Speaking of America

Laura A. Belmonte is the dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences and a professor of history at Virginia Tech. She received her Bachelor of Arts in history and political science from the University of Georgia and her Master of Arts and doctorate in history from the University of Virginia. She is author of The International LGBT Rights Movement: A History (Bloomsbury, 2021) and Selling the American Way: U.S. Propaganda and the Cold War (Penn, 2008). She also edited Speaking of America: Readings in U.S. History (2nd edition, Cengage, 2006) and the History in 15 series at Bloomsbury.

• 12. RECONSTRUCTION.Elizabeth Hyde Botume, A Northern Teacher''s View of the Freedmen (1863-1865). The Louisiana Black Code (1865). African Americans Seek Protection (1865). Thaddeus Stevens Attacks Presidential Reconstruction (1865). President Johnson Opposes Black Suffrage (1867). A White Planter Responds to Emancipation (1866). Howell Cobb, A White Southern Perspective on Reconstruction. Equal Rights Association Proceedings (1869). Susan B. Anthony on Women''s Rights (1873). Ku Klux Klan During Reconstruction (1872).13. THE RISE OF MODERN AMERICA.Selling to the Masses (1870-1900). Frederick Law Olmsted on Urban Life (1870). "Bowery, Saturday Night" (1871). Dr. John B.Whitaker on Factory Worker Health (1871). John D. Rockefeller on the Success of Standard Oil (1899). Henry W. Grady, "The New South" (1886). Jacob Riis Describes Life in the Tenements (1890). John Gast, American Progress (1872). HARPER''S WEEKLY on the Custer Massacre (1876). Chief Joseph''s Lament (1879). Rules for Indian Boarding Schools (1890).14. OLD AMERICANS, NEW AMERICANS.On the "Evils" of Chinese Immigration (1878). Yan Phou Lee, "The Chinese Must Stay" (1889). Grant Hamilton, "Where is the Blame?" (1891). Francis A.Walker Calls for Restriction of Immigration (1896). Sadie Frowne, A Polish Sweatshop Girl (1906). Florida Jim Crow Laws (1895-1913). Booker T. Washington, The Atlanta Exposition Address (1895). W.E.B. DuBois, THE SOULS OF BLACK FOLK (1903).15. PROTESTORS AND IMPERIALISTS.Anthony Comstock, "The Suppression of Vice" (1882). Images of Working Class Leisure. Theodore Dreiser, SISTER CARRIE (1900). Terence Powderly on the Knights of Labor (1878, 1889). The CHICAGO TRIBUNE on the Haymarket Affair (1886). The Omaha Platform of the Populist Party (1892). Albert J. Beveridge Calls for an American Empire (1900). Mark Twain, "To the Person Sitting in Darkness" (1901).16. THE PROGRESSIVE ERA.Charles Monroe Sheldon Asks "What Would Jesus Do?" (1897). Lincoln Steffens on Urban Political Corruption (1904). Upton Sinclair, The Jungle (1906). Gifford Pinchot, The Fight For Conservation (1910). Jane Addams on the Fight Against Poverty (1910). The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire (1911). Margaret Sanger, "Morality and Birth Control" (1918)17. WORLD WAR I.Woodrow Wilson, Declaration of War Message (1917). Senator George Norris Opposes U.S. Entry into World War I (1917). On the Western Front (1918). Eugene V. Debs Defends Political Dissent (1918). Alice Paul Inspires Her Fellow Suffragists (1917-1918). The NAACP Calls for Action (1919). Woodrow Wilson, The Fourteen Points (1918). Henry Cabot Lodge Opposes the League of Nations (1919).18. THE ROARING TWENTIES.Marcus Garvey, "Africa for the Africans" (1922). Langston Hughes, "I, Too" (1925). Consumer Culture in the 1920s. The Scopes Trial (1925). College Students on "Petting" (1925). Hiram Evans, "The Klan''s Fight for Americanism" (1926). Fiorello La Guardia on Prohibition (1926). Herbert Hoover, "American Individualism" (1928).19. THE GREAT