Reading the American Past, Volume II: From 1865: Selected Historical Documents » (4th Edition)

MICHAEL P. JOHNSON (Ph.D., Stanford University) is a professor of history at the Johns Hopkins University. He has written or edited six books, including No Chariot Let Down: Charleston’s Free People of Color on the Eve of the Civil War (1984) and The American Promise.

This two-volume primary-source collection provides a diverse selection of voices from the nation’s past while emphasizing the important social, political, and economic themes of a U.S. history survey course. Edited by one of the authors of The American Promise and designed to complement the textbook, Reading the American Past features over 150 documents, each accompanied by a headnote and questions for discussion to encourage students’ understanding of the sources.

Preface for Instructors     iii
Introduction for Students     viii
Reconstruction, 1863-1877     1
Carl Schurz Reports on the Condition of the Defeated South     1
Report on the Condition of the South, 1865
Black Codes Enacted in the South     5
Mississippi Black Code, November 1865
Former Slaves Seek to Reunite Their Families     9
Advertisements from the Christian Recorder, 1865-1870
A Black Convention in Alabama     14
Address of the Colored Convention to the People of Alabama, 1867
Klan Violence against Blacks     18
Elias Hill, Testimony before Congressional Committee Investigating the Ku Klux Klan, 1871
Comparative Questions     21
The Contested West, 1870-1900     22
Pun Chi Appeals to Congress in Behalf of Chinese Immigrants in California     22
A Remonstrance from the Chinese in California, ca. 1870
Swedish Immigrants on the Kansas Prairie     26
Ida Lindgren, Letters, 1870-1874
Texas Rangers on the Mexican Border     30
N. A. Jennings, A Texas Ranger, 1875
In-mut-too-yah-lat-lat Describes White Encroachment     33
Chief Joseph, Speech to a White Audience, 1879
A Plea to "Citizenize" Indians     37
Richard Pratt, "Kill the Indian ... and save the man," 1892
Comparative Questions     40
Business and Politics in theGilded Age, 1870-1895     41
Jay Gould on Capital and Labor     41
Testimony before the U.S. Senate, 1883
William Graham Sumner on Social Obligations     45
What Social Classes Owe to Each Other, 1883
Henry Demarest Lloyd Attacks Monopolies     48
Wealth against Commonwealth, 1894
Andrew Carnegie Explains the Gospel of Wealth     52
Wealth, 1889
Henry George Explains Why Poverty Is a Crime     55
An Analysis of the Crime of Poverty, 1885
Comparative Questions     59
The City and its Workers, 1870-1900     60
A Textile Worker Explains the Labor Market     60
Thomas O'Donnell, Testimony before a U.S. Senate Committee, 1885
Domestic Servants on Household Work     64
Interviews with Journalist Helen Campbell, 1880s
Jacob Riis Describes Abandoned Babies in New York City's Slums     67
Waifs of New York City's Slums, 1890
Labor Contractors and Italian Immigrants     71
S. Merlino, Italian Immigrants and Their Enslavement, 1893
George Washington Plunkitt Explains Politics     75
William L. Riordon, Plunkitt of Tammany Hall, 1905
Comparative Questions     78
Dissent, Depression, and War, 1890-1900     79
Addressing the Crisis in Rural America     79
Populist Party Platform, July 4, 1892
White Supremacy in Wilmington, North Carolina     84
Gunner Jesse Blake, Narrative of the Wilmington "Rebellion" of 1898
Pinkertons Defeated at Homestead     88
Pinkerton Guard Testimony, 1893
Conflicting Views about Labor Unions     91
N. F. Thompson, Testimony before the Industrial Commission on the Relations and Conditions of Capital and Labor, 1900
Samuel Gompers, Letter to the American Federationist, 1894
Emilio Aguinaldo Criticizes American Imperialism in the Philippines     97
Case against the United States, 1899
Comparative Questions     101
