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"I too am not a bit tamed—I too am untranslatable / I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world."—Walt Whitman, "Song of Myself," Leaves of Grass

The American Yawp is a free, online, collaboratively built American history textbook. Over 300 historians joined together to create the book they wanted for their own students—an accessible, synthetic narrative that reflects the best of recent historical scholarship and provides a jumping-off point for discussions in the U.S. history classroom and beyond.

Long before Whitman and long after, Americans have sung something collectively amid the deafening roar of their many individual voices. The Yawp highlights the dynamism and conflict inherent in the history of the United States, while also looking for the common threads that help us make sense of the past. Without losing sight of politics and power, The American Yawp incorporates transnational perspectives, integrates diverse voices, recovers narratives of resistance, and explores the complex process of cultural creation. It looks for America in crowded slave cabins, bustling markets, congested tenements, and marbled halls. It navigates between maternity wards, prisons, streets, bars, and boardrooms.

The fully peer-reviewed edition of The American Yawp will be available in two print volumes designed for the U.S. history survey. Volume I begins with the indigenous people who called the Americas home before chronicling the collision of Native Americans, Europeans, and Africans. The American Yawp traces the development of colonial society in the context of the larger Atlantic World and investigates the origins and ruptures of slavery, the American Revolution, and the new nation's development and rebirth through the Civil War and Reconstruction.

Rather than asserting a fixed narrative of American progress, The American Yawp gives students a starting point for asking their own questions about how the past informs the problems and opportunities that we confront today.

About the authors

Joseph L. Locke is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Houston-Victoria. He is the author of Making the Bible Belt: Texas Prohibitionists and the Politicization of Southern Religion (2017).

Ben Wright is Assistant Professor of Historical Studies at the University of Texas at Dallas. He is the coeditor of Apocalypse and the Millennium in the American Civil War Era (2013) and abolitionseminar.org, a NEH-funded resource for K–12 teachers. He is also Editor of the Teaching United States History Blog.

" The American Yawp makes it possible for undergraduates to access the best, most recent, and most expansive range of scholarly work currently available. It breaks down boundaries of geography and allows college students to get a real sense of the intellectual cutting-edge. The Yawp is a real contribution."

—Hasia Diner, New York University

"Where The American Yawp really stands out from most other textbooks is in the authors' absolute respect for the reader. It's the perfect blend of breadth and depth, and it keeps undergrads and others current on all the latest developments in the historiography. The primary source companion's texts—and the numerous images—challenge students to think more critically, creatively, and expansively."

—Woody Holton, University of South Carolina

"As a collaborative historical enterprise, The American Yawp stands out for the breadth of its synthesis, the range of its sources, and the accessibility of its content. Taking inspiration for its title from Whitman, the text travels through the nation's multitudinous history with a verve and variety befitting the poet's free-flowing verse."

—Leigh E. Schmidt, Washington University in St. Louis

" The American Yawp is a minor miracle: a clear, straightforward, accessible, reasonably-priced American history text written by smart, ambitious, young scholars with an eye to the latest research. This survey should put the clunky, expensive books by big names out of business."

—Jefferson Cowie, Vanderbilt University

" The American Yawp is remarkable not only for how it was put together, with impressive contributions from a diverse assembly of historians, but also by the final result, which is greater than the sum of its parts. Here is a thorough, compelling introduction to American history that can be used in virtually any course, well designed with illustrations and covering the full spectrum of America's communities and cultures."

—Dan Cohen, Northeastern University

—Richard S. Newman, Rochester Institute of Technology

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Civil War High Commands

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Compiling an Open History Textbook: An Interview with American Yawp Editors Joseph Locke and Ben Wright

AHA Staff | Apr 20, 2015

Joseph Locke and Ben Wright wrote the article “A Free and Open Alternative to Traditional History Textbooks” for the March issue of Perspectives on History . AHA staff Shatha Almutawa and Stephanie Kingsley talked to Joe and Ben about their open textbook project, The American Yawp . Joe is a historian of modern America, and Ben is a historian of America and the Atlantic world.

The Process

How did you decide which topics would be covered in the American Yawp ?

Joe: We began by thinking about what we emphasize in our own American history surveys. We talked to each other and folks we know in the field. From there we started plotting out what specific topics we’d talk about. We tried to find scholars who are active in these fields, who had expertise in these eras. We laid these topics out and connected them to scholars.

Ben: We wanted our first draft to come from scholars conducting active research in exactly that topic. For example, in our chapter on the Old South, we targeted authors of recent articles in the field. We looked at the JAH , AHR , Journal of Southern History , Slavery and Abolition , and more. Then we looked for authors of recent book reviews and historiographical essays, recent dissertations, and the roster of large graduate programs with a strength in the history of the Old South. For that chapter, we had 21 excerpts, ranging from 300 to 1000 words, on topics that would be as specific as “The Irish in the Old South” to the larger ones: “Urban Life in the Old South,” and the “Economics of Cotton.”

What did the editorial process involve?

Joe: From these 300 contributors, we recruited 27 chapter editors. We went to our chapter editors and said, “We don’t want this to read like an encyclopedia.” We wanted it to read like a narrative history. We asked the editors to take these 21 entries, for instance, and stitch them together, make one coherent chapter, with a relatively coherent voice. From there, Ben and I did what we could to even out the prose across the 30 chapters.

Ben: Now, we’re engaged in this broader review process where we’re opening it up to users, editors, and contributors, paragraph by paragraph, to make comments on the different paragraphs, or propose changes, and then go back and work with the editors and contributors to create a refined version of the text.

What kind of a timeline are you on for that?

Joe: Our goal is is to have a more formal polished draft ready by the fall semester. We want to make sure the material is in great shape.

Ben: There’s definitely room for improvement, and we are still eager to receive feedback in the next few months before we begin our revisions this summer.

Screenshot from The American Yawp , CC BY-SA 4.0.

What questions went into the visual design?

Joe : We wanted pure simplicity; we didn’t want to clutter the text up with anything that would distract from it. The fundamental format is simple: you enter the table of contents, then a long page only broken up with images. We wanted to strip down the presentation and get something completely user-friendly, totally intuitive, and non-distracting.

Who chose the images?

Ben : Whitney Stewart, a grad student at Rice, chose most of the images. She focuses on visual and material culture and worked to find images that would supplement the content of the text, rather than simply serve as decoration. Joe and I supplemented the list that she came up with as well.

