9.1 Population Growth of Selected Western

States, 1800–1850 • 339

Table 9.2 Total Number of Immigrants by Five-Year

Period • 348

Figure 9.1 Sources of Immigration, 1850 • 350

CHAPTER 11

Table 11.1 Growth of the Slave Population • 417

Table 11.2 Slaveholding, 1850 • 423

Table 11.3 Free Black Population, 1860 • 433

CHAPTER 14

Figure 14.1 Resources for War: Union versus

Confederacy • 543

CHAPTER 16

Table 16.1 Indicators of Economic Change,

1870–1920 • 635

Figure 16.1 Railroad Mileage Built, 1830–1975 • 635

CHAPTER 17

Table 17.1 States with Over 200 Lynchings,

1889–1918 • 696

CHAPTER 18

Table 18.1 Rise of the City, 1880–1920 • 726

Table 18.2 Immigrants and Their Children as

Percentage of Population, Ten Major Cities,

1920 • 731

Table 18.3 Percentage of Women 14 Years and Older

in the Labor Force • 734

Table 18.4 Percentage of Women Workers in Various

Occupations • 735

Table 18.5 Sales of Passenger Cars • 736

CHAPTER 19

Table 19.1 The Great Migration • 799

Li s t o f Maps , Tab l e s , and F igures x x x i

CHAPTER 20

Figure 20.1 Household Appliances, 1900–1930 • 822

Figure 20.2 The Stock Market, 1919–1939 • 825

Table 20.1 Selected Annual Immigration Quotas

under the 1924 Immigration Act • 843

CHAPTER 21

Figure 21.1 The Building Boom and Its Collapse,

1919–1939 • 870

Figure 21.2 Unemployment, 1925–1945 • 884

CHAPTER 22

Table 22.1 Labor Union Membership • 918

CHAPTER 24

Figure 24.1 Real Gross Domestic Product per Capita,

1790–2000 • 992

Figure 24.2 Average Daily Television Viewing • 996

Figure 24.3 The Baby Boom and Its Decline • 998

CHAPTER 25

Figure 25.1 Percentage of Population below Poverty

Level, by Race, 1959–1969 • 1049

CHAPTER 26

Table 26.1 Rate of Divorce: Divorces of Existing

Marriages per 1,000 New Marriages,

1950–1980 • 1087

Figure 26.1 Median Age of First Marriage,

1947–1981 • 1088

Table 26.2 The Misery Index, 1970–1980 • 1095

Figure 26.2 Real Average Weekly Wages,

1955–1990 • 1096

Figure 26.3 Changes in Families’ Real Income,

1980–1990 • 1113

CHAPTER 27

Figure 27.1 U.S. Income Inequality, 1913–2003 • 1141

Table 27.1 Immigration to the United States,

1960–2000 • 1145

Figure 27.2 Birthplace of Immigrants,

1990–2000 • 1148

Figure 27.3 The Projected Non-White Majority: Racial

and Ethnic Breakdown • 1150

Figure 27.4 Unemployment Rate by Sex and Race,

1954–2000 • 1150

Table 27.2 Home Ownership Rates by Group,

1970–2000 • 1151

Figure 27.5 Institutional Inmates as a Percentage

of the Population by Sex and Race,

1850–1990 • 1152

Figure 27.6 Women in the Paid Workforce,

1940–2000 • 1157

Figure 27.7 Changes in Family Structure,

1970–2000 • 1158

CHAPTER 28

Figure 28.1 Portrait of a Recession • 1200

x x x i i L i s t o f M a p s , T a b l e s , a n d F i g u r e s

ERIC FONER is DeWitt Clinton Professor of History at Columbia University, where he earned his B.A. and Ph.D. In his teaching and scholar- ship, he focuses on the Civil War and Reconstruction, slavery, and nineteenth- century America. Professor Foner’s publications include Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men: The Ideology of the Republican Party before the Civil War; Tom Paine and Revolutionary America; Nothing but Freedom: Emancipation and Its Legacy; Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution, 1863–1877; The Story of American Freedom; and Forever Free: The Story of Emancipation and Reconstruction. His history of Reconstruction won the Los Angeles Times Book Award for History, the Bancroft Prize, and the Parkman Prize. He has served as president of the Organization of American Historians and the American Historical Association. In 2006 he received the Presidential Award for Outstanding Teaching from Columbia University. His most recent book is The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

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Pre face � Give Me Liberty! An American History is a survey of American his- tory from the earliest days of European exploration and conquest of the New World to the first years of the twenty-first century. It offers students a clear, concise narrative whose central theme is the changing contours of American freedom.

