The Complete Idiot's Guide to American History

259 Pages·2005·1.02 MB·English

by  Alan Axelrod

Complete Idiot's Guide to American History -- Alan Axelrod
WHO'S ON FIRST? (50,000 B.C.-A.D. 1500s).............................................................................11
A Stroll Across the Bering Sea...................................................................................................11
45,000 Years of American History (Abridged Version)..........................................................11
The Anasazi..................................................................................................................................12
The Mound Builders....................................................................................................................12
South of the Border.....................................................................................................................12
The Maya......................................................................................................................................13
The Incas......................................................................................................................................14
Beyond the Aztec Frontier..........................................................................................................14
Pueblo Culture: The First American Frontier...........................................................................14
Atlantic Presence.........................................................................................................................14
Leif the Lucky...............................................................................................................................15
COLUMBUS DAYS (1451-1507).....................................................................................................17
The voyages of Amerigo Vespucci and the naming of America...........................................17
Son of a Weaver..........................................................................................................................17
Trouble on the Horizon...............................................................................................................18
Carving Up a New World............................................................................................................19
Why We're Not Called Columbia...............................................................................................20
NEW SPAIN, SAME OLD SPANIARDS (1400-1600s)..................................................................22
The Way of the Conquistador....................................................................................................22
Plumed Serpent...........................................................................................................................22
Borderlands..................................................................................................................................23
Onate the Terrible.......................................................................................................................24
Birth of the "Black Legend"........................................................................................................25
The First American Revolutions.................................................................................................25
From Black Legend to Black Robes..........................................................................................26
ENGLAND'S ERRANDS (1497-1608).............................................................................................28
O, Brave New World...................................................................................................................28
Henry VII Backs an Italian Sailor..............................................................................................29
Passage to India? No Way.........................................................................................................29
A Colony Vanishes, a Colony Appears......................................................................................30
Roanoke Lost................................................................................................................................31
Jamestown Hangs by a Thread.................................................................................................31
John Smith and Pocahontas......................................................................................................32
A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE (1608-1733)..................................................................................35
The New Israel.............................................................................................................................35
Plymouth Rock.............................................................................................................................36
Massachusetts Bay......................................................................................................................37
City on a Hill.................................................................................................................................37
Rhode Island: Haven for the Heterodox..................................................................................37
Maryland: Catholics Welcome....................................................................................................38
Pennsylvania: Quaker Colony....................................................................................................38
Georgia: Utopia and Prison........................................................................................................39
The Slaves of Virginia.................................................................................................................39
THEY COULD'VE BEEN CONTENDERS (1608-1680s).................................................................42
Enter Champlain..........................................................................................................................42
Complete Idiot's Guide 2 to American History
The Sun King Casts His Rays.....................................................................................................43
The Dutch Invest $24 in Manhattan Real Estate....................................................................44
A Tale of Two Governors............................................................................................................45
Sweden In the Delaware Valley................................................................................................46
New Netherland Becomes New York........................................................................................46
FIRES IN THE WILDERNESS (1636-1748)..................................................................................49
New England Bleeds...................................................................................................................49
The Pequot War...........................................................................................................................49
King Philip's War..........................................................................................................................50
King William's War.......................................................................................................................51
Queen Anne's War.......................................................................................................................52
Tuscarora and Yemasee Wars...................................................................................................53
King George's War.......................................................................................................................53
GLOBAL WAR — AMERICAN STYLE (1749-1763)......................................................................56
The French and Indian War.......................................................................................................56
First Blood for the Father of Our Country................................................................................56
"Who Would Have Thought It?"................................................................................................57
Panic, Retreat, Retrenchment...................................................................................................58
Seven Years of Bad Luck............................................................................................................59
Paths of Glory...............................................................................................................................59
Pontiac's Rebellion.......................................................................................................................60
INVITATION TO A TEA PARTY (1763-1775)...............................................................................63
King George Draws a Line..........................................................................................................63
Taxation Without Representation.............................................................................................64
Stamps of Tyranny......................................................................................................................64
Act II..............................................................................................................................................65
Massacre in Boston.....................................................................................................................65
From Tea Party to Continental Congress.................................................................................65
Intolerable Acts............................................................................................................................66
Continental Congress..................................................................................................................66
The Shot Heard `Round the World..........................................................................................67