We strove for variety in the images and tried to draw on different kinds of materials. We hope that this illustrates the variety of visual sources historians use as well as creates a more interesting reading experience.

The Content

What are the challenges unique to this sort of project?

Ben: What are the challenges? It’s really hard to write synthetically. It goes against most of our training. We are taught to nurture complexity, often at the expense of accessibility. Writing synthetically and accessibly is tremendously difficult.

Are you still getting comments?

Joe: They are still coming in. We got quite a bit four days ago. A couple more the day before that. The comments range from finding typos to questions or thoughts on the big interpretive questions. We got some chapters with vibrant conversation and some of them with very little, which is either a good sign or a bad sign.

Ben: We do not think of this as a traditional peer review. We are still seeking out a partner to do a peer review.  There are a lot of advantages to the way we’re doing this kind of review, but we don’t see it as a replacement for traditional peer review.

What would be an example of a chapter where you had a lot of debate?

We got great feedback on the “Colonial Society” chapter. Not only from our contributors but from our editorial advisors. All were really helpful. “British North America” was a little bit more vibrant. Not only contributors but senior figures in the field.

We read the “Old South” chapter and noticed that it focused on slavery. Why?

Ben : I am comfortable saying the vast majority of scholarship on the Old South centers on the institution of slavery, because it’s at the center of the institutions of the South. Most white southerners did not own slaves, but that doesn’t mean they were not implicated. If you wanted to make a synthetic chapter on life in the Old South, slavery is the most important theme to emphasize. Maybe we’ll nuance that a bit, but if you had to choose one narrative, then it has to be slavery.

Were there big ideological or thematic concerns raised that you think you’ll build on?

Ben: Jim Merril is pushing really hard in terms of the way we talk about Native American history. So much of the narration we slip into is Anglo-centric in perspective. This shows up in subtle ways with language. We were grateful to have his comments on that.

Joe: Something I’ve seen again and again is that question of perspective.

Ben: That’s the hard thing. Where are your geographic or chornological boundaries? All boundaries are somewhat artificial, but these artificial boundaries end up being very meaningful in terms of how students learn. They will go a long way in shaping the narrative.

Joe: That’s the fundamental question. How do you boil all of American history down to 300,000 words?

Ben: We try to mirror historiographical debate and follow the questions and answers that the profession has chosen to emphasize. We encouraged our editors to do that as well. We would tell them, “Think Hemmingway, not Dickens…. Be illustrative, not didactic.” People kept asking about our narrative hook. Really, we just wanted our narrative to come from scholarly trends.

Using The American Yawp in the Classroom

Are you using the textbook in your courses this semester?

Ben: I’m using it as a textbook at the core of my class.

Joe: I use it more as a supplement. I refer students to sections, but it’s in the background.

Ben: We like the fact that because it’s free and online, it’s more flexible. People are using it in all sorts of ways. Neither of us were using a textbook before, but we thought it would be nice to have a synthetic safety net for students who requested one. So yes, a lot of folks are using it as a core textbook. Some are referring students to specific chapters. Others are doing innovative things.

On the first day of class, when I told the students the textbook was free, I had one student cry. Textbook prices are really a problem. Joe and I both teach at institutions where students come from non-affluent backgrounds, and the opportunity to take a course without shelling out $300 in book costs… that’s a big deal. This is why we wanted to do this project.

How have students responded to the textbook?

Ben: Students are reading it on their phones, which makes me feel old. Other students are reading it on their tablets and desktops.

What’s next?

Ben: Once we refine the content, we plan to put citations back in. Some of our contributors gave us footnotes, and some didn’t. It got to the point where we decided not to have them in the initial edition.

Joe: We also want to include primary sources so you can do reading on the side. That’s the kind of thing we want to do as soon as we refine the text.

Ben: We will add primary sources, but we want to protect the experience of reading narrative. We do not want to overburden students with a barrage of hyperlinks or break out discussions that would take away from narrative.

What is the significance of the title, “The American Yawp”?

Joe : It’s drawn from Walt Whitman’s Song of Myself . Textbooks often struggle to find a theme and in Whitman’s words, we found one we could work with:  “I too am not a bit tamed—I too am untranslatable. I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world.”

Ben : Whitman’s “untranslatable, barbaric yawp” is a nice symbol of the chorus and cacophony of American history. We hope our text can likewise capture the chorus and cacophony of contemporary scholarship in a manner that’s accessible for our students.

This post first appeared on AHA Today .

Tags: AHA Today Resources for K-12 Educators Teaching Resources and Strategies

The American Historical Association welcomes comments in the discussion area below, at AHA Communities , and in letters to the editor . Please read our commenting and letters policy before submitting.

Please read our commenting and letters policy before submitting.

The American Yawp Vol. I: To 1877

(16 reviews)

Joseph L. Locke

Copyright Year: 2019

ISBN 13: 9781503608139

Publisher: Stanford University Press

Language: English

Formats Available

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Learn more about reviews.

Reviewed by Matthew Whitlock, Adjunct Lecturer, Tidewater Community College on 1/30/23

The first volume of The American Yawp provides an great overall understanding of pre-Columbian America through Reconstruction. It tackles most of the "big picture" topics that would be expected in a survey-level history textbook. The text lacks an... read more

Comprehensiveness rating: 4 see less

The first volume of The American Yawp provides an great overall understanding of pre-Columbian America through Reconstruction. It tackles most of the "big picture" topics that would be expected in a survey-level history textbook. The text lacks an index. The Table of Contents section makes each section easily accessible to the reader.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

The text is historically accurate and does not appear to show bias.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

The American Yawp should be relevant for years thanks to Open Educational Resources and the ability for comments and updates. Having a primary source reader built into the text is important in keeping the material relevant.

Clarity rating: 4

The text meets the survey-level course standard and is straightforward.

Consistency rating: 5

The framework is consistent with a big publisher's textbook. The chapters are well-organized and the chapter titles match perfectly with the content. Editing within each chapter is exceptional.

Modularity rating: 5

Chapters work well individually and the accompanying primary source reader makes each chapter better. Many chapters have five-to-seven sections, not including primary sources and chapter-related references. There are a few longer sections but each chapter can easily be read and understood for someone not familiar with American history.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

The chronological organization of this text follows the typical US history textbook. Each chapter has an introduction, sections, a conclusion, primary sources, and references.