I am extremely gratified by the response to the first two editions of Give Me Liberty!, which have been used in survey courses at many hundreds of two- and four-year colleges and universities throughout the country. The comments I have received from instructors and stu- dents encourage me to think that Give Me Liberty! has worked well in their classrooms. Their comments have also included many valuable suggestions for revisions, which I greatly appreciate. These have ranged from corrections of typographical and factual errors to thoughts about subjects that needed more extensive treatment. In making revisions for this Third Edition, I have tried to take these sug- gestions into account. I have also incorporated the findings and insights of new scholarship that has appeared since the original edi- tion was written.

The most significant changes in this Third Edition reflect my desire to place American history more fully in a global context. The book remains, of course, a survey of American, not world, history. But in the past few years, scholars writing about the American past have sought to delineate the connections and influences of the United States on the rest of the world as well as the global developments that have helped to shape the course of events here at home. They have also devoted greater attention to transnational processes—the expansion of empires, international labor migrations, the rise and fall of slavery, the globalization of economic enterprise—that cannot be understood solely within the confines of one country’s national boundaries. Without in any way seeking to homogenize the history of individual nations or neglect the domestic forces that have shaped American development, the Third Edition reflects this recent emphasis in American historical writing. Small changes relating to this theme may be found throughout the book. The major additions seeking to illuminate the global context of American history are as follows:

Chapter 4 includes a brief discussion of how the Great Awakening in the American colonies took place at a time of growing religious

fundamentalism in many parts of the world. Chapter 5 now devotes attention to the global impact of the American Declaration of Independence, including how both colonial peoples seeking national independence and groups who felt themselves deprived of equal rights seized upon the Declaration’s language to promote their own causes. Chapter 8 discusses how the slave revolution in Saint Domingue, which established the black republic of Haiti, affected the thinking of both black and white Americans in the early 1800s. The chapter also contains a new section on the Barbary Wars, the first armed encounter between the United States and Islamic states.

In Chapter 10, I have added a new section discussing the response in the United States to the Latin American wars of independence of the early nine- teenth century, and the similarities and differences between these struggles and our own War of Independence. Chapter 11 contains a new section dis- cussing the abolition of slavery elsewhere in the Western Hemisphere and how the aftermath of emancipation in other areas affected the debate over slavery in the United States. Chapter 13 compares the California gold rush with the consequences of the discovery of gold in Australia at the same time, and also adds a discussion of the “opening” of Japan to American commerce in the 1850s. And in Chapter 14, I added to the discussion of the Civil War a compar- ison of its destructiveness with that of other conflicts of the era, and also an examination of how the consolidation of national power in the United States reflected a worldwide process underway at the same time in other countries. In that chapter, too, reflecting the findings of recent scholarship, there are new discussions of the war’s impact on American religion and on Native Americans. Chapter 15, dealing with the era of Reconstruction, now compares the aftermath of slavery in the United States with the outcome in other places where the institution was abolished.

In Chapter 16, a new section places the westward movement in the United States in the context of the settlement of frontier regions of other countries, ranging from Argentina to Australia and South Africa, and discusses the conse- quences for native populations in these societies. Chapter 17 expands on the acquisition by the United States of an overseas empire as a result of the Spanish-American War, and includes a new section on the Global Color Line— the worldwide development of national policies intended to guarantee white supremacy. I have strengthened, in Chapter 19, the discussion of the aftermath of World War I by examining the impact around the world of President Woodrow Wilson’s rhetoric concerning national self-determination, and the disappointment felt when the principle was not applied to the Asian and African colonies of European empires. Chapter 22 now includes a section on black internationalism—how World War II led many black Americans to iden- tify their campaign for equal rights with the struggle for national independ- ence of colonial peoples in other parts of the world. In Chapter 23, I have expanded the discussion of the idea of human rights to indicate some of the ambiguities of the concept as it emerged as a major theme of international debate after World War II. There is a new section in Chapter 24 on the global reaction to American racial segregation and to the stirrings in the 1950s of the civil rights movement. I have strengthened the treatment of the 1960s by adding a discussion of the global 1968—how events in the United States in that volatile year occurred at the same time as uprisings of young people in many other parts of the world.

x x x v i P r e f a c e

And in Chapter 28, the book’s final chapter, I have significantly expanded coverage of the last few years of American history, including the election of Barack Obama, the nation’s first African-American president, the continuing controversy over the relationship between liberty and security in the context of a global war on terror, and the global economic crisis that began in 2008.

