The United States Since 1945: A Documentary Reader

The Cold War, the black freedom struggle, Vietnam, the sexual revolution, the conservative backlash, and the war on terrorism are just a few of the events that have shaped the lives of Americans since 1945. This primary document reader enables students to learn about the past through the voices of those who experienced these important events in history firsthand.

Organized chronologically from 1945 to the present and covering both domestic and foreign events, the selections bring together documents and photographs from sources as diverse as presidents, activists, advertisers, and ordinary citizens and provide a rich perspective on the conflicts and issues at the heart of American society over the last 50 years.

List of Figures. Series Editors Preface. Acknowledgments. Introduction. Part I: Origins of the Cold War. 1. The Atomic Bomb (1945). 2. The Policy of Containment (1947). 3. The Truman Doctrine (1947). 4. A Critique of Truman s Policies (1946). 5. A Soviet View of US Policy (1946). 6. The Prosecution of American Communists (1949). 7. The Red Scare (1950). 8. The Lavender Scare (1950). 9. A Defense of Civil Liberties (1952). Part II: Postwar Society and Culture. 1. The Growth of Suburbia (1949). 2. A Critique of Suburbia (1962). 3. Consumer Culture and the Home (1947). 4. Women s Roles (1950). 5. Men s Roles (1956). 6. The Beat Generation (1956). Part III: The Black Freedom Struggle. 1. A Protest against Bus Segregation (1954). 2 .The Southern Manifesto (1956). 3. Remembering the Sit–In Demonstrations (1998). 4. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Nonviolent Direct Action (1963). 5. Women in the Civil Rights Movement (1964). 6. Black Nationalism (1964). 7. Economic Justice (1966). Part VI: Vietnam. 1. The Falling Domino Principle (1954). 2. Escalation of the War (1964). 3. A Defense of the War (1965). 4. Experiencing the War (1965–70). 5. The Tet Offensive (1968). 6. Kent State Shootings (1970). 7. Vietnam Veterans Against the War (1971). Part V: Politics and Protest in the 1960s. 1. The Cuban Missile Crisis (1962). 2. Young Americans for Freedom (1960). 3. Students for a Democratic Society (1962). 4. The Hippie Counterculture (1967). 5. The Great Society (1965). 6. Cesar Chavez and la Causa (1966). 7. The American Indian Movement (2004). 8. Environmental Awareness (1962). 9. The Environmental Movement (1971). Part VI: Gender and Sexuality in the 1960s and 1970s. 1. Second Wave Feminism (1963). 2. The National Organization for Women (1966). 3. Radical Feminism (1973). 4. The Gay Liberation Movement (1969). 5. Abortion Rights (1973). 6. Opposition to the Equal Rights Amendment (1977). 7. The Pro–Family Movement (1977). Part VII: Conservative Ascendance. 1. The 1968 Election (1968). 2. The Crisis of Confidence (1979). 3. The Religious Right (1980). 4. A Critique of the Religious Right (1982). 5. The Second American Revolution (1985). 6. Life in the Rust Belt (1987). 7. The Iran Contra Investigation (1987). 8. The End of Big Government (1996). Part VIII: Society in the New Millennium. 1. Recent Immigration (2006). 2. Organized Labor and Undocumented Immigrants (2000). 3. Affirmative Action (2003). 4. The Culture Wars (2003). 5. Family Income (1947–2003). 6. Hurricane Katrina: A View from New Orleans (2005). 7. Hurricane Katrina: A View from the White House (2006). 8. The War on Terrorism (2007). 9. The Internet and Political Activism (2004). Bibliography. Index.

Robert P. Ingalls is Professor of History at the University of South Florida, and author of Point of Order: A Profile of Senator Joe McCarthy (1981) and of Urban Vigilantes in the New South: Tampa, 1882–1936 (1993). In addition he is co–author (with Louis Perez) of Tampa Cigar Workers: A Pictorial History (2003) and (with Susan Fernandez) of Sunshine in the Dark: Florida in the Movies (2006).

David K. Johnson is Assistant Professor of History at the University of South Florida and author of The Lavender Scare: The Cold War Persecution of Gays and Lesbians in the Federal Government (2003). He is winner of a 2004 Gustavus Myers Outstanding Book Award as well as the 2005 Herbert Hoover and Randy Shilts book awards.