Interface rating: 5

The text is user friendly and can easily be read online or as a PDF downloadable by chapter. I was able to easily access the text through the website on a computer, tablet, and cell phone without any issues. The text, images, and links all function properly no matter the technology used. The editors maintain the same design throughout the text and this continues into the second volume.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

The text is grammatically correct as of this review. The editors did an excellent job

Cultural Relevance rating: 4

The American Yawp works to be inclusive and looks at perspectives from a myriad of people, and the primary source reader aids the historical context. There's always room for improvement, as the text falls into the traditional narrative.

The American Yawp is an easily accessible Open Educational Resource that caters to the survey-level college class. This textbook should be considered for any US history class as it is available immediately and costs nothing. If a student wants a hard copy, it's inexpensive. The primary and secondary sources at the end of each chapter allow the students to provide further historical context.

Reviewed by Kyle Welty, Lecturer, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley on 12/20/22

The narrative provides a fairly comprehensive treatment of the subject matter. As with any US history textbook, the authors/editors have made choices about the amount of focus devoted to each particular subject. On the whole, their choices make... read more

Comprehensiveness rating: 5 see less

The narrative provides a fairly comprehensive treatment of the subject matter. As with any US history textbook, the authors/editors have made choices about the amount of focus devoted to each particular subject. On the whole, their choices make good sense.

The book lacks an index and glossary, but since students can search for particular words the absence of an index is not problematic. Likewise, a glossary might be nice, but I don’t consider its absence to be a major defect.

Each chapter is followed by a list of citations and recommendations for further reading. These are both valuable resources, and the latter could be especially useful for students tasked with writing research essays.

The text is accurate and free of errors. Likewise, the perspectives presented in the American Yawp are well within the main conventions of historical writing. There is not an obvious bias detectable in the work.

The text does well in incorporating more perspectives of the American experience than textbooks did in previous generations. The voices of women and different ethnic groups are presented with a degree of consistency. This is a text that is relevant for American students in this moment and should remain viable for quite some time.

Clarity rating: 5

The text features a clear and accessible style, largely free of pedantic phrasing and obscure terminology. It is written in an appropriate style for its audience—undergraduates in the early phases of their college education.

Since the text is not enhanced with tables and other features that break up the monotony of the text, this may be an issue for some students. This is not an issue of clarity, of course, but it could be an obstacle for some students.

Consistency rating: 4

On the whole, the text is internally consistent. The terminology and framework are fairly uniform throughout. The editors have managed to reduce any glaring incongruities between authors.

The only issue on this front is the amount of attention given to various topics does suffer from some inconsistency. For example, Bacon’s rebellion receives multiple pages of treatment—roughly 1400 words. In contrast, the Stono Rebellion, discussed in the following chapter, has a tenth of the amount of text (120 words) devoted to it. This is not the place to examine the relative importance of these two events, but this disparity does point to a lack of consistency across the work. This is part of the challenge of a textbook with numerous authors.

The organization of this textbook largely follows the structure of other textbooks in the area, such as Foner’s Give Me Liberty!. For instructors making the switch from another textbook, this is beneficial. The division of materials in lectures and activities can remain structured similarly, with minimal changes required.

As someone who is accustomed to structuring a class with the aim of working through one chapter a week (roughly), this volume’s fifteen chapters work well.

Just as with modularity, the division of the material in the American Yawp is sensible, following the standard divisions utilized in many textbooks. Moreover, the editors use subdivisions within the chapters, and those divisions are done well too.

Interface rating: 3

The interface is solid for the most part, but there are places where the low resolution of the image files is problematic. Most of the images in the text are of good quality and enhance the readers’ experience. There are, however, some exceptions. For example, Las Castas (the chart of Spanish castes of society), is too small. The various categories’ labels cannot be made out.

One other issue to note is the relative dearth of maps in the book. This may be an issue of finding maps in the public domain, but the inclusion of more maps would strengthen the textbook.

Just as the text is written in a clear and accessible style, it is largely free of grammatical errors and stylistic infelicities.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

Similar to the comments made on relevancy, the authors avoid being culturally offensive and do well in widening the view of focus from the predictable parties that received disproportionate attention in earlier eras.

Reviewed by Graeme Mack, Lecturer of History, James Madison University, James Madison University on 11/7/22

I think that American Yawp does a fantastic job covering the major events in the history of early America. It sheds light on many of the transformative forces that shaped our understanding of the American past. But I did feel like some specific... read more

I think that American Yawp does a fantastic job covering the major events in the history of early America. It sheds light on many of the transformative forces that shaped our understanding of the American past. But I did feel like some specific sections could have been much longer. I also think more is needed about the United States' engagement with the rest of the world from the time of the republic's founding. For instance, why is there next to nothing on American trade with China in the first volume? The early republic quickly became the second largest trading partner to China. I thought in general more could have been discussed about Americans in the world. For instance, I would recommend that there be a section on Americans at sea, which covers their interactions with peoples all over the world---in the Mediterranean Sea, the Indian Ocean, or the Pacific Ocean. Overall, I thought the primary sources selected were fantastic and often meshed well with the secondary material. But again I think some more primary sources from Americans in the China trade and much more on the California Gold Rush.

Yes to my knowledge everything appears correct and historically accurate.

I think the medium that American Yawp takes - a free and open source textbook - will make it an incredibly relevant model for the future of education. I could see more textbooks developing in this fashion. In particular, the ability to leave comments for editors seems to be a major sustaining force. I think the way this text tells about the American past will evolve in ways one sees Wikipedia develop over time through continued contributions and revisions.

I think this textbook is written in a very clean and accessible fashion. At times, I wished there would have been more specifics available on important topics - something perhaps closer to case studies. Right now, the narrative often emphases the general over the particular, which is understandable for a textbook. But at times more context is needed so that students can visualize, taste, feel, smell the content.

This text seems consistent and uniform in its presentation of content.

This source reads well on a cell phone through the website link and reads well in larger formats like on a laptop. That said, I thought the Kindle experience of this textbook was fairly disappointing. It could have been more legible. It was also hard to navigate between different sections. It would be helpful to have the Table of Contents more readily available on Kindle.

