Table of Contents
Preface v
Correlation Guide xiv
Introduction xvii
Colonial Society 1
Is History True? 2
Yes: Oscar Handlin, from Truth in History (The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1979) 4
No: William H. McNeill, from "Mythistory, or Truth, Myth, History, and Historians," The American Historical Review (February 1986) 12
Was Disease the Key Factor in the Depopulation of Native Americans in the Americas? 23
Yes: Colin G. Calloway, from New Worlds for All: Indians, Europeans, and the Remaking of Early America (The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997) 25
No: David S. Jones, from "Virgin Soils Revisited," William & Mary Quarterly (October 2003) 33
Was the Settlement of Jamestown a Fiasco? 43
Yes: Edmund S. Morgan, from American Slavery, American Freedom: The Ordeal of Colonial Virginia (W.W. Norton, 1975) 45
No: Karen Ordahl Kupperman, from The Jamestown Project (Harvard University Press, 2007) 54
Was the Salem Witchcraft Hysteria Caused by a Fear of Women? 66
Yes: Carol F. Karlsen, from The Devil in the Shape of a Woman: Witchcraft in Colonial New England (W. W. Norton, 1987) 68
No: Mary Beth Norton, from In the Devil's Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692 (Alfred A. Knopf, 2002) 78
Revolution and the New Nation 89
Did the American Revolution Produce a Christian Nation? 90
Yes: Nathan O. Hatch, from "The Democratization of Christianity and the Character of American Politics," in Mark A. Noll, ed., Religion and American Politics (Oxford University Press, 1990) 92
No: Jon Butler, from "Why Revolutionary America Wasn't a 'Christian Nation'," in James H. Hutson, ed., Religion and the New Republic: Faith in the Founding of America (Rowman and Littlefield, 2000) 102
Were the Founding Fathers Democratic Reformers? 112
Yes: John P. Roche, from "The Founding Fathers: A Reform Caucus in Action," American Political Science Review (December 1961) 114
No: Howard Zinn, from A People's History of the United States (Harper Collins, 1999) 126
Was Alexander Hamilton an Economic Genius? 139
Yes: John Steele Gordon, from An Empire of Wealth: The Epic History of American Economic Power (Harper Collins, 2004) 141
No: Carey Roberts, from "Alexander Hamilton and the 1790s Economy: A Reappraisal," in Douglas Ambrose and Robert W. T. Martin, eds., The Many Faces of Alexander Hamilton: The Life and Legacy of America's Most Elusive Founding Father (New York University Press, 2006) 150
Was James Madison an Effective Wartime President? 164
Yes: Drew R. McCoy, from The Last of the Fathers: James Madison and the Republican Legacy (Cambridge University Press, 1989) 166
No: Donald R. Hickey, from The War of 1812: A Forgotten Conflict (University of Illinois Press, 1989) 174
Did the Election of 1828 Represent a Democratic Revolt of the People? 185
Yes: Sean Wilentz, from The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln (Norton, 2005) 187
No: Richard P. McCormick, from "New Perspectives on Jacksonian Politics," The American Historical Review (January 1960) 196
Did the Industrial Revolution Provide More Economic Opportunities for Women in the 1830s? 209
Yes: Thomas Dublin, from "Women, Work, and Protest in the Early Lowell Mills: 'The Oppressing Hand of Avarice Would Enslave Us'," Labor History (Winter 1975) 211
No: Gerda Lerner, from "The Lady and the Mill Girl: Changes in the Status of Women in the Age of Jackson," American Studies (Spring 1969) 224
Antebellum America 239
Did Slavery Destroy the Black Family? 240
Yes: Wilma A. Dunaway, from The African-American Family in Slavery and Emancipation (Cambridge University Press, 2003) 242
No: Eugene D. Genovese, from Roll, Jordan, Roll: The World the Slaves Made (Random House, 1974) 255
Was the Mexican War an Exercise in American Imperialism? 267
Yes: Ramon Eduardo Ruiz, from "Manifest Destiny and the Mexican War," in Howard H. Quint, Milton Cantor, and Dean Albertson, eds., Main Problems in American History, 5th ed. (Dorsey Press, 1988) 269
No: Norman A. Graebner, from "The Mexican War: A Study in Causation," Pacific Historical Review (August 1980) 277
Was John Brown an Irrational Terrorist? 288
Yes: C. Vann Woodward, from The Burden of Southern History, 3d ed. (Louisiana State University Press, 1993) 290
No: David S. Reynolds, from John Brown, Abolitionist: The Man Who Killed Slavery, Sparked the Civil War, and Seeded Civil Rights (Alfred A. Knopf, 2005) 298
Conflict and Resolution 309
Was Slavery the Key Issue in the Sectional Conflict Leading to the Civil War? 310
Yes: Charles B. Dew, from Apostles of Disunion: Southern Secession Commissioners and the Causes of the Civil War (University of Virginia Press, 2001) 312
No: Joel H. Silbey, from The Partisan Imperative: The Dynamics of American Politics Before the Civil War (Oxford University Press, 1985) 320
Did Abraham Lincoln Free the Slaves? 330
Yes: Stephen B. Oates, from Abraham Lincoln: The Man Behind the Myths (Harper & Row, 1984) 332
No: Vincent Harding, from There Is a River: The Black Struggle for Freedom in America (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1981) 341
Did Reconstruction Fail as a Result of Racism? 352
Yes: George M. Fredrickson, from The Black Image in the White Mind: The Debate on Afro-American Character and Destiny, 1817-1914 (Harper & Row, 1971) 354
No: Heather Cox Richardson, from The Death of Reconstruction: Race, Labor, and Politics in the Post-Civil War North, 1865-1901 (Harvard University Press, 2001) 362
Contributors 373
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