Between 1929 and 1945, two great travails were visited upon the American people: the Great Depression and World War II. This book tells the story of how Americans endured, and eventually prevailed, in the face of those unprecedented calamities.
The Depression was both a disaster and an opportunity. As David Kennedy vividly demonstrates, the economic crisis of the 1930s was far more than a simple reaction to the alleged excesses of the 1920s. For more than a century before 1929, America's unbridled industrial revolution had gyrated through repeated boom and bust cycles, wastefully consuming capital and inflicting untold misery on city and countryside alike.
Freedom From Fear explores how the nation agonized over its role in World War II, how it fought the war, why the United States won, and why the consequences of victory were sometimes sweet, sometimes ironic. In a compelling narrative, Kennedy analyzes the determinants of American strategy, the painful choices faced by commanders and statesmen, and the agonies inflicted on the millions of ordinary Americans who were compelled to swallow their fears and face battle as best they could.
Both comprehensive and colorful, this account of the most convulsive period in American history, excepting only the Civil War, reveals a period that formed the crucible in which modern America was formed.

The Oxford History of the United States

The Atlantic Monthly has praised The Oxford History of the United States as "the most distinguished series in American historical scholarship," a series that "synthesizes a generation's worth of historical inquiry and knowledge into one literally state-of-the-art book. Who touches these books touches a profession."
Conceived under the general editorship of one of the leading American historians of our time, C. Vann Woodward, The Oxford History of the United States blends social, political, economic, cultural, diplomatic, and military history into coherent and vividly written narrative. Previous volumes are Robert Middlekauff's The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution; James M. McPherson's Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era (which won a Pulitzer Prize and was a New York Times Best Seller); and James T. Patterson's Grand Expectations: The United States 1945-1974 (which won a Bancroft Prize)....

The new Brief American Pageant presents a concise and vivid chronological narrative, focusing on the great public debates that have dominated American history. Colorful anecdotes, first-person quotations, and the text's trademark wit are all evident throughout. Completely revised in response to student and instructor feedback, the Seventh Edition features a colorful new single-column design that emphasizes accessibility and presents content in a clear, concise format. Focus questions, chapter outlines and summaries, marginal glossaries, and links to additional online study aids ensure that students understand and retain the material as they read and prepare for exams....

THE AMERICAN PAGEANT enjoys a reputation as one of the most popular, effective, and entertaining texts in American history. The colorful anecdotes, first-person quotations, and trademark wit bring American history to life. The 14th edition places an even greater emphasis on the global context of American history through a new feature, "Thinking Globally." Revised primary source features excite student interest and help them learn to examine documents the way historians do. Additional pedagogical features make THE AMERICAN PAGEANT accessible to students: part openers and chapter-ending chronologies provide a context for the major periods in American history, while other features present primary sources, scholarly debates, and key historical figures for analysis....

The newest volume in the award-winning Oxford History of the United States--a brilliant narrative spanning the Great Depression, FDR's New Deal, and the Second World War. 58 illustrations....

The new Brief American Pageant presents a concise and vivid chronological narrative, focusing on the great public debates that have dominated American history. Colorful anecdotes, first-person quotations, and the text's trademark wit are all evident throughout. Completely revised in response to student and instructor feedback, the Seventh Edition features a colorful new single-column design that emphasizes accessibility and presents content in a clear, concise format. Focus questions, chapter outlines and summaries, marginal glossaries, and links to additional online study aids ensure that students understand and retain the material as they read and prepare for exams....