It all flows logically and clearly. At times, more context was needed to better connect the different sections. The transitions between chapter sections can sometimes be jarring and disjointed. Some better flow between sections might help.

Navigating American Yawp on laptop is great and also fairly easy on the cell phone. The Kindle navigation needs some development.

I have not noticed any significant issues with grammatical errors.

The text does a good job presenting material in an inclusive fashion. This fact showed particularly well in the primary source selections. A lot of the primary sources from enslaved African-Americans and free Blacks were fantastic and I was happy to see these sources made so widely available as a result.

I commend the effort. It is a very impressive piece of work.

Reviewed by Paul Teverow, Instructor, Crowder College on 7/17/22

The text rises to the challenge of including the broad range of historical developments -- political, economic, social, technological, to name a few -- and of showing the very different experiences and perspectives often shaped by race, ethnicity,... read more

The text rises to the challenge of including the broad range of historical developments -- political, economic, social, technological, to name a few -- and of showing the very different experiences and perspectives often shaped by race, ethnicity, gender & social class.

On the topics more familiar to me, I did not notice any errors. I also appreciate the footnotes that direct readers to the appropriate primary and secondary sources that the authors used.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 4

The references for each chapter include important recent works on the subject. For a collaborative text such as this, I expect occasional updates.

In terms of accessibility, the writing seems comparable to texts from the big publishing houses. Students at 2-year institutions might find it a bot challenging.

Some chapters start with a vignette, others with an overview of the topic. Although the first approach might generate more interest, I doubt that these differences would confuse students.

Chapter sections are about the right length. It would be easy to identify the relevant section for an assignment or classroom activity.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 4

The breadth of topics covered in some chapters can pose challenges for organizing the material. In this respect, I think that there are clear transitions between the different sections.

Accessing charts, maps, and sources is easy.

I have noticed no issues here.

As I said, the authors strive to incorporate the very different experiences and perspectives shaped by race, ethnicity, gender & social class.

The accompanying American Yawp Reader offers a nice selection of primary sources suitable for class discussion and short assignments.

Reviewed by Paul Langston, Faculty - History, Community College of Aurora on 8/12/20

In addition to doing a good job covering the "usual topics", The American Yawp provides a much more balanced view of American history than many popular hardback textbooks. The text and primary sources focus on marginalized groups that are often... read more

In addition to doing a good job covering the "usual topics", The American Yawp provides a much more balanced view of American history than many popular hardback textbooks. The text and primary sources focus on marginalized groups that are often overlooked in traditional texts. Not only does this teach a more well-rounded version of American history, but it increases student engagement by focusing on Latinx, African American, and Native American histories (and more). The early chapters primarily focus on Native American groups, and when European colonization arrives the text does not ignore the Spanish presence and influence in the region. Later chapters continue this trend by focusing on the early influence of African culture in the Americas and the constant contributions by Native Americans, Spain/Mexico, and African-Americans in shaping the expanding United States. The primary source sections continue this strategy. At the end of each chapter, there are several primary source documents for students to read that include a short introduction to the document. The selection does a great job of presenting the complexity of issues and the diversity of views for the major historical topics....the American Revolution, slavery, and so on. The choices are also of documents that are more engaging and revealing to students...instead of some more traditional "boring" documents. I think the text could go even further in certain chapters, like the American Revolution, but it is a great change compared to other traditional texts.

In addition, the structure of the table of contents is easy to navigate. You can click on each chapter, and then within the chapter you have options to click on the different sections, the primary sources, or the reference material.

I found the content accurate and error-free. Regarding bias, as stated above, I found that the creators worked hard to free the textbook of bias...if such a thing is ever possible. Despite having shorter chapters than other books (which I like here), it does a great job of hitting a variety of topics and views in each chapter. For example, the chapter on the American Revolution looks at motivations of various Americans ... and not just the political leaders leading the charge. The chapter and documents examine the motivations of African-Americans and women during this war. While again I think it could take a deeper look at these individuals and expand to other groups, it does take a good first step.

The text does a good job of following current and needed historical shifts that seek to include a more diverse look at history. Additionally, the structure of the book allows for new sections or primary sources to be added, modified, or deleted with ease....and without complicating student access.

One of the things I really like about this textbook is that it provides shorter chapters, but also provides an expanded view on U.S. history. In other books, chapter might be fifty pages and overwhelm students with information. This text manages to shorten the chapters, but focus the material in such a way that is provides a more comprehensive view of history. This results in the students more likely to read the chapters and able to digest shorter sections without feeling overwhelmed by information that, honestly, might not be that essential in a introductory course.

The textbook keeps the same exact structure from the beginning to end. It really helps so once students successfully navigate the first chapter, they know how to navigate the remainder of the book.

As I wrote above, one of the things I really like about this textbook is that it provides shorter chapters, but also provides an expanded view on U.S. history. In other books, chapter might be fifty pages and overwhelm students in information. This text manages to shorten the chapters, but focus the material in such a way that is provides a more comprehensive view of history. This results in the students more likely to read the chapters and able to digest shorter sections without feeling overwhelmed by information that, honestly, might not be that essential in an introductory course.

In addition, the structure of the table of contents is easy to navigate. You can click on each chapter, and then within the chapter you have options to click on the different sections, the primary sources, or the reference material. The historical material is presented in a clear fashion.....again, providing a more expanded view on history but without complicating the chapter structure for students.

I did not encounter any interface issues. In fact, the interface is a major reason I like this text. It is easy for my students to navigate. The main page provides not only a list of the chapters, but a print version of the book (.pdf), teaching materials, and so on. Then each chapter has a clear structure that is broken down by section, primary sources, and reference material.

I have not yet found any grammatical errors.

In addition to doing a good job covering the "usual topics", The American Yawp provides a much more balanced view of American history than many popular hardback textbooks. The text and primary sources focus on marginalized groups that are often overlooked in traditional texts. Not only does this teach a more well-rounded version of American history, but it increases student engagement by focusing on Latinx, African American, and Native American histories (and more). The early chapters primarily focus on Native American groups, and when European colonization arrives the text does not ignore the Spanish presence and influence in the region. Later chapters continue this trend by focusing on the early influence of African culture in the Americas and the constant contributions by Native Americans, Spain/Mexico, and African-Americans in shaping the expanding United States. The primary source sections continue this strategy. At the end of each chapter, there are several primary source documents for students to read that include a short introduction to the document. The selection does a great job of presenting the complexity of issues and the diversity of views for the major historical topics....the American Revolution, slavery, and so on. The choices are also of documents that are more engaging and revealing to students...instead of some more traditional "boring" documents. I think the text could go even further in certain chapters, like the American Revolution, but it is a great change compared to other traditional texts.

