Описание
Preface
For this fourteenth edition of The American Pageant, we have worked together closely
to incorporate the most recent scholarship about American history, and to preserve
the readability that has long been the Pageant’s hallmark. We are often told that the
Pageant stands out as the only American history text with a distinctive personality, a
personality best defined by clarity, concreteness, a strong emphasis on major themes, a
clutter-free narrative, attention to a variety of interpretive perspectives, and a colorful
writing style leavened, as appropriate, with wit. That personality, we strongly believe,
is what has made the Pageant both appealing and useful to countless students for more
than five decades.
Our collaboration on the Pageant reflects our respective scholarly interests, which
are complementary to a remarkable degree. David Kennedy is primarily a political
and economic historian, while Lizabeth Cohen’s work emphasizes social and cultural
history. Together, we have revised the Pageant chapter by chapter, even paragraph by
paragraph, guided by our shared commitment to tell the story of the American past as
vividly and clearly as possible, without sacrificing a sense of the often sobering seriousness of history, and of its sometimes challenging complexity.
CHANGES IN THE FOURTEENTH EDITION
Over the last several editions, we have updated and streamlined the text narrative,
with some reorganization of content, expansion of the discussion of social and cultural
history, and more in-depth exploration of the cultural innovations and intellectual
doctrines that have engaged Americans. The division of the book into six parts, each
with an introductory essay, was introduced in the eleventh edition to demonstrate to
students that the study of history is not just a matter of piling up mountains of facts,
but is principally concerned with discovering complex patterns of change over time,
and organizing seemingly disparate events, actions, and ideas into meaningful chains
of cause and consequence.
While we have continued to revise features and improve the narrative in this fourteenth edition, our greatest attention has been trained on emphasizing the global context of American history. We have achieved this by highlighting the people, ideas, and
events that crossed national borders to influence the experience of the United States
and by comparing salient aspects of American history to developments elsewhere in
the world. A full understanding of the unique history of the United States requires
knowing when America’s path followed or departed from that taken by other nations.
Today, political leaders, capital investment, consumer products, rock bands, the Internet, and much else constantly traverse the globe. But even before sophisticated technology and mass communication, complex exchanges among peoples and nations around
the world deeply shaped the course of American history.
We have deepened the global emphasis of the Pageant in two distinct ways. First,
within each chapter, we have revised the text and added new graphics to help students
Детали
- Год издания
- 2010
- Format