Great Issues in American History Series

The third volume in Great Issues In American History, From Reconstruction to the Present Day is now updated and revised to include another decade of American history. Beatrice K. Hofstadter, wife of the late Richard Hofstadter and herself an historian who worked with him closely on the original edition, has added a new section covering 1970 to 1981 and rearranged other sections in the light of what has since proved to be of lasting importance. This collection of significant documents in American history now goes from Lincoln’s Proclamation on the Wade-Davis Bill on July 8, 1864, to Reagan’s Address on Arms Control Negotiations on November 18, 1981.

Volume I

From Settlement to Revolution. 1584-1776 Edited by Clarence L. Ver Steeg and Richard Hofstadter

Volume Il

From the Revolution to the Civil War. 1765-1865

Edited by Richard Hofstadter

Volume II gathers documents from the period of the Revolution through the Jacksonian era, up to the Civil War and the Emancipation. To fit both Colonial and Early National courses, documents covering 1765-1776 appear at the beginning of this volume and at the end of Volume I.

This first volume of Great Issues in American History — three volumes of documents that cover the history of America from its settlement to the present — gives us a generous sampling from the major political controversies in the Colonial period. Included are such documents as Richard Hakluyt’s "Discourse of Western Planting" (1584), "Letter from Christopher Columbus to the King and Queen of Spain" (undated, probably 1694), "The Third Virginia Charter" (1612), Thomas Paine’s "Common Sense" (1776) and "The Declaration of independence" (July 4, 1776). Each has an explanatory headnote, and there are brief general introductions that set the selections in their historical context.

In order to fit both Colonial and Early National courses, documents covering 1765-1776 appear at the end of this volume and again at the beginning of Volume II.

Volume II From the Revolution to the Civil War, 1765-1865 Edited by Richard Hofstadter

Volume III From Reconstruction to the Present Day, 1864-1981

Edited by Richard Hofstadter and Beatrice K. Hofstadter