These United States

ABOUT THE AUTHORPulitzer Prize winning historian Irwin Unger has been teaching American history for over forty years on both coasts. Born and largely educated in New York, he has lived in California, Virginia, and Washington State. He is married to Debi Unger and they have five children, now all safely past their college years. Professor Unger formerly taught at California State University at Long Beach, the University of California at Davis, and New York University. He is now professor emeritus at NYU.Professor Unger’s professional interests have ranged widely within American history. He has written on Reconstruction, the Progressive Era, and on the 1960s. His first book, The Greenback Era, won a Pulitzer Prize in 1965. Since then he has written The Movement: The New Left and (with Debi Unger) The Vulnerable Years, Turning Point: 1968, The Best of Intentions (about the Great Society), LBJ: A Life, The Guggenheims, A Family History. He has just completed a book on the 1960s and he and Debi Unger are working on a biography of General George C. Marshall.

• BRIEF TABLE OF CONTENTS  1    THE NEW WORLD ENCOUNTERS THE OLD 2    THE OLD WORLD COMES TO AMERICA  3    COLONIAL SOCIETY  4    MOVING TOWARD INDEPENDENCE  5    THE REVOLUTION  6    THE ORIGINS OF THE CONSTITUTION 7    THE FIRST PARTY SYSTEM  8    THE JEFFERSONIANS IN OFFICE  9    THE AMERICAN ECONOMIC MIRACLE  10   JACKSONIAN DEMOCRACY  11   THE MEXICAN WAR AND EXPANSIONISM  12   AMERICANS BEFORE THE CIVIL WAR  13   THE OLD SOUTH  14   THE COMING OF THE CIVIL WAR  15   THE CIVIL WAR  16   RECONSTRUCTION  APPENDIX  BIBLIOGRAPHIES  INDEX

"The material is presented in a mostly neutral manner and does not slant too far in one particular ideaological direction. Some survey history books are less biased than others, but the Unger book is the most neutral i have seen in my ten years of college teaching."- Bill Wood, University of Arkansas at Batesville  "The text does a commendable job of covering US history in a concise, though thorough manner. It situates each chapter according to a guiding question which not only allows students to focus on central issues of the period but also encourages historical methods."- Kimberly Earhart, Mount San Antonio College  "The idea of organizing each chapter around a central question is rather novel and quite effective. The approach Unger employs makes his textbook easier to use in the classroom both for the purpose of discussion as well as in preparation for exams"- Frank J. Byrne, SUNY Oswego