A History of the American People By: Paul Johnson
Part One. A City on a Hill (Colonial
Europe and the
Transatlantic Adventure
Raleigh, The Proto-American and the Roanoke Disaster
Jamestown, The First Permanent Foothold
Mayflower and the Formative Event
The Natural Inheritance of the Elect Nation
John Winthrop and His Little Speech on Liberty
Roger Williams: The First Dissentient
The Catholics in Maryland
The Primitive Structure of Colonial America
Carolina: The First Slave State
Cotton Mather and the End of the Puritan Utopia
Oglethorpe and Early Georgia
Why Colonial Control Did Not Work
The Rise of Philadelphia
Elected Assemblies versus the Governors
The Great Awakening and Its Political Impact
Part Two. That the Free Constitution Be Sacredly Maintained (Revolutionary
America, 1750-1815)
George Washington and
the War against France
Poor Quality of British Leadership
The Role of Benjamin Franklin
Thomas Jefferson and the Declaration of Independence
The Galvanizing Effect of Tom Paine
Washington, the War, and the Intervention of Europe
Patriots and Loyalists: Americas First Civil War
The Constitutional Convention
The Ratification Debate
Citizenship, the Suffrage, and The Tyranny of the Majority
The Role of Religion in the Constitution
The Presidency, Hamilton and Public Finance
Success of Washington and His Farewell Address
John Adams and the European War
Central Importance of John Marshall
Jefferson’s Ambivalent Rule and Character
The Lousiana Purchase
Madisons Blunders and Their Punishment
Andrew Jackson, the Deux Ex Machina
Jackson and the Destruction of the Indians
Part Three. A General Happy Mediocrity Prevails (Democratic America, 1815-1850)
High Birth-Rates and
the Immigrant Floods
The Market in Cheap Land
Spread of the Religious Sects
Emergence of the South and King Cotton
The Missouri Compromise
Henry Clay
The Advent of Jacksonian Democracy
The War against the Bank
Americas Agricultural Revolution
Revolution in Transportation and Communications
Polk and the Mexican War
DeToqueville and the Emerging Supernation
The Ideology of the North-South Battle
Emerson and the Birth of an American Culture
Longfellow, Poe and Hawthornian Psychology
Part Four. The Almost Chosen People (Civil War America, 1850-1870)
The Era of Pierce and
Buchanan
Ultimate and Proximate Causes of the Civil War
The Rise of Lincoln
Centrality of Preserving the Union
The Election of 1860
Jefferson Davis and Why the South Fought
Why the South Was Virtually Bound to Lose
The Churches and the War
The War among the Generals
Gettysburg: Too Bad! Too Bad! Oh! TOO BAD!
The Triumph and Tragedy of
Andrew Johnson and the Two Reconstructions
Part Five. Huddled Masses and Crosses of Gold (Industrial America, 1870-1912)
Modern America and Its
Aging Process
Mass-Immigration and Thinking Big
Indians and Settlers, Cowboys and Desperados
The Significance of the Frontier
Centrality of Railroads
Did the Robber Barons Really Exist?
Carnegie, Steel, and American Philanthropy
Pierpoint Morgan and Wall Street
Trusts and Anti-Trusts
Monster Cities: Chicago and New York
The Urban Rich and Poor
American Science and Culture: Edison and Tiffany
Church, Bierstadt, and the Limitless Landscape
Bringing Luxury to the Masses
The Rise of Labor and Muckraking
Standard Oil and Henry Ford
Populism, Imperialism and the Spanish-American War
Theodore Roosevelt and His Golden Age
Part Six. The First International Nation, (Melting-Pot America, 1912-1929)
The Significance of Woodrow
Wilson
Education and the Class System
The Advent of Statism
Wilson’s Legislative Triumph
McAdoo and the Coming War
The Disaster of Versailles and the League of Nations
Harding,Normalcy, and Witch-Hunting
Women Stroll onto the Scene
Quotas and Internal Migration
The Harlem Phenomenon and Multiracial Culture
Fundamentalism and Middle America
Prohibition and its Disastrous Consequences
San Francisco, Los Angeles and Californian Extremism
Cheap Electricity and Its Dramatic Impact
Hollywood
The Social and Moral Significance of Jazz
Race Prejudice, Popular Entertainment and Downward Mobility
Harding and Historical Deconstruction
The Age of Coolidge and Government Minimalism
Twenties Cultural and Economic Prosperity
Part Seven. Nothing to Fear but Fear Itself (Superpower America, 1929-1960)
Government
Credit-Management and the Wall Street Crash
Why the Depression Was So Deep and Long-Lasting
The Failure of the Great Engineer
Roosevelt and the Election of 1932
The Mythology of the New Deal
FDR, Big Business and the Intellectuals
Transforming the Democrats into the Majority Party
US Isolationism and Internationalism
Roosevelt, The Nazis and Japan
America in the War; the Miracle in Production
FDR, Stalin, and Soviet Advances
The Rise of Truman and the Cold War
Nuclear Weapons and the Defeat of Japan
The Truman Doctrine, Marshall Aid, and NATO
America and the Birth of Israel
The Korean War and the Fall of MacArthur
Eisenhower, McCarthyism, and Pop Sociology
Piety on the Potomac
Part Eight. We Will Pay Any Price, Bear Any Burden
Problem-Solving (Problem-Creating America, 1960-1997)
The Radical Shift in
the Media
Joe Kennedy and His Crown Prince
The 1960 Election and the Myth of Camelot
The Space Race
The Bay of Pigs and the Missle Crisis
Lyndon Johnson and His Great Society
Getting into the Vietnam Quagmire
Nixon and His Silent Majority
Civil Rights and Campus Violence
Watergate and the Putsch Against the Executive
Congressional Rule and Americas Nadir
Carter, the 1980 Watershed, and Reganism
Rearmament and the Collapse of Soviet Power
The Bush Interlude and Clintonian Corruption
Fin-de-Sicle America and its Whims
Wyeth and the Significance of the Realist Revival
Judicial Aggression and the Litigational Society
The Sinister Legacy of Myrdal
Language, Abortion, and Crime
Family Collapse and Religious Persecution
The Triumph of Women
Source Notes
Index