The authors have carefully selected and edited more than 300 documents that relate directly to the themes and content of the text and organized them into five general categories: community, social history, government, culture and politics. Each document is two pages long and includes a brief introduction and study questions.

Table of Contents:
Preface                    ix Chapter 17. Reconstruction, 1863—1877      219 17—1       Charlotte Forten, Life on the Sea Islands, 1864      219 17—2       Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address, 1865      220 17—3       The Freedmen’s Bureau Bill, 1865      221 17—4       Black Code of Mississippi, 1865      222 17—5       Frederick Douglass,  Speech to the American Anti-Slavery Society, 1865      224 17—6       The Civil Rights Act of 1866      226 17—7       President Johnson’s Veto of the Civil Rights Act, 1866      227 17—8       The First Reconstruction Act, 1867      229 17—9       Organization and Principles of the Ku Klux Klan, 1868      230 17—10    Blanche K. Bruce, Speech in the Senate, 1876      231 17—11    A Sharecrop Contract, 1882                    232 Chapter 18. Conquest and Survival: Communities in the Trans-Mississippi, 1860-1900      234 18—1       The Oklahoma Land Rush, 1889      234 18—2       The Homestead Act, 1862      236 18—3       Helen Hunt Jackson, The Thrill of Western Railroading, 1878      237 18—4       Bill Haywood, Miners and Cowboys, 1887     238 18—5       Red Cloud, Speech at Cooper Union, New York, 1870      240 18—6       Helen Hunt Jackson, A Century of Dishonor, 1881      241 18—7       The Dawes General Allotment (Severalty) Act, 1887      243 18—8       D. W. C. Duncan, How Allotment Impoverishes the Indian, 1906      244 18—9       Charles and Nellie Wooster, Letters from the Frontier, 1872      245 18—10    John Wesley Powell, Report on the Arid Lands of the West, 1879      248 Chapter 19. The Incorporation of America, 1860—1900      251 19—1       Paul Bourget, The Traffic in Meat, 1894      251 19—2       Andrew Carnegie, Wealth, 1889      253 19—3       John Morrison, Testimony of a Machinist, 1883      254 19—4       Terence V. Powderly, The Knights of Labor, 1889      256 19—5       Samuel Gompers, Testimony on Labor Unions, 1883      258 19—6       Lee Chew, Experiences of a Chinese Immigrant, 1903      260 19—7       John Hill, Testimony on Southern Textile Industry, 1883      261 19—8       Thorstein Veblen, Conspicuous Consumption, 1899      264 19—9       M. Carey Thomas, Higher Education for Women, 1901      267 19—10    B. F. Keith, The Vogue of Vaudeville, 1898      268 Chapter 20. Commonwealth and Empire, 1870s—1900s      271 20—1       Edward Bellamy, Looking Backward, 1888      271 20—2       E. L. Godkin, A Great National Disgrace, 1877      274 20—3       Roscoe Conkling, Defense of the Spoils System, 1877      275 20—4       Populist Party Platform, 1892      276 20—5       Elizabeth Cady Stanton, The Solitude of Self, 1890      279 20—6       Pullman Strikers’ Statement, 1894      280 20—7       Alfred T. Mahan, The Influence of Sea Power, 1895      281 20—8       Frederick Jackson Turner, The Significance of the Frontier in American History, 1893      283 20—9       Theodore Roosevelt, The Strenuous Life, 1899      285 20—10    George F. Hoar, Against Imperialism, 1902      287 Chapter 21. Urban America and the Progressive Era, 1900—1920      289 21—1       Jane Addams, The Subjective Necessity of Social Settlements, 1892      289 21—2       George Washington Plunkitt; Honest Graft, 1905      291 21—3       Louis Brandeis, The Living Law, 1916      293 21—4       Margaret Sanger, The Case for Birth Control, 1917      294 21—5       Booker T. Washington, The Atlanta Exposition Address, 1895      296 21—6       Ida B. Wells, A Red Record, 1895      298 21—7       The Niagara Movement, Declaration of Principles, 1905      300 21—8       Declaration of the Conservation Conference, 1908      302 21—9       Woodrow Wilson, The New Freedom, 1913      303 Chapter 22. World War I, 1914—1918      306 22—1       The President’s Commission at Bisbee, 1917      306 22—2       Theodore Roosevelt, Corollary to The Monroe Doctrine, 1904     307 22—3       Woodrow Wilson, War Message to Congress, 1917     309 22—4       George Norris, Against Entry into War, 1917      311 22—5       George Creel, How We Advertised America, 1920      312 22—6       Diary of an Unknown Aviator, 1918      314 22—7       Anna Howard Shaw, Woman’s Committee of the Council of National Defense, 1917      315 22—8       Eugene v. Debs, Statement to the Court, 1918      317 22—9       Letters from the Great Migration, 1916—1917      318 22—10    Woodrow Wilson, The Fourteen Points, 1918      320 Chapter 23. The Twenties, 1921—1929      322 23—1       Motion Picture Diaries      322 23—2       Herbert Hoover, American Individualism, 1922    323 23—3       Bruce Barton, Jesus Christ as Businessman, 1925      325 23—4       Eleanor Wembridge, Petting and Necking, 1925      327 23—5       Paul Morand, Speakeasies in New York, 1929      328 23—6       U.S. Congress, Debating Immigration Restriction, 1921      329 23—7       Hiram Evans, The Klan’s Fight for Americanism, 