Forging America

A Continental History
of the United States 

Steven Hahn

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Volume 1: To 1877
Enhanced e-Book:
978-0-19-754025-1, $34.99

paper: 978-0-19-754019-0, $79.99

Volume 2: Since 1863

Enhanced e-Book:
978-0-19-754026-8, $34.99

paper: 978-0-19-754020-6, $79.99 

About Forging America
Approach
Features
Digital Resources
Sourcebook
About the Author
Author Webinar
Table of Contents
Praise
Contact Us

About Forging America: A Continental History of the United States

Encourages students to recognize that history is a continuous process of discovery and a way of learning and thinking

Forging America speaks to both the complexities of historical experience and the meanings of the past for our present-day lives. Warning against the assumption of preordained outcomes, Pulitzer-Prize winning historian Steve Hahn focuses students’ attention on those moments when historical change occurs. He weaves a history that is continental and transnational, a history of the many peoples whose experiences and aspirations—oftentimes involving struggle and conflict—went into the forging of a nation.

Approach

Encourages students to recognize that history is a continuous process of discovery and a way of
learning and thinking. Also uses multiple and shifting perspectives to narrate the history of the United States and to focus students' attention on those moments when historical change occurs. 

Listen to author Steven Hahn describe his approach in the Preface of Forging America

Features

Emphasizes the contingency of history—that those who lived at times when important historical events took place did not themselves know what the outcome would be. Every chapter ends with a "What If?" section: an alternative outcome accompanied by original source materials for students to consider, discuss, and debate. In addition, a "What If?” video is embedded at the end of every chapter in the e-book.

Breaks with convention by striving, whenever possible, to map continuity and change from the perspectives of the people who lived through them. Instead of relying exclusively on standard projections that show the United States with an east-west and north-south orientation, many of the maps in the "Mapping America" feature in each chapter show events from a south-north or west-east perspective.

Uses images and visual sources to convey the substance and meaning of differing perspectives, and to show how people envisioned the world around them. Every chapter includes a "Perspectives" feature that pairs two contrasting images.

Digital Resources

All new print and electronic versions of Forging America come with access to a full suite of engaging digital learning tools that work with the text to bring content to life and build critical-thinking skills.

The Enhanced e-Book offers students an accessible, affordable, and interactive learning environment. It features a narrated audio book by professional actors, “What If?” Videos, “Check Your Understanding” assessments, and all primary sources from the two-volume sourcebook.

View Enhanced e-Book Demo
View e-Book Ch.15
View e-Book Ch. 16

Integrated directly in the e-book at no extra charge and available as a standalone product, the Audio Book for Forging America provides another mode for engaging with the text. Each chapter is narrated by a professional actor. Music and sound effects enhance the listening experience. Please click on the images below to listen to samples.

From Chapter 4: Colonial Convulsions and Rebellions, 1640–1700

From Chapter 26: Rebellion on the Left, Resurgence on the Right, 1957–1968

In addition, a "What If” video is embedded at the end of every chapter in the e-book. The questions are also included in the Oxford Learning Link as assessments. The videos are also included in the  LMS course pack.

The Enhanced e-Book includes nearly 100 primary sources. 5–7 sources are embedded at the end of each chapter, and edited specifically to accompany the text.

TECUMSEH, SPEECH TO GOVERNOR HARRISON AT VINCENNES (1810)

VISUAL SOURCE: SOWING AND REAPING (1863)

Give your students a wealth of support and also save time in course prep with valuable tools available for download on Oxford Learning Link, your central hub for a wealth of engaging digital learning tools and resources to help you get the most of your Oxford University Press course material.

Forging America's Oxford Learning Link offers the following resources:

For Students:

  • Enhanced e-Book
  • Narrated audio book by professional actors
  • “What If?” Videos
  • “Check Your Understanding” assessments
  • Flashcards
  • All primary sources from the two-volume sourcebook

For Instructors:

  • A Test Bank, created by Hannah Craddock, PhD, includes forty questions per chapter. Two of the questions test students on a map or photo in the chapter. The Test Bank also includes essay questions and “identification triads” or groups of three words, that help students connect ideas across chapters.   
  • An Instructor's Manual, created by Hannah Craddock, PhD, includes, for each chapter—among other features—unique sections on “Common Misconceptions,” “Connecting to Today,” and “Suggested in-Class Activities”
  • PowerPoint Slides of lecture outlines, images, and maps provide instructors with engaging and helpful visual teaching aids
  • Worksheets for the "Mapping America" and "What If?" features are downloadable Word documents. Students fill them out and then submit them for grading.
  • The Oxford First Source: US History is a primary source database with approximately 400 primary source documents in US history. The documents cover a broad variety of political, economic, social, and cultural topics and represent a cross-section of American voices. Special effort was made to include as many previously disenfranchised voices as possible.
  • The Oxford US History Video Library features more than 2000 images, organized by period, topic, and region. Each video was custom-produced for OUP and runs between two and three minutes, with topics that range from “The Life and Death of John Brown” to “The Disco Wars." These materials provide dynamic teaching materials that will engage students and stimulate class discussion.

