Transcription of The AmericAn YAwp
1 The AmericAn yawp ! 2019 by the Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2019 by the Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University. Licensed under CC BY-SA The AmericAn YAw pA Massively Collaborative Open History Textbookvol. 2: since 1877edited by joseph l. locke and ben wrightstanford university press stanford, california 2019 by the Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University. Licensed under CC BY-SA Stanford University PressStanford, California 2019 by the Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University. Some rights reserved.
2 [[[Insert logo]]]This book is licensed under the Creative Commons license CC BY-SA , Attribution-ShareAlike. This license permits commercial and non-commercial use of this work, so long as attribution is given. For more information about the license, visit https:// creativecommons .org/ licenses/ by -sa/ 4 .0/.Printed in the United States of America on acid-free, archival-quality paperLibrary of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication DataNames: Locke, Joseph L., editor. | Wright, Ben, : The AmericAn yawp : a massively collaborative open history textbook / edited by Joseph L. Locke and Ben : Stanford, California : Stanford University Press, 2019.
3 | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2018015206 (print) | LCCN 2018017638 (ebook) | ISBN 9781503608139 (e-book) | ISBN 9781503606715 | ISBN 9781503606715 (v. 1 :pbk. :alk. paper) | ISBN 9781503606883(v. 2 :pbk. :alk. paper) | ISBN 9781503608139(v. 1 :ebook) | ISBN 9781503608146(v. 2 :ebook)Subjects: LCSH: United States History : LCC (ebook) | LCC .A493673 2019 (print) | DDC 973 dc23LC record available at LundquistTypeset by Newgen in Sabon LT 11/15 Cover illustration: Detail from Victory! by Tobin, ca. 1884. Source: Susan H. Douglas Political Americana Collection, Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library.
4 2019 by the Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University. Licensed under CC BY-SA yawp \y p\ n: 1: a raucous noise 2: rough vigorous language I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world. Walt W hitman, 1854 2019 by the Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2019 by the Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University. Licensed under CC BY-SA Preface ix 16. Capital and Labor 1 17. Conquering the West 28 18. Life in Industrial America 56 19.
5 AmericAn Empire 82 20. The Progressive Era 109 21. World War I and Its Aftermath 140 22. The New Era 163 23. The Great Depression 192 24. World War II 225 25. The Cold War 257 26. The Affluent Society 288 27. The Sixties 314 28. The Unraveling 343 29. The Triumph of the Right 376 30. The Recent Past 411 Contributors 441contents! 2019 by the Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2019 by the Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University. Licensed under CC BY-SA Civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, in 1965.
6 Library of are the heirs of our history. Our communities, our politics, our cul-ture: it is all a product of the past. As William Faulkner wrote, The past is never dead. It s not even past. 1 To understand who we are, we must therefore understand our what is history? What does it mean to study the past? History can never be the simple memorizing of names and dates (how would we even know what names and dates are worth studying?). It is too com-plex a task and too dynamic a process to be reduced to that. It must be something more because, in a sense, it is we who give life to the past.
7 Historians ask historical questions, weigh evidence from primary sources (material produced in the era under study), grapple with rival interpre-tations, and argue for their conclusions. History, then, is our ongoing conversation about the generation must write its own history. Old conclusions say, about the motives of European explorers or the realities of life on slave plantations fall before new evidence and new outlooks. Names of preface 2019 by the Board of Trustees of the Leland stanford Junior University. Licensed under cc BY-sA x prefAce leaders and dates of events may not change, but the weight we give them and the context with which we frame them invariably evolves.
8 History is a conversation between the past and the present. To understand a global society, we must explore a history of transnational forces. To understand the lived experiences of ordinary Americans, we must look beyond the elites who framed older textbooks and listen to the poor and disadvan-taged from all why study history in the first place? History can cultivate essential and relevant or, in more utilitarian terms, marketable skills: careful reading, creative thinking, and clear communication. Many are familiar with a famous quote of philosopher George Santayana: Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
9 2 The role of history in shaping current events is more complicated than this quote implies, but Santayana was right in arguing that history offers important lessons. The historical sensibility yields perspective and context and broader aware-ness. It liberates us from our narrow experiences and pulls us into, in the words of historian Peter Stearns, the laboratory of human experience. 3 Perhaps a better way to articulate the importance of studying history would be, Those who fail to understand their history will fail to under-stand themselves. Historical interpretation is never wholly subjective: it requires method, rigor, and perspective.
10 The open nature of historical discourse does not mean that all arguments and certainly not all opinions about the past are equally valid. Some are simply wrong. And yet good historical questions will not always have easy answers. Asking When did Chris-topher Columbus first sail across the Atlantic? will tell us far less than What inspired Columbus to attempt his voyage? or How did Native Americans interpret the arrival of Europeans? Crafting answers to these questions reveals far greater insights into our how can any textbook encapsulate AmericAn history? Should it organize around certain themes or surrender to the impossibility of syn-thesis and retreat toward generality?