1926      330 23—8       Charles S. Johnson, The City Negro, 1925     332 23—9       Motion Picture Production Code, 1930      334 Chapter 24. The Great Depression and the New Deal, 1929—1939      337 24—1       Bob Stinson, Flint Sit-Down Strike, 1936      337 24—2       Meridel Le Sueur, Women on the Breadlines, 1932      339 24—3       Franklin D. Roosevelt, First Inaugural Address, 1933      340 24—4       Huey Long, Share Our Wealth, 1935      342 24—5       National Labor Relations Act, 1935      343 24—6       U.S. Senate, Investigation of Strikebreaking, 1939      345 24—7       Republican Party Platform, 1936      347 24—8       Carey Mc Williams, Okies in California, 1939      350 24—9       Hiram Sherman, The Federal Theater Project, 1936      351 Chapter 25. World War II, 1930s—1945      353 25—1       Bernice Brode, Tales of Los Alamos, 1943      353 25—2       Franklin D. Roosevelt, The Four Freedoms, 1941      355 25—3       Burton K. Wheeler, Radio Address on Lend-Lease, 1941      356 25—4       Ernie Pyle, The Toughest Beachhead in the World, 1944      357 25—5       R. L. Duffus, A City that Forges Thunderbolts, 1943      358 25—6       Virginia Snow Wilkinson, From Housewife to Shipfitter, 1943      361 25—7       Earl B. Dickerson, The Fair Employment Practices Committee, 1941—43      364 25—8       Barbara Wooddall and Charles Taylor, Letters to and from the Front, 1941—1944      365 25—9       Korematsu v. United States, 1944      368 Chapter 26. The Cold War, 1945—1952      370 26—1       Clark Clifford,  Memorandum to President Truman, 1946      370 26—2       Henry Wallace, Letter to President Truman, 1946      372 26—3       The Truman Doctrine, 1947      374 26—4       The Truman Loyalty Order, 1947      376 26—5       American Medical Association, Campaign against Compulsory Health Insurance, 1949      379 26—6       Ronald Reagan and Albert Maltz, Testimony before HUAC, 1947      381 26—7       Joseph McCarthy, Speech at Wheeling, West Virginia, 1950      384 26—8       The Advertising Council, The Miracle of America, 1948      385 26—9       NSC—68, 1950      387 Chapter 27. America at Midcentury, 1952—1963      390 27—1       The Teenage Comumer, 1959      390 27—2       Dwight D. Eisenhower, Farewell Address, 1961      391 27—3       John F. Kennedy, Inaugural Address, 1961      392 27—4       Newton Minow, Address to the National Association of Broadcasters, 1961      394 27—5       John K. Galbraith, The Affluent Society, 1958      396 27—6       Rachel Carson, Silent Spring, 1962      398 27—7       Jack Kerouac, On the Road, 1957      399 27—8       Betty Friedan, The Problem That Has No Name, 1963      401 27—9       Jerry Lee Lewis and Sam Phillips Discuss “Great Balls of Fire,” 1957      402 27—10    John F. Kennedy, Speech at American University, 1963      404 Chapter 28. The Civil Rights Movement, 1945—1966      406 28—1       Jo Ann Gibson Robinson, The Montgomery Bus Boycott, 1955      406 28—2       Brown v. Board of Education, 1954      409 28—3       Southern Manifesto on Integration, 1956      411 28—4       Julian Bond,  Sit-ins and the Origins of SNCC, 1960      412 28—5       Martin Luther King, Letter from a Birmingham Jail, 1963      414 28—6       Fannie Lou Hamer, Voting Rights in Mississippi 1962—1964      417 28—7       Letters from Mississippi Freedom Summer, 1964      420 28—8       The Civil Rights Act, 1964      424 28—9       Michael Harrington, The Other America, 1962      425 28—10    Stokely Carmichael, Black Power, 1966      428 Chapter 29. War Abroad, War at Home, 1965—1974      432 29—1       Students for a Democratic Society, The Port Huron Statement, 1962      432 29—2       Casey Hayden and Mary King Respond to Sexism in the Movement, 1965     435 29—3       Lyndon B. Johnson, The Great Society, 1964      436 29—4       Lyndon B. Johnson, Why We Are in Vietnam, 1965      438 29—5       Martin Luther King, Jr., Conscience and the Vietnam War, 1967      440 29—6       Report of the National Advisory Committee on Civil Disorders, 1968      443 29—7       Robin Morgan, Radical Feminism, 1975      445 29—8       Spiro Agnew, The Dangers of Constant Carnival, 1969      448 29—9       John Kerry, Vietnam Veterans Against the War, 1971      450 29—10    Roe v. Wade, 1973      452 29—11    Articles of lmpeachment against Richard M. Nixon, 1974      455 Chapter 30. The Conservative Ascendancy, 1974—1987      458 30—1       Town Meeting, Middletown, Pennsylvania, 1979      458 30—2       William Julius Wilson, The Urban Underclass, 1980     459 30—3       Affirmative Action in Atlanta, 1974      461 30—4       Lois Gibbs, Love Canal 1978      464 30—5       Jimmy Carter, The Crisis of Conscience, 1979      467 30—6       Presidential Press Conference, 1979      469 30—7       Richard Viguerie, Why the New Right Is Winning 1981      472 Chapter 31. Toward a Transitional America, since 1988      475 31—1       Jesse Jackson, Common Ground, 1988      475 31—2       Cecelia Rosa Avila, Third-Generation Mexican American, 1988      476 31—3       Howard Rheingold, Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier, 1993     478 31—4       America Enters a New Century with Terror, 2001     480