U.S. History For Dummies, Second Edition

411 Pages·2009·4.55 MB·English

by  Wiegand

U.S. History
FOR
DUMmIES
‰
2
ND EDITION
by Steve Wiegand
U.S. History For Dummies®, 2nd Edition
Published by
Wiley Publishing, Inc.
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Copyright © 2009 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana
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Library of Congress Control Number: 2009926360
ISBN: 978-0-470-43639-4
Manufactured in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Dedication
To Ceil, for all my pasts, and to Erin, for all our futures.
About the Author
Steve Wiegand has been around for 24.1 percent of America’s history as a
nation — and he’s gaining ground.
An award-winning political journalist and history writer for more than three
decades, he’s worked as a reporter and columnist for the San Diego Evening
Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle and the Sacramento Bee, where he currently
covers state government and politics.
Wiegand is a graduate of Santa Clara University, where he majored in
American literature and U.S. history. He also holds a Master of Science
degree in Mass Communications from California State University, San Jose.
In addition to U.S. History For Dummies, Wiegand is the author of Sacramento
Tapestry (Towery Books) and Papers of Permanence (McClatchy), co-author
of The Mental_Floss History of the World (Harper Collins), and a contributing
author to mental_fl oss presents: Forbidden Knowledge (Harper Collins).
He lives in Northern California.
Acknowledgments
Thanks fi rst to my friends and colleagues John D. Cox for launching me on
the path to authorship, and to Bill Enfi eld, for his interest and encouragement.
For this second edition, thanks to Project Editor Natalie Harris, Copy Editor
Christy Pingleton, Technical Editor Diane Lindstrom, and Acquisitions Editor
Lindsay Lefevere. All the good stuff is mostly their doing; any mistakes are
mine.
Finally, thanks to my mom for having given me the inspiration to read books,
so I could someday write them, and to my dad for giving me the sense of
humor not to take it too seriously along the way.
Publisher’s Acknowledgments
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form located at http://dummies.custhelp.com. For other comments, please contact our
Customer Care Department within the U.S. at 877-762-2974, outside the U.S. at 317-572-3993,
or fax [phone].
Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following:
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Development
Project Coordinator: Kristie Rees
Project Editor: Natalie Faye Harris
Layout and Graphics: Reuben W. Davis,
(Previous Edition: Linda Brandon) Christin Swinford
Acquisitions Editor: Lindsay Lefevere Proofreaders: Laura Albert, Leeann Harney,
Bonnie Mikkelson
(Previous Edition: Susan Decker)
Indexer: Potomac Indexing, LLC.
Copy Editor: Christy Pingleton
Special Help: Alicia South
(Previous Edition: Rowena Rappaport)
Assistant Editor: Erin Calligan Mooney
Editorial Program Coordinator: Joe Niesen
General Reviewer: Diane Lindstrom
Editorial Manager: Christine Meloy Beck
Editorial Assistants: Jennette ElNaggar,
David Lutton
Cover Photos: © Allan Baxter
Cartoons: Rich Tennant
(www.the5thwave.com)
Publishing and Editorial for Consumer Dummies
Diane Graves Steele, Vice President and Publisher, Consumer Dummies
Kristin Ferguson-Wagstaffe, Product Development Director, Consumer Dummies
Ensley Eikenburg, Associate Publisher, Travel
Kelly Regan, Editorial Director, Travel
Publishing for Technology Dummies
Andy Cummings, Vice President and Publisher, Dummies Technology/General User
Composition Services
Debbie Stailey, Director of Composition Services
Contents at a Glance
Introduction ................................................................ 1
Part I: Getting There, Getting Settled, and Getting Free .... 7
Chapter 1: America: A Short Biography ..........................................................................9
Chapter 2: Native Americans and Explorers: 12,000 BC(?)–1607 ...............................23
Chapter 3: Pilgrims’ Progress: The English Colonies, 1607–1700 ..............................43
Chapter 4: You Say You Want a Revolution. . . : 1700–1775............................................57
Chapter 5: Yankee Doodlin’: 1775–1783 ........................................................................77
Chapter 6: Blueprints and Birth Pains: 1783–1800.......................................................91
Part II: Growing Pains ............................................. 103
Chapter 7: “Long Tom” and One Weird War: 1800–1815 ..........................................105
Chapter 8: Pulling Together to Keep from Falling Apart: 1815–1844.......................123
Chapter 9: War, Gold, and a Gathering Storm: 1845–1860 ........................................145
Chapter 10: A Most Uncivil War: 1861–1865 ...............................................................159
Chapter 11: Putting the Country Back Together: 1865–1876 ....................................175
Part III: Coming of Age ............................................ 189
Chapter 12: Growing Up: 1876–1898 ............................................................................191
Chapter 13: Growing into the 20th Century: 1899–1918 ............................................209
Chapter 14: Gin, Jazz, and Lucky Lindy: 1919–1929...................................................225
Chapter 15: Uncle Sam’s Depressed: 1930–1940 ........................................................241
Chapter 16: The World at War: 1941–1945..................................................................257
Part IV: America in Adulthood .................................. 275
Chapter 17: TV, Elvis, and Reds under the Bed: 1946–1960 .....................................277
Chapter 18: Camelot to Watergate: 1961–1974 ...........................................................293
Chapter 19: Hold the Malaise, or, Ayatollah So: 1975–1992......................................309
Chapter 20: No Sex, Please, I’m the President: 1993–1999 ........................................323
Chapter 21: “It’s A Small World, After All”: Entering the 21st Century ...................337
Part V: The Part of Tens ........................................... 357
Chapter 22: Ten American Inventions that Changed Life as We Know It ...............359
Chapter 23: Ten Events that Defi ned American Culture ...........................................363
Chapter 24: Ten Events in U.S. History They Keep Making into Movies ................367
Part VI: Appendixes ................................................. 371
Appendix A: The Bill of Rights: Amendments 1–10 of the Constitution .................373
Appendix B: The Declaration of Independence .........................................................375
Index ...................................................................... 379
Table of Contents
Introduction ................................................................. 1
About This Book ..............................................................................................1
Conventions Used in This Book .....................................................................2