As in the Second Edition, the Voices of Freedom sections in each chapter now include two documents; I have changed a number of them to reflect the new emphasis on the global context of American history. I have also revised the end-of-chapter bibliographies to reflect current scholarship. And I now include references to websites that contain digital images and documents relat- ing to the chapter themes.

This Third Edition also introduces some new features. Visions of Freedom, a parallel to the Voices of Freedom document excerpts that have proven useful to instructors and students, highlights in each chapter an image that illuminates an understanding of freedom. I believe that examining this theme through visual as well as written evidence helps students to appreciate how our con- cepts of freedom have changed over the course of American history. The Visions of Freedom feature includes a headnote and questions that encourage students to think critically about the images.

The pedagogy in the book has been revised and enhanced to give students more guidance as they move through chapters. The end-of-chapter review pages have been expanded with additional review questions, many more key terms with page references, and a new set of questions on the freedom theme. The aim of the pedagogy, as always, is to offer students guidance through the material without getting in the way of the presentation.

I have also added new images in each chapter to expand the visual represen- tation of key ideas and personalities in the text. Taken together, I believe these changes enhance the purpose of Give Me Liberty! : to offer students a clear, con- cise, and thematically enriched introduction to American history.

Americans have always had a divided attitude toward history. On the one hand, they tend to be remarkably future-oriented, dismissing events of even the recent past as “ancient history” and sometimes seeing history as a burden to be overcome, a prison from which to escape. On the other hand, like many other peoples, Americans have always looked to history for a sense of personal or group identity and of national cohesiveness. This is why so many Americans devote time and energy to tracing their family trees and why they visit histor- ical museums and National Park Service historical sites in ever-increasing numbers. My hope is that this book will convince readers with all degrees of interest that history does matter to them.

The novelist and essayist James Baldwin once observed that history “does not refer merely, or even principally, to the past. On the contrary, the great force of history comes from the fact that we carry it within us, . . . [that] history is literally present in all that we do.” As Baldwin recognized, the force of history is evident in our own world. Especially in a political democracy like the United States, whose government is designed to rest on the consent of informed citizens, knowledge of the past is essential—not only for those of us whose profession is the teaching and writing of history, but for everyone. History, to be sure, does not offer simple lessons or immediate answers to current ques- tions. Knowing the history of immigration to the United States, and all of the

Pre face x x x v i i

tensions, turmoil, and aspirations associated with it, for example, does not tell us what current immigration policy ought to be. But without that knowledge, we have no way of understanding which approaches have worked and which have not—essential information for the formulation of future public policy.

History, it has been said, is what the present chooses to remember about the past. Rather than a fixed collection of facts, or a group of interpretations that cannot be challenged, our understanding of history is constantly changing. There is nothing unusual in the fact that each generation rewrites history to meet its own needs, or that scholars disagree among themselves on basic ques- tions like the causes of the Civil War or the reasons for the Great Depression. Precisely because each generation asks different questions of the past, each generation formulates different answers. The past thirty years have witnessed a remarkable expansion of the scope of historical study. The experiences of groups neglected by earlier scholars, including women, African-Americans, working people, and others, have received unprecedented attention from his- torians. New subfields—social history, cultural history, and family history among them—have taken their place alongside traditional political and diplo- matic history.

Give Me Liberty! draws on this voluminous historical literature to present an up-to-date and inclusive account of the American past, paying due attention to the experience of diverse groups of Americans while in no way neglecting the events and processes Americans have experienced in common. It devotes seri- ous attention to political, social, cultural, and economic history, and to their interconnections. The narrative brings together major events and prominent leaders with the many groups of ordinary people who make up American soci- ety. Give Me Liberty! has a rich cast of characters, from Thomas Jefferson to campaigners for woman suffrage, from Franklin D. Roosevelt to former slaves seeking to breathe meaning into emancipation during and after the Civil War.