My first goal when looking at an OER text was to provide a class where students have easy access, and first day access, to the required materials. Students often fall behind early because they can’t afford a textbook (loan money hasn’t arrived, too expensive, etc.). Eliminating this possible obstacle by providing a free textbook sets the foundation for student success. The American Yawp provides an online link, .pdf copy, and a cheap option if they want a hard copy.

I also can't stress enough how nice it will be to allow students to immediately access their book in class. An unfortunate reality about hardback textbooks is the variety of options….which means the page numbers do not match from different versions/editions. Now all students will have the same page numbers, and it will lessen confusion I have witnessed every semester (3rd edition vs 4th edition, bound vs hardback vs combined).

This will also carry over to any future situations like our current one involving the stay at home online teaching. I have noticed this semester that students in my OER course have had a much easier time adjusting to this new reality. Students without enough money aren’t left behind because they can’t borrow their friend’s book or access it at CCA’s library. The textbook also provides the necessary primary sources, as well as primary and secondary sources that can be used on their term papers.

Reviewed by Michael Hamilton, Adjunct professor, Community College of Aurora on 8/11/20

Good text that covers most areas of US History. The text covers a bit of American social history, political history and contains a few military events as well read more

Good text that covers most areas of US History. The text covers a bit of American social history, political history and contains a few military events as well

The text covers most, but not all content. It tends to cover more of the "Social" aspects of US history as opposed to more of the usual military and political history

Incredibly relevant to today's world

Clear language and context is used. I liked the organization of the topics and chapters, very easy to use.

Incredibly consistent. Each chapter is easy to follow because of the readings, primary sources and content organization. Really well organized.

The divisibility is what makes this book worthwhile. You can assign shorter/longer sections or topics. As a adjunct that teaches part time, I really appreciated the reading being chopped up in this format.

Organization is what the authors did well with this text. The American Yawp is made for today's online student.

Interface rating: 4

Very visually appealing to the reader

None that I can see

Very cultural relevant text.

As an adjunct instructor, I found the American Yawp text, along with the new teacher resources provided incredibly helpful to me. It is easy to navigate and use. The ease will benefit both students and teachers stay engaged either on a computer or at home using a paper copy.

Reviewed by Rebecca Brannon, Associate Professor, James Madison University on 7/27/20

Overall, this is an excellent choice for most instructors who want to use a textbook for a US history survey course, but also plan to have lectures or discussion activities on top of a textbook. It works well for those uses. It also has... read more

Overall, this is an excellent choice for most instructors who want to use a textbook for a US history survey course, but also plan to have lectures or discussion activities on top of a textbook. It works well for those uses. It also has potential for using chapters as background reading material for upper level courses in early American and antebellum history where the instructor also uses other primary and secondary readings.

The text is forward-thinking. It is a crowd-sourced textbook in the sense that each chapter has a different group of authors who are writing about their own period of research. They work together to frame each chapter and to focus it clearly on the insights of more contemporary scholarships, including scholarship not yet in print. The authors are early-career scholars who bring insight and fresh attention to the task of creating an online textbook. While I wish there was more Native American history in particular in this textbook, and more attention to critical issues in race, it does a good job of balancing the many topics different professors are likely to address in the classroom.

It is well-researched and largely error-free.

The content is mostly up-to-date, although it is weak on Native American history and continental historical perspectives. It does better than several competing commercial textbooks, however.

The text is well-written and uses interesting examples frequently.

Modularity rating: 4

The American Yawp is a very usable open access textbook for college courses. It is carefully divided into chapters with around 7 subheadings per chapter and about 15 chapters covering a typical one semester-equivalent college course. All of the chapters and subheading generate distinct urls so instructors can use individual sections and link to it from the learning management software they use. In that way, it is thoughtfully laid out for online teaching and for 21st century pedagogies.

organization is nice

The textbook interface works well. Images are frequent and nicely integrated into the text. One strength of this collection is the integrated primary documents for each chapter, which are varied and important.

It is somewhat weak on race, but certainly up to date and not offensive.

The textbook does come with some additional resources for instructors, although far less than a commercial platform or other OER textbooks that come via school subscription. There are basic multiple choice questions available, but it is difficult to import them into course management systems. There are also suggestions for discussion questions and open-ended exam essay questions for the course. Of course, experienced instructors are likely to have lots of essay question wordings of their own in mind. In this day and age of using multiple choice reading quizzes just to encourage reading, more issues-oriented, protected multiple choice questions would be a nice addition to this series going forward.

Reviewed by Anne Kerth, Assistant Professor, University of Massachusetts Amherst on 6/29/20

This text covers a wide range of topics coherently and with an appropriate level of factual detail. There are certainly areas which are less developed than others (gender and sexuality, Native American history), but the text should work well for... read more

This text covers a wide range of topics coherently and with an appropriate level of factual detail. There are certainly areas which are less developed than others (gender and sexuality, Native American history), but the text should work well for a standard US History course.

Overall, I found the text to be accurate and carefully researched.

The authors demonstrate engagement with relatively recent scholarship, as well as an ability to translate that scholarship into a form more easily digestible for the average student. Still, more attention to newer fields of study and more extensive use of research published in the last decade would have been appreciated.

In general, the text is straightforward and at a level appropriate to the college classroom, if sometimes a bit repetitive.

The text flows nicely and maintains a consistent voice, structure, and framing.

The text is well-divided, and could easily be assigned as whole chapters or as subsections. The primary sources at the end of each chapter are also useful, and help supplement some gaps in the main text's coverage.

The sections follow logically from each other and would fit well in a traditionally-sequenced US history class.

No issues that I noticed.

I noticed no grammatical errors in the text.

The authors have worked hard to include a wide range of perspectives, but at the same time, this is still a very traditional narrative of US History. The primary sources at the end of each chapter highlight a wider range of voices, but might have been better incorporated into the text to correct some areas of imbalance.

