Modern America: A Documentary History of the Nation Since 1945

Book excerpt: This primary source reader assembles key documents and firsthand accounts that are emblematic of American life from the end of World War II to the present. Designed to complement a core text for a typical post-1945 U.S. history course, the book offers conciseness and selectivity with balanced coverage of domestic and foreign, societal and cultural issues grouped together chronologically. The readings afford students compelling and sometimes startling insights into the nation's postwar adaptation to its new position of global power and responsibility, wealth, and rapid social change; on through years of energy and ambition, conflict and tragedy, to the post-Vietnam malaise and the rise of Ronald Reagan, the frenzied nineties, and the arrival of the new millennium. Each chapter includes an introduction that sets the documents in historical context, a biographical sketch of a significant person of the time, study questions, and suggestions for further reading.