DEPRESSION, THE NEW DEAL.The Depression Hits Philadelphia (1931). The Great Depression in Rural America (1931). Franklin D. Roosevelt, First Inaugural Address (1933). Huey Long Explains the "Share Our Wealth" Plan (1934). Frances Perkins on Social Security (1935). The New Deal and the Arts (1935-1939). Songs of American Workers. Grant Wood, American Gothic (1930). John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath (1939).20. WORLD WAR II.Franklin Roosevelt, "The Four Freedoms" (1941). Charles Lindbergh Opposes Intervention (1941). Propaganda on the Homefront (1942-1944). Sybil Lewis and Adele Erenberg on Defense Work (1942-1945). Charles Kikuchi on Life in a Japanese Internment Camp (1942). An African-American Soldier Attacks the Paradox of American Democracy (1944). Infantryman Bob Slaughter Remembers D-Day (1944). Harry S. Truman on Deciding to Use the Atomic Bomb (1955).21. THE EARLY COLD WAR.George F. Kennan, "The Long Telegram" (1946). Secretary of State George C. Mar

12. RECONSTRUCTION. Elizabeth Hyde Botume, A Northern Teacher's View of the Freedmen (1863-1865). The Louisiana Black Code (1865). African Americans Seek Protection (1865). Thaddeus Stevens Attacks Presidential Reconstruction (1865). President Johnson Opposes Black Suffrage (1867). A White Planter Responds to Emancipation (1866). Howell Cobb, A White Southern Perspective on Reconstruction. Equal Rights Association Proceedings (1869). Susan B. Anthony on Women's Rights (1873). Ku Klux Klan During Reconstruction (1872). 13. THE RISE OF MODERN AMERICA. Selling to the Masses (1870-1900). Frederick Law Olmsted on Urban Life (1870). "Bowery, Saturday Night" (1871). Dr. John B.Whitaker on Factory Worker Health (1871). John D. Rockefeller on the Success of Standard Oil (1899). Henry W. Grady, "The New South" (1886). Jacob Riis Describes Life in the Tenements (1890). John Gast, American Progress (1872). HARPER'S WEEKLY on the Custer Massacre (1876). Chief Joseph's Lament (1879). Rules for Indian Boarding Schools (1890). 14. OLD AMERICANS, NEW AMERICANS. On the "Evils" of Chinese Immigration (1878). Yan Phou Lee, "The Chinese Must Stay" (1889). Grant Hamilton, "Where is the Blame?" (1891). Francis A.Walker Calls for Restriction of Immigration (1896). Sadie Frowne, A Polish Sweatshop Girl (1906). Florida Jim Crow Laws (1895-1913). Booker T. Washington, The Atlanta Exposition Address (1895). W.E.B. DuBois, THE SOULS OF BLACK FOLK (1903). 15. PROTESTORS AND IMPERIALISTS. Anthony Comstock, "The Suppression of Vice" (1882). Images of Working Class Leisure. Theodore Dreiser, SISTER CARRIE (1900). Terence Powderly on the Knights of Labor (1878, 1889). The CHICAGO TRIBUNE on the Haymarket Affair (1886). The Omaha Platform of the Populist Party (1892). Albert J. Beveridge Calls for an American Empire (1900). Mark Twain, "To the Person Sitting in Darkness" (1901). 16. THE PROGRESSIVE ERA. Charles Monroe Sheldon Asks "What Would Jesus Do?" (1897). Lincoln Steffens on Urban Political Corruption (1904). Upton Sinclair, The Jungle (1906). Gifford Pinchot, The Fight For Conservation (1910). Jane Addams on the Fight Against Poverty (1910). The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire (1911). Margaret Sanger, "Morality and Birth Control" (1918) 17. WORLD WAR I. Woodrow Wilson, Declaration of War Message (1917). Senator George Norris Opposes U.S. Entry into World War I (1917). On the Western Front (1918). Eugene V. Debs Defends Political Dissent (1918). Alice Paul Inspires Her Fellow Suffragists (1917-1918). The NAACP Calls for Action (1919). Woodrow Wilson, The Fourteen Points (1918). Henry Cabot Lodge Opposes the League of Nations (1919). 