Bücher der Reihe Guides to Historic Events in America

For students of U.S. history, The Reagan Revolution explores how a Hollywood upstart and eventual conservative leader became one of the most successful and influential presidents in U.S. history-one whose presidency helped to define the end of the Cold War.This book covers Ronald Reagan's long rise to the presidency and the conservative political revolution he brought about in the 1980s. Spurning the moderate values and policies Republicans had previously championed, Reagan's revolution continues to play an outsized role in America's political life. This important reference book gives browsers and readers alike an opportunity to focus on many of the intertwined issues of the 1980s: abortion, gay rights, law and order, the Cold War, tax cuts, de-industrialization, the Religious Right, and the political divisions that made Reagan's legislative victories possible.The book opens with a concise biography covering Reagan's rise from radio personality and actor to governor and president. Subsequent chapters cover politics and policy. Chapters also include an important review of Reagan's legendary public relations operations ("morning in America" and the perfection of the television photo op) and the ways in which 1980s popular culture influenced and was influenced by his presidency. This section portrays Reagan as a product of Hollywood who keenly understood the importance of public opinion and creating a positive image.

This guide to the forces that shaped the 1960s cultural revolution in the USA examines the New Left, the antiwar movement and the counterculture. A narrative historical overview puts these topics in perspective and the legacy of the era is discussed. Biographies of key players add insight.

This is a guide for students providing narrative description, analysis, biographies, and key documents on the Civil Rights movement. It provides an introduction to the movement, its development, issues and leaders, with six essays analyzing important aspects.

This comprehensive resource explains six eras of immigration law, how and why immigration law has changed, who the major actors and organizations shaping immigration law are, and in what direction immigration law is likely to proceed in the near future.The United States has the most diverse population of any country in the world and is widely thought of as a nation of immigrants. U.S. immigration has been and continues to be a contentious political, cultural, and social issue. Much of current immigration policy is based on the Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1965, a law advocated by former President John F. Kennedy to establish a preference system of legal immigration. This book provides an authoritative analysis of current U.S. immigration law and the 1965 Act.It explains the precursor laws to the 1965 Act and their failure to resolve many critical problems, and details how and why the law was passed. It describes and profiles all the major actors and organizations that determine the politics of US immigration policy and details the impact-both foreseen and unanticipated-that the 1965 Act has had on the American economy, culture, demographics, and societal diversity. It offers an objective source for accessing an extensive list of the most important documents, governmental data, and scholarly discourse on U.S. immigration.

This history of the 1787 Constitutional Convention uses a chronological narrative format to capture the complexity, messiness, and unfolding daily drama behind the writing of the U.S. Constitution, as well as the role of contingency in that process.The Framers of the U.S. Constitution designed a novel republican form of government to replace the failing Confederation, one that would divide power between the federal government and the states, launching a new phase of the American "experiment" in representative democracy. Not until the end of the American Civil War, nearly a century later, would it become clear, as Abraham Lincoln put it in his Gettysburg Address, "that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth."The Constitutional Convention of 1787: A Reference Guide provides an invaluable guide covering the background to the convention, the convention itself, the ratification of the Constitution, and the adoption of the Bill of Rights. In addition to the narrative itself, the story of the convention is supplemented with a detailed chronology, a rich selection of primary source documents, 15 biographical sketches of convention delegates, and a comprehensive bibliographical essay. Based largely on primary sources, the book also weighs in on some of the historiographical debates that have taken place among scholars about the convention.