Reviewed by Melinda Marchand, Adjunct History Professor, Worcester State University on 6/23/20

This text very effectively covers the key themes traditionally included in print texts, from earliest Americans through to Reconstruction. The layout is generally chronological, and each chapter contains about 6 sections of content, each... read more

This text very effectively covers the key themes traditionally included in print texts, from earliest Americans through to Reconstruction. The layout is generally chronological, and each chapter contains about 6 sections of content, each emphasizing a particular topic. At the end of each chapter is a set of primary source excerpts, followed by a recommended reading list. This organization, layout and narrative style is very straightforward, readable and navigable, and I think students will find it far more approachable than many print texts. It is, of course, impossible for any survey text to achieve perfect depth and breadth across every sub-theme, but this text does a commendable job representing the perspectives and experiences of a wide range of people across race, class and ethnicity. I do think that more should be done to increase the presence and contributions of women. To give one example, women’s role in the early republic as Republican Mothers is defined in chapter 7, in one paragraph. This was an important transitional role for women, and the topic could be extended to discuss the ways in which specific women appropriated this role for differing purposes. Throughout the text deeper and more specific examples of women’s political, religious, literary and reform roles should be added.

I found no issues with accuracy, and the content is well footnoted.

The text is very up to date, clearly incorporating recent scholarship.

The organization and layout of the text is easy to follow. The writing is very clear and concise, and the illustrations enhance the narrative nicely.

The organizational framework is consistent throughout. Some minor inconsistencies include the fact that Chapter 6, "The New Nation" is exceptionally long, and could benefit from being divided into two chapters. Also, the level of detail in the Conclusions varies considerably. The better conclusions (such as chapter 5, "The American Revolution") fully reflect and recapitulate the main themes of the chapter. A last inconsistency relates to the primary sources, which, while excellent in and of themselves, could be better aligned with the content of the chapters. For example, there is a primary source about the Salem witch trials in Chapter 2, but the discussion of the trials is in Chapter 3. On the other hand, Chapter 3 has a section, "Riot, Rebellion, and Revolt" that considers King Philip's War, Bacon's Rebellion, and the Pueblo Revolt, but there are no corresponding primary sources. It would be a great modification to more closely align the sources to the content.

The text is very easily divisible into smaller reading assignments.

The text is very logically organized.

The interface is very simple and easy to navigate.

I found no grammar flaws with the text.

As mentioned previously, the text considers the perspectives and experiences of a range of people, but as with most texts, more work can always be done in this area.

This is a great replacement for expensive, print text books.

Reviewed by James Korman, Professor, Mount Wachusett Community College on 6/23/20

I thought its was an excellent text for U.S. I. Like any historical narrative, there could always be additional areas of review and exploration, but its a very well done survey of major themes running through most classic U.S. History I text books. read more

I thought its was an excellent text for U.S. I. Like any historical narrative, there could always be additional areas of review and exploration, but its a very well done survey of major themes running through most classic U.S. History I text books.

The book is well vetted and supported by both primary and secondary authority. I saw no obvious errors or bias in the authors presentation of relevant content

The content is a classic example of the core concepts in any traditional U.S. History I survey course. Very relevant and timeless!

The books author seemed to have striven for clarity and functionality. This will serve community college students well without lowering the bar on content and quality.

The book keeps a consistent style and pace throughout its chapter format. Each chapter flows nicely from period to period without awkward stylistic changes or deviations.

Although the book is organized extremely well, I always believe that more subheadings and titled sections help students digest material more readily and it removes some of the intimidation over students tackling long verses of material without breaks or transitional subheadings and subtopics.

The structure of the book is well crafted. It transitions with a clear and contextual relevancy that helps the reader understand the core concepts with clarity and ease.

I witnessed no issues with navigation problems or distracting materials.

There seemed to be no grammatical issues.

This is an area all text books could improve upon. This book does well, but there could be more depth with some of the often overlooked participants in American History!

Overall, I loved it and will adopt it for my course!

Reviewed by Benjamin Remillard, Adjunct Professor of Humanities, Massachusetts Bay Community College on 6/7/20

Overall the text is a wonderful resource for teachers looking for free online resources for their students. It features an array of supplementary resources that many teachers will welcome. It has some issues however; see criticisms in 'Cultural,'... read more

Overall the text is a wonderful resource for teachers looking for free online resources for their students. It features an array of supplementary resources that many teachers will welcome. It has some issues however; see criticisms in 'Cultural,' below.

Content Accuracy rating: 4

More could be done to detail the experiences of women and people of color. This is not to say that there are many errors, but there are some opportunities to detail more of those peoples' experiences

The textbook very helpfully points teachers (and students) to a plethora of additional scholarly works at the end of each chapter. Many of these texts are seminal works in the field which have been compiled alongside some of the more important historiographical additions of the last few decades.

The writing throughout the American Yawp is wonderfully clear and concise; this is a very accessible text.

The chapters are about as evenly divided as any other textbook. In terms of terminology, it would have been helpful if key terms had been highlighted for students in order for them to focus in on those ideas as they make their way through the readings.

Each chapter is broken down into a couple subtopics. There are times when there could have been further divisions in order to keep the readers focused on the main topics at hand. Some chapters could have been broken up into two, such as the American Revolution, which includes the lead-up to, events of, and the consequences of the Revolution all in one chapter. Given that this topic is something that many college professors could spend an entire course on perhaps the chapter could have been divided, though, this is a critique many scholars will have regarding their chosen fields.

Very well organized

Very easy to navigate

This is a wonderful read

Cultural Relevance rating: 2

This text, while understandably concise, misses out on some important details that would have added more nuance to students' understanding of American history. The chapter on the American Revolution, for example, propagates the misinformed notion that Native Americans served alongside the British alone, making no mention in the text of the various tribes along the eastern half of the continent that served alongside the American forces. This erases those peoples’ claims to helping shape American history. By including that Native Americans also fought alongside the Continental Army (including members of the Oneida, Narragansett, Passamaquoddy, and Wappinger communities and tribes, among others) it would have presented students with a more complicated version of the past than is presented in the text. The fact that some of these peoples continue to live along the east coast today runs counter to the monolithic depiction of indigenous peoples presented in the text when it says "Unfortunately, the Americans’ victory and Native Americans’ support for the British created a pretense for justifying rapid and often brutal expansion into the western territories. Native American peoples would continue to be displaced and pushed farther west throughout the nineteenth century." This lack of detail continues in the chapter on the Civil War, where Native Americans are not mentioned at all. As it relates to the service of black Americans in the Northern forces during the Civil War there are some omissions. While the text notes, for example, that the black members of the 54th Massachusetts Regiment protested that they did not receive equal pay compared to their white peers, it makes no mention of the fact that Congress corrected that wrong in 1864. While the "Recommended Reading" section at the end of each chapter directs readers to further scholarly works, it is apparent that the chapters in question could have benefited from the inclusion of some of those materials. The chapter, "A New Nation," for example, includes an end of chapter reference to Rosemarie Zagarri's Revolutionary Backlash, but the chapter itself makes no mention of her historiographical arguments; women are barely mentioned at all in the chapter text, let alone any details regarding the potential opportunities and disappointments of the post-war era.

