美國歷史概況

內(nèi)容概要

本書按年代順序分十章介紹從殖民地時間到二十一世紀美國社會和歷史的演變，每章都配有相關(guān)年代美國的社會簡介，并精先四五篇文章介紹美國歷史上的重大事件、熱點話題和知名人物，以幫助讀者進一步了解每一歷史時期的政治、經(jīng)濟和文化背景。讀者通過閱讀本書，能理清美國歷史發(fā)展的脈絡，獲得對美國歷史全景式的認知，從而能更好地了解美國這個社會和文化多元的國家。    為使讀者更好地理解和掌握各章的重點和難點，每章末尾還附了練習題和思考題。本書所選部分材料和文章都在相當程序上反映西方學者對美國的認識，希望讀者對其思想內(nèi)容持客觀和公正的批判態(tài)度。

書籍目錄

Part one The Colonial Period（1607—1776）　Section A Texts　　I . The European Explorers　　II. The British Colonies 　Section B Supplementary Readings　　Passage one Native Americans and Euopena？　　Passage Two Why Did They Come to America？　　Passage Three Life in Colonial America　　Passage Four The Evolution of Thanksgiving　Section C ExercisesPart Two The Revolutionar Period（1763—1789）　Section A Texts　　I. Conflict Between the American Colonies and the Mother Country　　II. War for Independence　　III. The New Constitution and Government　Section B Supplementary Readings　　Passage one A Century of Imperial War　　Passage Two The Issue of Rpresentation　　Passage Three Thomas Paine　　Passage Four James Madison’s Contribution to the Constiution　Section C ExercisesPart Three The Young Republic（1790—1828）　Section A Texts　Section B Supplementary Readings　Section C ExercisesPart Four Western Expansion and Reform（1829—1859）　Section A Texts　Section B Supplementary Readings　Section C ExercisesPart five The Civil War and Reconstruction（1860—1887）　Section A Texts　Section B Supplementary Readings　Section C ExercisesPart six The Gilded Age（1865—1900）　Section A Texts　Section B Supplementary Readings　Section C ExercisesPart Seven The Progressive Era and World War I（1890—1917）　Section A Texts　Section B Supplementary Readings　Section C ExercisesPart Eight Prosperity and Depression（1918—1933）　Section A Texts　Section B Supplementary Readings　Section C ExercisesPart Nine The New Deal and Wolrd War(1993—1945)　Section A Texts　Section B Supplementary Readings　Section C ExercisesPart Ten The Modern Era（1946—Present）　Section A Texts　Section B Supplementary Readings　Section C ExercisesAppendixesBibliography

章節(jié)摘錄

　　In rural areas， many people were poor. In inner cities， over-worked factory workers lived in crowded and unsanitary tenements. But， in general， at the beginning of the century people in the U. S. were able to buy more than they had in previous decades. More farm products were available in the cities： and therefore these products there were cheaper. With the rise of industry had come an increase in the variety and abundance of goods. There were department stores and mail-order catalogs. Shopping by telephone had begun. Electricity was reaching more people in the cities， the electric light having the advantage of being without soot or the need to'ventilate - while a few feared it， blaming it for fires， explosions and electrocutions， and some claimed that it caused freckles. There were electric trolley cars on which to ride to work or to stores or on Sunday outings.　　Middle and upper class Anglo-Americans were feeling brash and optimistic. Despite centuries of Calvinist preaching about the depravity of man， they were cheerful. And among the cheerful in 1900 was the Republican president， William McKinley. He was running for re-election， and he boasted of the pride and prosperity that had come to the United States during his four years in office.　　City folks were enjoying more leisure. The middleclass had annual vacations， and many of them looked forward to going to a resort during the summer. On weekends they went to orchestral concerts in a park or city center. They went to vaudeville shows， to amusement parks or to a local baseball game. During the summer a family might go fishing or boating. Family picnics were also popular， as were community socials.　　Much in entertainment was home made. Very few people had a phonograph， but there was an abundance of store bought sheet music. And in place of the phonograph， girls of a family played musical instruments. Families frequently gathered around a piano， organ， or pianola for sing-alongs. The most popular song in 1902 was "In the Good Old Summeffime，" which that year sold a million copies in sheet music， a song that evoked in many city people a nostalgia for the rural towns where they had strolled through shady lanes. Another popular song was "By the Light of the Silvery Moon. " Soon to follow were songs such as "Sweet Adeline，" "Ida， Sweet as Apple Cider，" and "In the Shade of the Old Apple Tree. " People in middleclass families played lawn games such as croquet or lawn tennis. Young girls， along with their mothers， spent leisure hours at needle crafts， read religious novels. Some among the middleclass read westerns such as The Virginian， or they　　read sentimental sagas， or The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Some read Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde， or The Red Badge of Courage， and some read from among Horatio Alger's 135 novels. And people conversed more than they would decades later.　　Men courted women in the parlor or front porch of the young woman's home， sometimes singing songs， playing their banjo or guitar， or strolling to the village green. As yet， women did not go driving off in automobiles.　The automobile， "or horseless carriage，" was just beginning to make its appearance in the United States， disturbing the city traffic of horse drawn wagons and bicycles. In San Francisco and Cincinnati a speed-limit was established at eight miles an hour. Debates in bars and at dinner tables arose over whether the horseless carriage or the horse was better transportation. Animal power， it was argued， was better on mud-slick roads. With automobiles， some said， city streets would have less horse manure and smell.　　At the turn of the century， more women were finding work outside of their homes-the result of enlarged office bureaucracies and the coming of the typewriter. Women had become a third of the nation's clerical workers. Women were also filling positions as telephone operators. Artd teaching， once a male preserve， was now eighty-six percent women - but still managed by male principals and superintendents.　　Morality， Feminism and Class　　At the turn of the century， three quarters of the states forbade married women to have property in their own name. In these states a woman's property became her husband's upon marriage. In a third of the states， a woman's eamings belonged to her husband. And in all states except Wyoming， Utah， Colorado and Idaho， women were not allowed to vote-frontiers being less conservative on the woman's suffrage issue than the older， metropolitan areas， similar to Australia being ahead of England on this issue. Women active in the suffrage movement were descnbed as neurotic， as suffering from an urge to imitate men， as hysterical or as homosexuals. It was argued that with their big sleeves， women would be able to hide numerous ballots and vote more than once.　　Widespread among Americans was a desire for self-improvement-a constant force though the twentieth century. Since 1890 the number of students attending high school had been rising an average of around thirty percent a year， and high schools were increasing in number at an average of nineteen percent a year. The number of college graduates was also increasing： from a mere one percent of the population in the 1870s and on its way to eight percent by the 1920s.　　A part of the striving for self-improvement was religion. Many Americans gave credit to Christianity for the nation's prosperity， and they saw their own material successes as God's reward for their virtue， industry and thrift. While church attendance was declining in some of the more technologically advanced European societies， in the United States the number of churches being built increased and church memberships were growing. It was common among middleclass parents to try to put the fear of God into their children， and God and morality reached the children in the schools through the McGuffey Readers， with titles such as "Respect for the Sabbath Rewarded" and "The Bible the Best of Classics. " These books suggested that to succeed one had to be sober， frugal and energetic， and they suggested that prolonged poverty was a sign of God's disapproval.　　……

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