Washington Backs a Long Shot.................................................................................................67
A Thousand Fall Near Bunker Hill.............................................................................................68
An Olive Branch Breaks and a Declaration Is Written...........................................................68
Common Sense and Confederation..........................................................................................68
THE FIRES OF LIBERTY (1776-1783)..........................................................................................71
The Longest Odds.......................................................................................................................71
Siege of Boston............................................................................................................................71
Down South..................................................................................................................................71
A Pale Flush of Victory................................................................................................................72
The British Lion Roars.................................................................................................................72
Recrossing the Delaware............................................................................................................73
Saratoga Morning........................................................................................................................73
Trouble in the City of Brotherly Love.......................................................................................74
Viva La France!............................................................................................................................74
A Hard Forge................................................................................................................................74
White War, Red Blood................................................................................................................75
Complete Idiot's Guide 3 to American History
On Southern Fronts.....................................................................................................................75
Triumph at Yorktown..................................................................................................................76
FROM MANY, ONE (1787-1797)....................................................................................................78
Rope of Sand................................................................................................................................78
Northwest Ordinance..................................................................................................................78
We the People.............................................................................................................................79
Constitutional Convention..........................................................................................................79
The Virginia Plan..........................................................................................................................79
The New Jersey Plan...................................................................................................................80
Connecticut Compromise............................................................................................................80
Three-Fifths of a Person.............................................................................................................80
Federalist Papers.........................................................................................................................80
Father of His Country..................................................................................................................81
Glorious Afterthought: The Bill of Rights.................................................................................82
Secretary Hamilton......................................................................................................................83
1812 OVERTURE (1798-1812)......................................................................................................86
Foreign Affairs..............................................................................................................................86
As Easy as XYZ.............................................................................................................................87
Overreaction.................................................................................................................................87
The Age of Jefferson...................................................................................................................88
Supreme Court Reigns Supreme...............................................................................................88
A Purchase and a Journey..........................................................................................................89
Pirates and Embargo...................................................................................................................89
Tecumseh Rises...........................................................................................................................90
WASHINGTON BURNS, A NATION IS REBORN (1812-1814)...................................................92
War Hawks Triumphant..............................................................................................................92
Three-Pronged Flop....................................................................................................................93
The Fall of Detroit.......................................................................................................................93
Defeat on the Niagara Frontier.................................................................................................93
A No-show in Canada.................................................................................................................93
The West in Flames.....................................................................................................................94
British Blockade...........................................................................................................................94
We Have Met the Enemy and They Are Ours.........................................................................94
O Say Can You See.....................................................................................................................95
Salvation on Lake Champlain.....................................................................................................95
Hero of New Orleans...................................................................................................................96
FANFARE FOR THE COMMON MAN (1814-1836).......................................................................98
Good Feelings...............................................................................................................................98
Erie Canal......................................................................................................................................99
Among the Family of Nations....................................................................................................99
Monroe Doctrine........................................................................................................................100
Bad Feelings...............................................................................................................................100
American System.......................................................................................................................100
Panic of 1819.............................................................................................................................100
Compromise...............................................................................................................................101
Age of Jackson...........................................................................................................................102
Common Man or King Andrew?...............................................................................................102
Complete Idiot's Guide 4 to American History
The Monster...............................................................................................................................103
TRAILS OF TEARS (1817-1842)..................................................................................................105
Liberty and Union, Now and Forever.....................................................................................105
War with the Seminoles...........................................................................................................106
The Rise and Fall of Black Hawk.............................................................................................107
The Indian Removal Act...........................................................................................................108
A Hollow Victory in the Supreme Court.................................................................................108
A Man Called Osceola...............................................................................................................109
"The Cruelest Work I Ever Knew"...........................................................................................109
Indian Territory..........................................................................................................................110
CHAINS, WHIPS, AND HEARTBREAK (1724-1857)..................................................................112
Against the American Grain.....................................................................................................112
Cotton Gin...................................................................................................................................112
