A Nation in Bondage: Slavery and United States History - A Primary Source Reader

By: Dean T. Ferguson

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Synopsis: The titles of American history textbooks used in college classrooms tell their own story. The title of the text your professor has adopted may also provide some hint to his or her priorities in the classroom. One text employed often is Eric Foner's Give Me Liberty: An American History. Foner, an eminent scholar of the history of slavery, not surprisingly situates the pursuit of liberty and the many barriers that have been placed in the way of that pursuit at the heart of his story. James West Davidson's A Nation of Nations, a text I have often used, highlights the nation's diversity and the multiplicity of cultural and ethnic influences that came together to fashion our national identity. Alan Brinkley's The Unfinished Nation details the processes, still unfolding, of the development of the United States. James Henretta titled one of the many textbooks he has authored, Evolution and Revolution. Henretta in his text, juxtaposes incremental but no less important changes to American economic, cultural, demographic, and political life with the country's frequent moments of explosive and sometimes violent social and political transformations.