Overall this is a tremendous resource and I look forward to using it in my own classes. While it has some omissions, this will be true of many textbooks; it is up to the community to continue filling in those gaps

Reviewed by Daniel Holbrook, Professor, Marshall University on 3/20/20

Overall, this text compares well to other major American History survey texts. It covers a broad range of topics associated with politics, social structures and institutions, cultural attributes and changes, and economic structures, institutions,... read more

Overall, this text compares well to other major American History survey texts. It covers a broad range of topics associated with politics, social structures and institutions, cultural attributes and changes, and economic structures, institutions, and ideas. The scope is impressive, and presented at a level appropriate to a college audience.

I did not see either an index or a glossary; some of the supporting documents in the Reader have broken out historical terms which could be adapted into a glossary.

I detected no errors of fact. The broad coverage of social, political, cultural, and economic topics seems free of bias, one laudable result of the large number of contributors. Of course some readers may infer bias merely on the basis of the inclusion of some topics - that is, where some of the less laudable elements of American history are presented, some readers will assume bias on the authors' part.

There is occasional overuse of terminology like "changed things forever," or the idea that changes that developed over substantial spans of time were "revolutions." Emphasizing change over continuity can distort how life was for people at the time.

The text seems very logically organized for these purposes. The underlying historiography seems entirely appropriate, and uses well-regarded and -established texts. The division of chapters into sections would seem to make amendments and revisions straightforward, without having to do a lot of extra editing to fit new materials in.

The inclusion of well-chosen primary sources at the end of each chapter is appreciated, and it seems like they could easily be added to and/or removed as needed.

The chapter bibliographies are also very well done and useful.

This is one of the volume's strong points. The text, presumably from a large number of contributors, has clearly been edited to a high standard. Most sections flow nicely, the level of vocabulary is appropriate for a college audience - some will be challenged, but most will appreciate not being talked down to. It is free of historical or historiographic jargon. Some terms could use clarification; for example, the chapter "The Sectional Crisis" never defines "sectional" in this context; this may seem obvious, but it is not to many students. A glossary would clearly help there.

Another strong point of the text. The chapters and chapter sections are consistently organized, clearly titled, and useful as guides to the contents. Terminology across chapters also is consistent, evidence of excellent editing.

Yet another area of excellence. The Chapters could stand on their own for coverage of their topics/time periods. Sections of chapters could too, though in that case they may need to be supplemented by primary sources. I did not see any explicit internal references, which helps with modularity, I suppose, but could be helpful to students' making connections across time and topics.

Across and within chapters, topics are presented in a logical and clear fashion, yes. The inevitable overlap between chapters is kept to a minimum, avoiding repetition that mars some texts. Within chapters, the sections build over the course of the chapters, so that by the end broad coverage has been obtained. Section conclusions more often than not are connected to following sections, and chapter conclusions are both comprehensive and mercifully brief.

The graphics included are very well chosen. They are all easily downloadable, and of sufficiently high resolution that even small text in old political cartoons is readable (though not necessarily in the text; you need to download and magnify).

More maps would be good; for example, the chapter on Manifest Destiny, an inherently geographic topic, has only one map, of the distribution of Indians. That is a very useful and well-done map, but students often lack the geographic knowledge to make sense of westward expansion (and other topics in other chapters) in other than very general terms.

Though not part of the text itself, the associated American Yawp Reader, found under "Teaching Materials," is a very useful set of primary sources.

Easy to navigate throughout, and consistent across chapters. It would be helpful if the chapter bibliography, footnotes, and Primary Sources listed at the end opened in a new window.

As I stated above, the graphics are well done, high resolution, and appropriately situated in the text. More would be better, in fact.

I detected no errors.

I did not encounter any instances of text content, graphical content, or exclusions that might offend readers. In fact, most chapters seem extraordinarily inclusive; for instance, the chapter "Colonial Society" gives European, Native American, African, gender, workers, elites, enslaved, shopkeepers, urban, rural, regional, ethnic, religious, and ideological groups appropriate coverage.

This is as good a textbook as any available on the market. The list of contributors, editors, and advisors is extraordinary. They have done a really excellent job in creating this text and accompanying materials..

Reviewed by Scott Martin, Professor of History and American Culture Studies, Bowling Green State University on 1/17/20

This textbook does a fine job of covering all the expected and appropriate areas of early American history. AS with any textbook, some areas receive more coverage, others less, and individual instructors will take issue with some of the choices... read more

This textbook does a fine job of covering all the expected and appropriate areas of early American history. AS with any textbook, some areas receive more coverage, others less, and individual instructors will take issue with some of the choices of the authors. In the section on the American Revolution, for example, the text might have emphasized more the divided loyalties of the American colonists, and the extent to which Parliament, at least early on, tried to conciliate rather than antagonize the colonies. More coverage of the "country" ideology in Great Britain, that served as inspiration for many Revolutionaries, would have been salutary. In chapter 6, a more extensive of women's rights as included (or not) in the Constitution would have provided a greater opportunity to discuss rights, citizenship, and gender during the era. Some attention to the emergence and functioning of the Second Party system would have made the sections on antebellum politics more robust. Similarly, in Chapter 13, a more detailed discussion of the transition from the Second to Third party systems would have better set the stage for the descent into civil war. In chapter 14, on the Civil War itself, discussion of the Union's "hard war" strategy and General Grant's recognition that the war could not be won without heavy losses would bring the conflict's enormous carnage into clearer focus. All in all, though, the text does as good a job of covering the entire scope of the early American survey as any text put out by the major publication houses.