Underground Railroad...............................................................................................................113
Nat Turner's Rebellion..............................................................................................................113
The Liberator and the Narrative..............................................................................................113
The Tortured Course of Compromise.....................................................................................114
1850.............................................................................................................................................115
Kansas-Nebraska Act................................................................................................................115
The Dred Scott Disgrace..........................................................................................................116
LOOKING WEST (1834-1846)......................................................................................................118
The Plow and the Reaper.........................................................................................................118
Cyrus McCormick.......................................................................................................................118
John Deere.................................................................................................................................119
Martyrdom at the Alamo..........................................................................................................119
Trails West..................................................................................................................................120
Overland Trail.............................................................................................................................120
Oregon Fever.............................................................................................................................121
"What Hath God Wrought?".....................................................................................................121
DESTINY (1846-1860)..................................................................................................................123
"Mr. Polk's War".........................................................................................................................123
God and Gold.............................................................................................................................124
A Trek..........................................................................................................................................125
All That Glitters..........................................................................................................................125
STRANGE FLAG OVER SUMTER (1859-1862)...........................................................................128
John Brown's Body....................................................................................................................128
Bleak Transition.........................................................................................................................129
April 12, 1861, 4:30 A.M..........................................................................................................130
From Bull Run to Antietam.......................................................................................................131
Seven Days.................................................................................................................................131
Back to Bull Run........................................................................................................................132
Perryville and Antietam............................................................................................................132
Emancipation Proclaimed — More or Less............................................................................133
BLOODY ROAD TO APPOMATTOX AND BEYOND (1863-1876).............................................136
Four Score and Seven...............................................................................................................136
Vicksburg and Chattanooga.....................................................................................................137
Back to Richmond......................................................................................................................138
Complete Idiot's Guide 5 to American History
The March to the Sea...............................................................................................................139
The Country Courthouse..........................................................................................................139
With Malice Toward Some.......................................................................................................140
An Evening at Ford's Theatre..................................................................................................140
Reconstruction Abuses.............................................................................................................141
Articles of Impeachment..........................................................................................................141
His Fraudulency.........................................................................................................................142
SEA TO SHINING SEA (1862-1878)............................................................................................144
Homesteaders............................................................................................................................144
The Sod Frontier........................................................................................................................145
Ruts and Rails............................................................................................................................145
Iron Road....................................................................................................................................146
Golden Spike at Promontory....................................................................................................148
"THE ONLY GOOD INDIAN..." (1862-1891)..............................................................................151
Blue, Gray — and Red..............................................................................................................151
A Man Called Cochise................................................................................................................151
Southwestern Terror.................................................................................................................152
The Great Santee Sioux Massacre..........................................................................................152
War for the Bozeman Rail........................................................................................................153
The Campaigns of Hancock and Sheridan.............................................................................154
War for the Black Hills..............................................................................................................154
Defeat of Custer........................................................................................................................154
"I Will Fight No More Forever"................................................................................................155
The Geronimo Campaign..........................................................................................................155
Wounded Knee...........................................................................................................................156
FROM PANIC TO EMPIRE (1869-1908)......................................................................................159
Empire of Cows..........................................................................................................................159
American Cowboy......................................................................................................................159
Law and Disorder......................................................................................................................160
Jesse, Billy, and the Rest.........................................................................................................160
Cornering the Market................................................................................................................161
Gould and Gold..........................................................................................................................161
Rockefeller and Oil....................................................................................................................162
The Gospel of Wealth...............................................................................................................162
An Age of Invention..................................................................................................................163
"Mr. Watson, Come Here..."....................................................................................................163
Let There Be Light.....................................................................................................................164
Recorded Sound, Recorded Light...........................................................................................164
Bridge and Skyscraper, Kitty Hawk and Detroit...................................................................165
OCTOPUS AND JUNGLE (1877-1906).........................................................................................168
The Golden Door.......................................................................................................................168
How the Other Half Lived.........................................................................................................169
Land Rush...................................................................................................................................169