Sourcebook

This two-volume sourcebook provides a diverse set of documents that situates U.S. History within a continental framework. These sources are also available for FREE in the enhanced e-Book, which contains a total of nearly 100 primary sources. 5–7 sources are embedded at the end of every chapter. 

Alexandra E. Stern,
City University of New York, and
Stefan Lund, University of Virginia

Felicia Angeja Viator,
San Francisco State University, and Stefan Lund, University of Virginia

Sources for Volume 1:

To 1877 | 200 pp.
e-Book: 978-0-19-765710-2,  $12.95

paper: 978-0-19-765707-2,  $24.95

Sources for Volume 2:

Since 1863 | 224 pp.
e-Book: 978-0-19-765714-0, $12.95

paper: 978-0-19-765711-9, $24.95

Contents
Contents

SAMPLE  SOURCES  

About the Author

Steven Hahn is a Pulitzer-Prize winning author and an active teacher at New York University. He earned his B.A. at the University of Rochester and his M.A. and Ph.D. at Yale University. Dr. Hahn is a specialist on the social and political history of the nineteenth-century United States; the history of the American South; slavery, emancipation, and race; and the development of the American empire on the North American continent, in the Western Hemisphere, and in the Pacific world.

Interesting in hearing directly from Steven Hahn about Forging America? Click below to watch our author webinar. 

Brief Table of Contents

Volume 1: To 1877

PART ONE. NEW WORLDS FOR ALL 

1. Beginnings, to 1519

2. Contact Zones,1450–1600

3. Settler Colonies and Imperial Rivalries,
1585–1681

4. Colonial Convulsions and Rebellions, 

1640–1700


PART TWO. REVOLUTIONS AND REVERSALS 

5. Colonial Societies and Contentious Empires, 1625–1786
6. Global War and American Independence, 1730–1776

7. A Political Revolution, 1776–1791

8. Securing a Republic, Imagining an Empire, 1789–1815


PART THREE. UNMAKING A SLAVEHOLDERS' REPUBLIC

9. Expansion and Its Discontents,1815–1840

10. Social Reform and the New Politics of Slavery, 1820–1840

11. Warring for the Pacific, 1836–1848

12. Coming Apart, 1848–1857

13. A Slaveholders’ Rebellion, 1856–1861

14. The War of the Rebellion, 1861–1863

15. Ending the Rebellion and (Re)constructing
the Nation, 1863–1865


PART FOUR. INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY AND ITS DISCONTENTS

16.  The Promise and Limits of Reconstruction 1865-1877

Appendix A: Historical Documents

Appendix B: Historical Facts and Dates


Volume 2: Since 1863

15. Ending the Rebellion and (Re)constructing the Nation, 1863–1865


PART FOUR. INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY AND ITS DISCONTENTS

16. The Promise and Limits of Reconstruction, 1865–1877

17. Capitalism and The Gilded Age, 1873–1890

18. Cauldrons of Protest, 1873–1896

19. Constructing Progressivism, 1886–1914

20. Empire and Race, 1890–1914


PART FIVE. SOCIAL DEMOCRACY AND ITS ENEMIES

21. War, Revolution, and Reaction,
1910–1925

22. Looking into the Abyss, 1920–1934

23. Birth Pangs of Social Democracy,
1933–1940

24. Flames of Global War, Visions of Global Peace, 1940–1945

25. Cold War America, 1945–1957


PART SIX. CONSERVATISM, NEOLIBERALISM, AND MILITARISM

26. Rebellion on the Left, Resurgence on the Right, 1957–1968

27. Destabilizations, 1969–1979

28. A New Conservatism and Its Discontents, 1980–1989

29. New World Disorder, 1989–2004

30. Destinies, 2005–The Present


Appendix A: Historical Documents

Appendix B: Historical Facts and Data

Praise for Forging America

"By placing American events in a global context, Steven Hahn has written a remarkably inclusive narrative. It puts people first, not government systems. It places working people and others on the periphery at the center of the story. The result is a refreshing and new interpretation of American history."

– Justin Behrend, The State University of New York, Geneseo

"In Forging America Steven Hahn weaves a remarkable variety of threads into a lively, engaging, and challenging history of North America. Masterfully recapturing a sense of contingency, Hahn raises thought-provoking questions, offers insightful explanations, and illuminates a complex and multifaceted story."

– Cara Shelly, Oakland University

"Steven Hahn’s Forging America has the appealing double-benefit of communicating to students the necessary information to understand America’s history, while also prompting students to think like historians in their own right."

– John William Nelson, Texas Tech University

"Many of our students now get their information through podcasts instead of print. The Forging America audiobook, with its professional narration and music, will help draw students into the reading and give them two ways to remember the material."

– Mary Lyons-Carmona, Metropolitan Community College

Contact Us

Interested in learning more about Forging America? Click here to contact your local Oxford University Press representative.

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Senior Portfolio Manager Charles Cavaliere at charles.cavaliere@oup.com
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