Aimed at an audience of undergraduate students with little or no detailed knowledge of American history, Give Me Liberty! guides readers through the complexities of the subject without overwhelming them with excessive detail. The unifying theme of freedom that runs through the text gives shape to the narrative and integrates the numerous strands that make up the American experience. This approach builds on that of my earlier book, The Story of American Freedom (1998), although Give Me Liberty! places events and personal- ities in the foreground and is more geared to the structure of the introductory survey course.

Freedom, and the battles to define its meaning, has long been central to my own scholarship and undergraduate teaching, which focuses on the nine- teenth century and especially the era of the Civil War and Reconstruction (1850–1877). This was a time when the future of slavery tore the nation apart and emancipation produced a national debate over what rights the former slaves, and all Americans, should enjoy as free citizens. I have found that atten- tion to clashing definitions of freedom and the struggles of different groups to achieve freedom as they understood it offers a way of making sense of the bit- ter battles and vast transformations of that pivotal era. I believe that the same is true for American history as a whole.

No idea is more fundamental to Americans’ sense of themselves as individu- als and as a nation than freedom. The central term in our political language, freedom—or liberty, with which it is almost always used interchangeably—is

x x x v i i i P r e f a c e

deeply embedded in the record of our history and the language of everyday life. The Declaration of Independence lists liberty among mankind’s inalienable rights; the Constitution announces its purpose as securing liberty’s blessings. The United States fought the Civil War to bring about a new birth of freedom, World War II for the Four Freedoms, and the Cold War to defend the Free World. Americans’ love of liberty has been represented by liberty poles, liberty caps, and statues of liberty, and acted out by burning stamps and burning draft cards, by running away from slavery, and by demonstrating for the right to vote. “Every man in the street, white, black, red, or yellow,” wrote the educator and statesman Ralph Bunche in 1940, “knows that this is ‘the land of the free’ . . . ‘the cradle of liberty.’”

The very universality of the idea of freedom, however, can be misleading. Freedom is not a fixed, timeless category with a single unchanging definition. Indeed, the history of the United States is, in part, a story of debates, disagree- ments, and struggles over freedom. Crises like the American Revolution, the Civil War, and the Cold War have permanently transformed the idea of free- dom. So too have demands by various groups of Americans to enjoy greater freedom. The meaning of freedom has been constructed not only in congres- sional debates and political treatises, but on plantations and picket lines, in parlors and even bedrooms.

Over the course of our history, American freedom has been both a reality and a mythic ideal—a living truth for millions of Americans, a cruel mockery for others. For some, freedom has been what some scholars call a “habit of the heart,” an ideal so taken for granted that it is lived out but rarely analyzed. For others, freedom is not a birthright but a distant goal that has inspired great sacrifice.

Give Me Liberty! draws attention to three dimensions of freedom that have been critical in American history: (1) the meanings of freedom; (2) the social con- ditions that make freedom possible; and (3) the boundaries of freedom that deter- mine who is entitled to enjoy freedom and who is not. All have changed over time.

In the era of the American Revolution, for example, freedom was primarily a set of rights enjoyed in public activity—the right of a community to be gov- erned by laws to which its representatives had consented and of individuals to engage in religious worship without governmental interference. In the nine- teenth century, freedom came to be closely identified with each person’s oppor- tunity to develop to the fullest his or her innate talents. In the twentieth, the “ability to choose,” in both public and private life, became perhaps the domi- nant understanding of freedom. This development was encouraged by the explosive growth of the consumer marketplace (a development that receives considerable attention in Give Me Liberty!), which offered Americans an unprecedented array of goods with which to satisfy their needs and desires. During the 1960s, a crucial chapter in the history of American freedom, the idea of personal freedom was extended into virtually every realm, from attire and “lifestyle” to relations between the sexes. Thus, over time, more and more areas of life have been drawn into Americans’ debates about the meaning of freedom.

A second important dimension of freedom focuses on the social conditions necessary to allow freedom to flourish. What kinds of economic institutions and relationships best encourage individual freedom? In the colonial era and for more than a century after independence, the answer centered on economic