Knights of Labor........................................................................................................................169
The Great Strikes.......................................................................................................................170
AFL...............................................................................................................................................170
I Won't Work..............................................................................................................................170
Complete Idiot's Guide 6 to American History
Tweed of Tammany..................................................................................................................171
Urban Reform.............................................................................................................................171
Chicago Meat..............................................................................................................................171
Muckrakers and Progressivism................................................................................................172
Government Takes a Hand......................................................................................................172
OVER THERE (1898-1918)...........................................................................................................176
Color It Yellow............................................................................................................................176
"I'll Furnish the War...".............................................................................................................176
Remember the Maine!..............................................................................................................177
He Kept Us Out of War.............................................................................................................178
Lusitania Lost.............................................................................................................................179
Zimmermann Note....................................................................................................................179
... Sate for Democracy..............................................................................................................180
Patriots and Slackers.................................................................................................................180
Over the Top..............................................................................................................................181
Marne..........................................................................................................................................181
St. Mihiel.....................................................................................................................................181
Armistice.....................................................................................................................................181
JAZZED, BOOZED, AND BUSTED FLAT (1918-1929)...............................................................184
A League of Nations..................................................................................................................184
Red Scare....................................................................................................................................185
End of the Dream......................................................................................................................185
A Generation Lost and Found..................................................................................................186
Stein, Fitzgerald, Hemingway & Co........................................................................................186
Women Get the Vote................................................................................................................187
A Renaissance in Harlem..........................................................................................................187
America Dries Up.......................................................................................................................188
Gangster Culture........................................................................................................................188
Countdown to Black Tuesday..................................................................................................189
Joy Ride.......................................................................................................................................189
Crash...........................................................................................................................................189
A NEW DEAL AND A NEW WAR (1930-1941)...........................................................................191
Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?............................................................................................191
The Verge of Revolution...........................................................................................................192
The Epoch of FDR.....................................................................................................................192
Government Redefined.............................................................................................................193
Urban War..................................................................................................................................194
A New War..................................................................................................................................194
Europe Darkens, Then Dies.....................................................................................................195
Infamy at Pearl..........................................................................................................................195
THE "GOOD WAR" (1941-1945)..................................................................................................198
I Shall Return.............................................................................................................................198
Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo......................................................................................................198
Home Front................................................................................................................................199
Afrika Korps................................................................................................................................199
Coral Sea and Midway..............................................................................................................199
Island Hopping...........................................................................................................................200
Complete Idiot's Guide 7 to American History
Mediterranean Shores...............................................................................................................200
The Beaches of France.............................................................................................................201
To Berlin and Victory in Europe..............................................................................................201
Toward V-E Day.........................................................................................................................202
Fat Man and Little Boy..............................................................................................................202
A COLD WAR AND A KOREAN WAR (1944-1954)....................................................................206
Winning the Peace....................................................................................................................206
The Birth of the United Nations..............................................................................................206
Germany Divided.......................................................................................................................206
Secretary Marshall's Plan..........................................................................................................207
Curtain of Iron...........................................................................................................................207
"Containing" Communism........................................................................................................207
Airlift to Berlin............................................................................................................................208
Witch Hunts................................................................................................................................208
Police Action in Korea...............................................................................................................209
Invasion, Counterstrike, Invasion...........................................................................................210
Meatgrinder................................................................................................................................210
Old Soldiers................................................................................................................................210
Thrust, Counterthrust, and Stalemate...................................................................................211
Peace Table................................................................................................................................211
The Unhappiest Ally..................................................................................................................211
The Least You Heed to Know..................................................................................................211
FROM THE BACK OF THE BUS TO THE GREAT SOCIETY (1947-1968)................................214
Executive Order 9981...............................................................................................................214
