Designed to encourage critical thinking about history, the MAJOR PROBLEMS IN AMERICAN HISTORY series introduces readers to both primary sources and analytical essays on important topics in U.S. history. This collection serves as a primary anthology for introductory U.S. history, covering the subject's entire chronological span. Comprehensive topical coverage includes politics, economics, labor, gender, culture, and social trends. The Third Edition features greater focus on visual and cultural sources throughout. Several chapters now include images, songs and poems to give readers a better “feel” for the time period and events under discussion.

Elizabeth Cobbs Hoffman, Professor and Dwight E. Stanford Chair of American Foreign Relations at San Diego State University, received her Ph.D. from Stanford University. Her areas of expertise include American diplomatic, economic, and cultural history. Her book, ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE: THE PEACE CORPS AND THE SPIRIT OF THE 1960S (Harvard University Press, 1998), earned rave reviews from academic and popular readers alike. Professor Cobbs Hoffman has received fellowships from the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and the Organization of American States, and served for six years as