Progressivism from the Grass Roots to the White House, 1890-1916     102
Jane Addams on Settlement Houses     102
The Subjective Necessity for Social Settlements, 1892
A Sociologist Studies Working-Class Saloons in Chicago     106
Royal Melendy, Ethical Substitutes for the Saloon, 1900
John D. Rockefeller Jr. Explains "The Best Thing for Us All"     110
Speech to Colorado Fuel and Iron Officials and Employee Representatives, October 2, 1915
Mother Jones on the Futility of Class Harmony     113
Letter to Mrs. Potter Palmer, January 12, 1907
Booker T. Washington on Racial Accommodation     115
The Atlanta Exposition Address, 1895
W. E. B. Du Bois on Racial Equality     118
Booker T. Washington and Others, 1903
Comparative Questions     121
World War I: The Progressive Crusade at Home and Abroad, 1914-1920     123
President Woodrow Wilson Asks Congress for a Declaration of War     123
Speech to Congress, April 2, 1917
Eugene V. Debs Attacks Capitalist Warmongers     127
Speech Delivered in Canton, Ohio, June 16, 1918
A Doughboy's Letter from the Front     130
Anonymous Soldier, Letter to Elmer J. Sutters, 1918
Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer Defends America from Communists     133
The Case against the "Reds," 1920
An African American Responds to the Chicago Race Riot     138
Stanley B. Norvell, Letter to Victor F. Lawson, 1919
Comparative Questions     142
From New Era to Great Depression, 1920-1932     144
President Calvin Coolidge on Government and Business     144
Address before the New York Chamber of Commerce, November 19, 1925
Reinhold Niebuhr on Christianity in Detroit     148
Diary Entries, 1925-1928
The Ku Klux Klan Defends Americanism     151
Hiram W. Evans, The Klan's Fight for Americanism, 1926
Mothers Seek Freedom from Unwanted Pregnancies     155
Margaret Sanger, Motherhood in Bondage, 1928
Marcus Garvey Explains the Goals of the Universal Negro Improvement Association     158
The Negro's Greatest Enemy, 1923
Comparative Questions     162
The New Deal Experiment, 1932-1939     164
Franklin D. Roosevelt Proposes an Activist Government     164
Speech to the Commonwealth Club, San Francisco, 1932
Working People's Letters to New Dealers     169
Letter to Frances Perkins, January 27, 1935
Letter to Frances Perkins, March 29, 1935
Letter to Franklin D. Roosevelt, November 23, 1936
Letter to Frances Perkins, July 27, 1937
Letter to Franklin D. Roosevelt, November 27, 1939
Huey Long Proposes Redistribution of Wealth     174
Speech to Members of the Share Our Wealth Society, 1935
A Mexican American Farmworker Describes the Importance of Sticking Together     177
Jose Flores, Interview, Farm Security Administration Migrant Labor Camp, El Rio, California, 1941
Conservatives Criticize the New Deal     181
Herbert Hoover, Anti-New Deal Campaign Speech, 1936
Minnie Hardin, Letter to Eleanor Roosevelt, December 14, 1937
Comparative Questions     185
The United States and the Second World War, 1939-1945     187
President Franklin D. Roosevelt Requests Declaration of War on Japan     187
Speech to Congress, December 8, 1941
A Japanese American War Hero Recalls Pearl Harbor     189
Grant Hirabayashi, Oral History, 1999
The Holocaust: A Journalist Reports on Nazi Massacres of Jews     192
Varian Fry, The Massacre of the Jews, December 21, 1942
Soldiers Send Messages Home     197
Sergeant Irving Strobing, Radio Address from Corregidor, Philippines, May 5 or 6, 1942
John Conroy, Letter, December 24, 1942
Allen Spach, Letter, February 1943
James McMahon, Letter, March 10, 1944
David Mark Olds, Letter, July 12, 1945
The War between the Sexes     204
Willard Waller, The Coming War on Women, 1945
Comparative Questions     208
Cold War Politics in the Truman Years, 1945-1953     209
General Marshall Summarizes the Lessons of World War II     209
