The Unfinished Nation

Alan Brinkley has been professor of American history at Columbia University in New York since 1991. He was educated at Princeton and Harvard, and he has taught previously at M.I.T., Harvard (where he received the Joseph R. Levenson Memorial Teaching Prize), the City University of New York Graduate School, and Princeton. He was Harmsworth Professor of American History at Oxford University in 1998-1999. His published works include Voices of Protest: Huey Long, Father Coughlin, and the Great Depression), which won the 1983 National Book Award; The Unfinished Nation: A Concise History of the American People; The End of Reform: New Deal Liberalism in Recession and War; and Liberalism and Its Discontents. His essays articles, and reviews have appeared in the American Historical Review, the Journal of American History the New York Review of Books, the New Yorker, the New York Times Book Review, the New York Times Magazine, the New Republic, Time, Newsweek, the Times Literary Supplement, and the London Review of Books. He has received fellowships from the American Council of Learned Societies, the Guggenheim Foundation, the Woodrow Wilson Center, the National Humanities Center, the Russell Sage Foundation, and others. He is chairman of the board of trustees of the Century Foundation, a member of the editorial board The American Prospect, and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Chapter 1: The Meeting of Cultures~ America Before Columbus ~ Europe Looks Westward ~ The Arrival of the EnglishConclusionFor Further ReferenceDebating the Past: The American Population Before ColumbusAmerica in the World: The Atlantic Context of Early American History Chapter 2: Transplantations and Borderlands~ The Early Chesapeake~ Caribbean Colonization~ The Growth of New England~ The Restoration Colonies~ The Development of EmpireConclusionFor Further Reference Chapter 3: Society and Culture in Provincial America~ The Colonial Population~ The Colonial Economies~ Patterns of Society~ Awakenings and EnlightenmentsConclusionFor Further ReferenceDebating the Past: The Origins of SlaveryChapter 4: The Empire in Transition~ Loosening Ties~ The Struggle for the Continent~ The New Imperialism~ Stirrings of Revolt~ Cooperation and WarConclusionFor Further Reference Chapter 5: The American Revolution~ The States United~ The War for Independence~ War and Society~ The Search for a National GovernmentConclusionFor Further ReferenceDebating the Past: The American RevolutionAmerica in the World: The Age of Revolutions Chapter 6: The Constitution and the New Republic~ Farming a New Government~ Adoption and Adaptation~ Federalists and Republicans~ Establishing National Sovereignty~ The Downfall of the FederalistsConclusionFor Further Reference Chapter 7: The Jeffersonian Era~ The Rise of Cultural Nationalism~ Stirrings of Industrialism~ Jefferson the President~ Doubling the National Domain~ Expansion and War~ The War of 1812ConclusionFor Further ReferenceAmerica in the World: The Global Industrial Revolution Chapter 8: Varieties of American Nationalism~ Stabilizing Economic Growth~ Expanding Westward~ The "Era of Good Feelings"~ Sectionalism and Nationalism~ The Revival of OppositionConclusionFor Further Reference Chapter 9: Jacksonian America~ The Rise of Mass Politics~ "Our Federal Union"~ The Removal of the Indians~ Jackson and the Bank War~ The Emergence of the Second Party System~ Politics After JacksonConclusionFor Further ReferenceDebating the Past: Jacksonian DemocracyChapter 10: America's Economic Revolution~ The Changing American Population~ Transportation and Communications Revolutions~ Commerce and Industry~ Men and Women at Work~ Patterns of Society~ The Agricultural NorthConclusionFor Further Reference Chapter 11: Cotton, Slavery, and the Old South~ The Cotton Economy~ Southern White Society~ The "Peculiar Institution"~ The Culture of SlaveryConclusionFor Further ReferenceDebating the Past: The Character of SlaveryChapter 12: Antebellum Culture and Reform~ The Romantic Impulse~ Remaking Society~ The Crusade Against SlaveryConclusionFor Further ReferenceAmerica in the World: The Abolition of SlaveryChapter 13: The Impending Crisis~ Looking Westward~ Expansion and War~ The Sectional Debate~ The Crisis of the 1850s ConclusionFor Further ReferenceChapter 14: The Civil War~ The Secession Crisis~ The Mobilization of the North~ The Mobilization of the South~ Strategy and Diplomacy~ Campaigns and BattlesConclusionFor Further ReferenceDebating the Past: The Causes of the Civil WarAmerica in the World: The Consolidation of NationsChapter 15: Reconstruction and the New South~ The Problems of Peacemaking~ Radical Reconstruction~ The South in Reconstruction~ The Grant Administration~ The Abandonment of Reconstruction~ The New SouthConclusionFor Further ReferenceDebating the Past: Reconstruction