What You’re Not to Read ................................................................................2
Foolish Assumptions .......................................................................................3
How This Book Is Organized ..........................................................................3
Part I: Getting There, Getting Settled, and Getting Free....................3
Part II: Growing Pains ............................................................................4
Part III: Coming of Age ...........................................................................4
Part IV: America in Adulthood .............................................................4
Part V: The Part of Tens ........................................................................5
Part VI: Appendixes ...............................................................................5
Icons Used in This Book .................................................................................5
Where to Go from Here ...................................................................................6
Part I: Getting There, Getting Settled, and Getting Free .... 7
Chapter 1: America: A Short Biography. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9
They Came, They Saw, They Stayed .............................................................9
Catching up to the Spanish .................................................................10
It’s revolutionary! .................................................................................11
Putting America on the Map ........................................................................11
Nationalizing a nation ..........................................................................12
Dirty politics .........................................................................................13
Fighting with a neighbor, fi nding gold,
and heading for a breakup ..............................................................14
Fighting among ourselves ...................................................................15
Making up is hard to do ......................................................................15
Struggling with Greatness .............................................................................16
Finding a place in the world ...............................................................16
Roaring through the ’20s ....................................................................17
What’s so great about a depression? ................................................17
The big one ...........................................................................................18
A Cold War and a Brave New World ............................................................18
From a Kennedy to a Ford ..................................................................19
Good intentions, mixed results ..........................................................19
Finishing out the century ....................................................................20
Hanging chads and fi ghting wars .......................................................21
viii
U.S. History For Dummies, 2nd Edition
Chapter 2: Native Americans and Explorers: 12,000 BC(?)–1607. . . . .23
Coming to America ........................................................................................23
Exploring Early Civilizations ........................................................................25
The Anasazi ..........................................................................................25
The Mound Builders ............................................................................26
Too Many Tribes, Not Enough Native Americans .....................................27
In the Northwest ..................................................................................27
In the Southwest ..................................................................................28
On the Great Plains ..............................................................................28
In the Northeast ...................................................................................28
In the Southeast ...................................................................................29
De-stereotyping the Native Americans .......................................................29
Visiting by the Vikings ..................................................................................30
Determining Who Else Came to America ....................................................32
Spicing Up Life — and Other Reasons for Exploring ................................32
Christopher Columbus: Dream Salesman ...................................................33
Discovering a Dozen Other People Who Dropped By ...............................36
The Sword, the Cross, and the Measles ......................................................38
Native American slavery .....................................................................39
The men in the brown robes ..............................................................40
Destruction through disease ..............................................................40
Arriving Late for the Party ............................................................................41
France ....................................................................................................42
England ..................................................................................................42
Chapter 3: Pilgrims’ Progress: The English Colonies, 1607–1700 . . . .43
Seeing Potential in the New World ..............................................................43
Settling in Jamestown ...................................................................................44
Early troubles .......................................................................................44
Making Native American friends ........................................................45
Finding a cash crop .............................................................................45
Instituting Slavery ..........................................................................................47
Colonizing: Pilgrims and Puritans ...............................................................48
The Mayfl ower Compact — A Dutch pilgrimage..............................48
The Massachusetts Bay colony: A pure haven ................................50
Bringing Religious Freedom: Dissidents, Catholics, and Quakers ...........52
Sneaking off to Rhode Island ..............................................................53
Condoning only Christianity in Maryland .........................................53
Promoting tolerance in Pennsylvania ...............................................54
Dealings of the Dutch ....................................................................................54
Coping with Native American Troubles ......................................................55
Chapter 4: You Say You Want a Revolution. . . : 1700–1775 . . . . . . . . . . . .57
Looking at America in 1700 ..........................................................................57
Colonizing New France .................................................................................58