American History

Using images as primary historical evidence, Visions of America brings history alive for a generation of visual learners–and shows how conflicting visions of America have shaped our nation’s past.

Visions of America recognizes the value of using images to engage students in serious inquiry about the historical development of the United States. Visual images are critical primary sources, and using them effectively requires the development of key analytic skills. This new textbook revolutionizes the role of images in the history survey by integrating them into the narrative. The visual legacy of the nation’s past also provides insight into the competing visions of America that have shaped American political culture. Visions of America explores the tensions and conflicts that have marked virtually every chapter of American history. It presents history as a dynamic, unpredictable, and dramatic process shaped by the choices made by people of all classes.

Known for its lively, clear prose as well as its scholarly research, A People's History is the only volume to tell America's story from the point of view of--and in the words of--America's women, factory workers, African-Americans, Native Americans, the working poor, and immigrant laborers.As historian Howard Zinn shows, many of our country's greatest battles---the fights for a fair wage, an eight-hour workday, child-labor laws, health and safety standards, universal suffrage, women's rights, racial equality--were carried out at the grassroots level, against bloody resistance.Covering Christopher Columbus's arrival through President Clinton's first term, A People's History of the United States, which was nominated for the American Book Award in 1981, features insightful analysis of the most important events in our history.

Revised, updated, and featuring a new after, word by the author, this special twentieth anniversary edition continues Zinn's important contribution to a complete and balanced understanding of American history.