The Dream Deferred.................................................................................................................215
Rosa Parks Boards a Bus..........................................................................................................215
Emergence of Martin Luther King, Jr.....................................................................................215
Or Does It Explode?..................................................................................................................216
Emergence of Malcolm X and the Black Power Movement.................................................216
Sputnik and the New Frontier..................................................................................................217
JFK...............................................................................................................................................218
"The Torch Has Been Passed...".............................................................................................218
Bay of Pigs and Brink of Armageddon...................................................................................218
An Autumn Day In Dallas.........................................................................................................219
LBJ...............................................................................................................................................219
War on Poverty..........................................................................................................................220
Civil Rights Act of 1964............................................................................................................220
VIETNAM (1946-1975).................................................................................................................222
Flashback....................................................................................................................................222
The March to Dien Bien Phu....................................................................................................223
Domino Theory..........................................................................................................................223
American "Advisors"..................................................................................................................223
Flaming, Monks and the Fall of Diem.....................................................................................223
Rolling Thunder.........................................................................................................................224
Escalation and Vietnamization.................................................................................................224
Hearts and Minds.......................................................................................................................225
Hell, No! We Won't Go!............................................................................................................225
Complete Idiot's Guide 8 to American History
The Light at the End of the Tunnel........................................................................................226
Tet Offensive..............................................................................................................................226
Resignation of Johnson............................................................................................................226
Nixon's War................................................................................................................................226
Paris, Cambodia, and Laos.......................................................................................................227
Death for Easter........................................................................................................................227
Bombs for Christmas.................................................................................................................227
Paris Accords and the Fall of Saigon......................................................................................227
OF LOVE, THE MOON, AND DIRTY TRICKS (1968-1974).......................................................230
Tune In, Turn On, Drop Out....................................................................................................230
Summer of Love........................................................................................................................231
The Eagle Has Landed..............................................................................................................231
Pentagon Papers........................................................................................................................232
SALT, China, and the Middle East...........................................................................................232
CREEP..........................................................................................................................................233
Plumbers.....................................................................................................................................233
All the President's Men.............................................................................................................234
WOMEN, CRISIS, AND A CALL TO THE GREAT COMMUNICATOR (1963-1980).................237
A Woman's Place.......................................................................................................................237
From Rosie the Riveter to The Feminine Mystique..............................................................237
The Power of the Pill.................................................................................................................238
NOW and Ms..............................................................................................................................238
ERA Sunset.................................................................................................................................239
A Meeting of the Sheiks............................................................................................................239
Made In Japan...........................................................................................................................240
Frightening Cities, Crumbling Bridges....................................................................................240
Meltdown....................................................................................................................................241
The Ayatollah.............................................................................................................................241
The Great Communicator.........................................................................................................242
A NEW ECONOMY, A PLAGUE, A FALLENWALL, AND A DESERT IN FLAMES (1980-1991)
.........................................................................................................................................................244
Supply Side and Trickle Down.................................................................................................244
Greed Is Good............................................................................................................................245
Black Monday.............................................................................................................................246
"Gay Plaque" and a Blind Eye..................................................................................................246
"Mr. Gorbachev, Tear Down This Wall!"................................................................................247
Star Wars Arm Wrestle.............................................................................................................247
The Wall Falls.............................................................................................................................248
Ollie, Iran, and the Contras.....................................................................................................248
Desert Shield and Desert Storm..............................................................................................249
New World Order.......................................................................................................................250
DEMOCRACY (1992-)....................................................................................................................253
The Economy, Stupid................................................................................................................253
Third Party Politics.....................................................................................................................253
The New Right...........................................................................................................................254
Right to Life................................................................................................................................254
Christian Right............................................................................................................................254
Complete Idiot's Guide 9 to American History
The Age of Rage........................................................................................................................255
Waco and Oklahoma City.........................................................................................................255
A Tale of Two Trials..................................................................................................................256
Rodney King...............................................................................................................................256
O.J. Simpson..............................................................................................................................256
E Pluribus Unum........................................................................................................................257
From Leave It to Beaver to Sesame Street to the Internet................................................257
Complete Idiot's Guide 10 to American History