18. THE ROARING TWENTIES. Marcus Garvey, "Africa for the Africans" (1922). Langston Hughes, "I, Too" (1925). Consumer Culture in the 1920s. The Scopes Trial (1925). College Students on "Petting" (1925). Hiram Evans, "The Klan's Fight for Americanism" (1926). Fiorello La Guardia on Prohibition (1926). Herbert Hoover, "American Individualism" (1928). 19. THE GREAT DEPRESSION, THE NEW DEAL. The Depression Hits Philadelphia (1931). The Great Depression in Rural America (1931). Franklin D. Roosevelt, First Inaugural Address (1933). Huey Long Explains the "Share Our Wealth" Plan (1934). Frances Perkins on Social Security (1935). The New Deal and the Arts (1935-1939). Songs of American Workers. Grant Wood, American Gothic (1930). John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath (1939). 20. WORLD WAR II. Franklin Roosevelt, "The Four Freedoms" (1941). Charles Lindbergh Opposes Intervention (1941). Propaganda on the Homefront (1942-1944). Sybil Lewis and Adele Erenberg on Defense Work (1942-1945). Charles Kikuchi on Life in a Japanese Internment Camp (1942). An African-American Soldier Attacks the Paradox of American Democracy (1944). Infantryman Bob Slaughter Remembers D-Day (1944). Harry S. Truman on Deciding to Use the Atomic Bomb (1955). 21. THE EARLY COLD WAR. George F. Kennan, "The Long Telegram" (1946). Secretary of State George C. Marshall Offers Aid to Europe (1947). Walter Lippmann Questions Containment (1947). John Howard Lawson Testifies before HUAC (1947). Joseph McCarthy on Communists in the U.S. Government (1950). The Lavender Scare (1950). A Guide for Surviving Nuclear War (1950). 22. POSTWAR AMERICA. A Journalist Describes Levittown (1948). Malvina Reynolds, "Little Boxes" (1962). The U.S. Supreme Court Strikes Down School Segregation (1954). The Southern Manifesto (1956). Anne Moody Recalls the Lynching of Emmett Till (1968). John Kenneth Galbraith, THE AFFLUENT SOCIETY (1958). Jackson Pollock, LAVENDER MIST: NUMBER 1, 1950 (1950). Allen Ginsberg, "Howl" (1956). 23. THE TUMULTUOUS SIXTIES. John F. Kennedy, Inaugural Address (1961). Young Americans for Freedom, The Sharon Statement (1960). Students for a Democratic Society, The Port Huron Statement (1962). Betty Friedan, THE FEMININE MYSTIQUE (1963). No More Miss America (1968). Martin Luther King, Jr., Letter from a Birmingham Jail (1963). Malcolm X, "The Ballot or the Bullet" (1964). Lyndon B. Johnson Proposes "The Great Society" (1964). George Ball and Robert McNamara on U.S. Policy in Vietnam (1965). Paul Potter, "The Incredible War" (1965). Soldiers Write Home from Vietnam (1967-1970). Guy Strait, "What is a Hippie?". Richard Nixon Accepts the Republican Nomination for President (1968). 24. THE 1970s AND 1980s. Mary Crow Dog Recalls the Siege of Wounded Knee (1973). ROE V.WADE (1973). Richard Nixon, Resignation Speech (1974). Phyllis Schlafly Attacks the Equal Rights Amendment (1977). Jerry Falwell on the Moral Majority (1979). Lois Gibbs Recalls Life in Love Canal (1978). Jimmy Carter on the Nation's "Crisis of Confidence" (1979). Ronald Reagan, Inaugural Address (1981). Larry Kramer, "1,112 and Counting" (1983). Mario Cuomo, "A Tale of Two Cities" (1984). Ronald Reagan, The "Evil Empire" Speech (1983). The Iran-Contra Affair (1987). George H.W. Bush Calls for "A New World of Freedom" (1989). 25. STATE OF THE UNION. Major Rhonda Cornum on the Persian Gulf War (1991). Asian Refugees Describe Life in America (1991). Bill Clinton Outlines His Agenda (1993). The Republican Contract with America (1994). The Starr Report (1998). The High-Tech Boom (1999). The Battle in Seattle (1999). George W. Bush Addresses the Nation (2001).