For the Common Defense, 1945
George F. Kennan Outlines Containment     214
The Long Telegram, February 22, 1946
Cold War Blueprint     218
NSC-68: U.S. Objectives and Programs for National Security, 1950
Senator Joseph McCarthy Hunts Communists     222
Speech Delivered in Wheeling, West Virginia, February 9, 1950
A South Korean Soldier Remembers the Korean War     225
Hong An, Interview, 1997
Comparative Questions     229
The Politics and Culture of Abundance, 1952-1960     230
Edith M. Stern Attacks the Domestic Bondage of Women     230
Women Are Household Slaves, 1949
Vance Packard Analyzes the Age of Affluence     235
The Status Seekers, 1959
Rosa Parks Says "No": A Memoir     239
My Story, 1992
Civil Defense in the Nuclear Shadow     243
North Dakota Civil Defense Agency, How You Will Survive, 1960
President Dwight D. Eisenhower Warns about the Military-Industrial Complex      247
Farewell Address, January 1961
Comparative Questions     250
Reform, Rebellion, and Reaction, 1960-1974     251
President Lyndon B. Johnson Describes the Great Society     251
Address at the University of Michigan, May 22, 1964
New Left Students Seek Democratic Social Change     254
Students for a Democratic Society, The Port Huron Statement, 1962
Martin Luther King Jr. Explains Nonviolent Resistance     259
Letter from Birmingham City Jail, 1963
Black Power     264
Chicago Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee Leaflet, 1967
Equal Rights for Women     268
National Organization for Women, Statement of Purpose, October 29, 1966
Comparative Questions     272
Vietnam and the Limits of Power, 1961-1975     273
President Kennedy Explains Why We Are in Vietnam     273
Bobbie Lou Pendergrass, Letter to President John F. Kennedy, February 18, 1963
President John F. Kennedy, Letter to Bobbie Lou Pendergrass, March 6, 1963
A Secret Government Assessment of the Vietnam War     276
Robert S. McNamara, Actions Recommended for Vietnam, October 14, 1966
Military Discipline in an Unpopular War     281
Robert D. Heinl Jr., The Collapse of the Armed Forces, June 7, 1971
An American Soldier in Vietnam     285
Arthur E. Woodley Jr., Oral History of a Special Forces Ranger
A Vietcong Guerrilla Describes Tunnel Warfare     290
Tran Thi Gung, Interview, ca. 1998
Comparative Questions     293
America Moves to the Right, 1969-1989     294
George Wallace Campaigns for President     294
American Independent Party Platform, 1968
The Watergate Tapes: Nixon, Dean, and Haldeman Discuss the Cancer within the Presidency     299
Transcript from Tape-Recorded Meeting, March 21, 1973
Roe v. Wade and Abortion Rights     306
Supreme Court Decision, 1973
President Ronald Reagan Defends American Morality     310
Address to the National Association of American Evangelicals, 1983
A Vietnamese Immigrant on the West Coast     315
Anonymous Man, Oral History, 1983
Comparative Questions     318
The End of the Cold War and the Challenges of Globalization, Since 1989     319
Supreme Court Dissents from Deciding 2000 Presidential Election     319
Supreme Court Dissents in George W. Bush v. Albert Gore Jr., December 12, 2000
President George W. Bush Receives CIA Warning about Al Qaeda and Addresses Congress after 9/11 Terrorist Attacks     324
President's Daily Brief, Bin Laden Determined to Strike in the U.S., August 6, 2001
President George W. Bush, Address to a Joint Session of Congress and the American People, September 20, 2001
National Security of the United States Requires Preemptive War     329
The National Security Strategy of the United States, September 2002
A Captured 9/11 Terrorist Confesses     334
Khalid Sheikh Muhammad, Confession, 2007
A Christian Leader Argues That Evangelical Christianity Has Been Hijacked     337
Tony Campolo, Interview, 2004
Comparative Questions     341