Pages from History Books

From Columbus's voyage in 1492 to the publication of the autobiography of Olaudah Equiano, a former slave, in 1789, Jill Lepore, winner of the distinguished Bancroft Prize for history, brings to life in exciting, first-person detail some of the earliest events in American history in Encounters in the New World . Providing fascinating commentary along the way, Lepore seamlessly links together primary sources that illustrate the powerful clash of cultures in the Americas. Through emotional eyewitness accounts -- memoirs, petitions, diaries, captivity narratives, private correspondence -- formal documents, official reports, and journalistic reportage, dramatic stories of the New World are revealed, including: * A Jesuit priest's chronicle of life among his Iroquois captors * Aztec records of forbidding omens * John Smith's account of cannibalism among the British residents of Jamestown * Memoirs by members of Cortes's expedition * Reminiscences of an escaped slave A special 16-page color cartographic section, including maps from both Europe and North America, provides a fascinating look at how the maps' creators saw themselves and the world around them.

The Depression and New Deal is a collection of primary sources documenting American life during the longest and deepest economic collapse in American history. From the prosperity and rampant consumerism of the 1920s, the book moves forward to cover the double shock of the stock market crash and dust bowl and then on to the recovery efforts of Roosevelt's New Deal. Some of the most revealing testaments to the times-including songs by Woody Guthrie, articles from sources as diverse as Fortune magazine and the communist periodical New Masses , murals and posters sponsored by the Works Progress Administration, excerpts from literary classics such as The Grapes of Wrath and selections from Eleanor Roosevelt's "My Day" column-have been assembled to provide a well-rounded portrait of the age. The battle among conflicting political and economic forces is brought to life with political cartoons, Roosevelt's "Forgotten Man" radio address and first inaugural address, Supreme Court decisions, newspaper editorials, text from the National Labor Relations Act, and many other documents. Some of the most compelling elements of this history record the impact of the depression on ordinary people. The experiences of Americans of both sexes, all ages, and various racial and ethnic groups are explored through documents such as Farm Security Administration photographs, interviews, letters to the Roosevelts, and the memoirs of a "southern white girl." A special section of Hollywood film stills demonstrates how the changing values of the nation were reflected in popular culture. Renowned historian Robert McElvaine provides expert commentary linking the documents into a fascinating and seamless narrative. Textbooks may interpret history, but the books in the Pages from History series are history. Each title, compiled and edited by a prominent historian, is a collection of primary sources relating to a particular topic of historical significance. Documentary evidence including news articles, government documents, memoirs, letters, diaries, fiction, photographs, and facsimiles allows history to speak for itself and turns every reader into a historian. Headnotes, extended captions, sidebars, and introductory essays provide the essential context that frames the documents. All the books are amply illustrated and each includes a documentary picture essay, chronology, further reading, source notes, and index.

Revolutionary Russia: A History in Documents provides a visually stimulating survey of revolutionary Russia, from the collapse of the autocracy in 1917 to the consolidation of the Stalinist system in the 1930s. Authors Robert Weinberg and Laurie Bernstein have collected far-flung documents--many available in English for the first time--and woven them into a narrative that focuses on the effort to build communism in Russia and its effects on the lives of ordinary people. Providing introductions to each chapter and document along with sidebars and detailed photo captions, the main text tantalizes readers with the great vision, conflict, hopes, and horrors of this much-mythologized part of modern history, while the back matter offers resources for further exploration. Utilizing a mix of textual and visual documents-including photographs, posters, and objects-to create a textured history of revolutionary Russia, the book covers such diverse topics as the prelude to revolution, the Bolshevik rise to power, the fate of the royal family, peasant resistance to Bolshevik policies, Stalin's "revolution from above," and the Great Terror. A picture essay, featuring sixteen posters, provides a visual depiction of the impact of the revolution on women.

Winner of the Middle East Studies Association 2013 Undergraduate Education Award Utilizing a mix of documents--including photographs, posters, diaries, diplomatic records, archival sources, and literary works-- The Modern Middle East and North Africa: A History in Documents is structured around an underlying theme of unity in diversity. This theme helps to offset students' stereotypical image of the Middle East and North Africa as an undifferentiated, monolithic, and unchanging part of the world inhabited mainly by terrorists and religious fanatics. Compiled and edited by two prominent historians, Julia Clancy-Smith and Charles Smith, the book's approach offers a compromise between conventional political and diplomatic histories and those focusing on social and cultural history. The authors demonstrate how the Middle East and North Africa have participated in and shaped the grand currents of global history during the past two centuries. Headnotes, extended captions, sidebars, introductory essays, and a robust photo program (including a documentary picture essay devoted to women and gender) provide an essential context framing the documents.