The text had no problems with accuracy. I detected no bias. If anything, the collective authorship's efforts to be fair and unbiased may have foreclosed opportunities for a more forceful exposition of some elements of early American history.

For the most part, the text is up-to-date. Some areas are lacking, however. The material on temperance specifically, and and antebellum reform more generally, in Chapter 10 is dated, and does not reflect recent scholarship in the field(s). American Yawp also fails to incorporate much recent literature on the social and cultural impacts of the Market Revolution on the everyday lives of various groups of Americans. There is room for improvement in these and a few other areas. In addition, greater attention to women and Native Americans would make the text more relevant to current discussions of gender, women's and minority rights, and citizenship. To a great degree, the primary documents reader compensates for these gaps with sources that give voice to all strata of American society.

The prose was clear, lucid and accessible. It avoided jargon or specialized terms, and did not descend into overly technical discussions of crucial areas of early American history. Undergraduates would have no trouble reading and comprehending American Yawp.

Though American Yawp is the product of the collaborative effort of a number of historians, it does not read as the work of many authors. The approach, methodology, and prose style are consistent throughout the text. The text's framework follows a fairly standard chronological division of topics into familiar chunks that cohere nicely.

The text's chapters provide ample opportunities for dividing the work into smaller units to suit varying pedagogical strategies. If anything, I found the chapters a bit short; many could have been expanded slightly to include more detail on significant topics, or to remedy some of the problems noted in the Comprehensiveness and Relevance sections. Certainly, the text's chapters could be reorganized to support different stylistic or organizational approaches to early American history.

The text follows a logical and familiar organizational style. If anything, the organization is a bit too traditional; greater license with when and how to present threads running throughout the period covered (the role of women; race; shifting political systems, etc.) might have added to the accessibility of the material. Successful presentation of familiar and effective patterns of exposition, however, compensate for any lack of innovation. For most early American surveys, American Yawp's organization would work admirably well.

I encountered no interface or navigation problems. Readers could move to various parts of the text from the table of contents quickly and effectively. Images and documents loaded effectively and clearly. There is little possibility of confusion or misdirection for any reasonably attentive user of the online text.

I found no grammatical errors. Proofreading of the texts was comprehensive and effective.

Though not offensive, the text could have paid more attention to questions of race, particularly as they touched on Native Americans. There is little coverage of Indian policy in Chapter 9, which covers politics during the early national antebellum era. Nor is removal in Chapter 10, on the Jackson era. This is either a glaring mistake or a puzzling choice to deal with it elsewhere. In Chapter 12, there is nothing on the intentional attempts by the California state government to exterminate Native Americans during the Gold Rush era. These lacunae seem unintentional; some of the materials related to Native Americans in the primary document reader are quite good, and useful in provoking student discussion.

All things considered, American Yawp is a fine text that holds up well against textbooks published by academic and trade publishers. Given that American Yawp is available free of charge, assigning costly printed texts that at best do a marginally better job at presenting the material does not make sense, pedagogically or economically. While not as well illustrated or colorful as it's more expensive competitors, the text's solid content and presentation make it a logical choice for early American surveys. I found the accompanying primary documents reader as good as anything produced by commercial publishers, and very useful for stimulating student thought and discussion. The only lack from an instructor's perspective is the absence of a teacher's guide, test bank, or study materials linked to the chapters. The addition of theses supplementary materials would make its adoption, in my view, an automatic choice in comparison to costly textbooks that many students will not purchase.

Reviewed by Rebecca Wrenn, adjunct professor, J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College on 1/14/20

As with any textbook, it’s impossible to be truly comprehensive. The editors acknowledge this difficulty in the introduction: “Should it [a textbook] organize around certain themes or surrender to the impossibility of synthesis and retreat toward... read more

As with any textbook, it’s impossible to be truly comprehensive. The editors acknowledge this difficulty in the introduction: “Should it [a textbook] organize around certain themes or surrender to the impossibility of synthesis and retreat toward generality?” Here, the end result is a rather straightforward chronological narrative that aims to “[incorporate] transnational perspectives, [integrate] diverse voices, [recover] narratives of resistance, and [explore] the complex process of cultural creation.” This noble goal demonstrates definite progress from jingoistic narratives of conquest and oppression of decades past, but of course there’s still work to be done on seeking out and amplifying voices of groups that have historically been ignored. In terms of major events and movements, the book covers the content included in most survey courses. Structurally, the most notable omission is that of an index. Online users could use a text search, but this feature is only truly effective if the reader knows the relevant words to use. For instance, the Revolutionary War might be discussed for several pages without ever using the term “Revolution.”

The text appears no more biased or error-prone than other textbooks. Helpfully, as noted below, a feature lets readers easily report any errors they might find, allowing editors the opportunity to address such problems.

As explained in an introductory note, the American Yawp is updated annually. While the text is not always substantially revised, the latest update (for the 2019-2020 academic year) added two new primary sources per chapter and a “Teaching Materials” section with sample syllabi, discussion questions, exams, key terms, and so on. The editors have also included a helpful feature which allows readers to submit comments tied to specific paragraphs. Here eagle-eyed users can point out errors or make suggestions that are visible to both fellow readers and the editors. Some of these suggested edits may later be incorporated, and it’s fascinating to see how others react to the text.

The text is clear, easy to read, and free from unnecessary jargon and flowery language. Undergrads should have no problems with comprehension.

The editors have done a nice job ensuring that, despite the large number of contributors, the text is consistent in terms of terminology and style.

The chapters are divided into 5 to 11 sections (including an introduction and conclusion), and each of the 15 chapters could stand on its own—most readers should be able to fully understand the material without having read previous chapters. A few sections are rather long, making them appear as a large block of grey. For instance, “Riot, Rebellion, and Revolt,” a section in chapter three, is thirty paragraphs long, and covers events ranging from violent conflicts between British colonists and Native Americans to the Salem witch trials. The material is valuable and interesting, but would benefit from a bit of further division, especially since the heading itself is not terribly specific.

The American Yawp follows a standard organizational scheme, with topics arranged chronologically and based on familiar themes such as “Colonial Society” and “Manifest Destiny.”

The interface is intuitive and navigation is straightforward. Readers can download a single pdf of the volume, or they can click on links to individual chapters to read online. The pdf version is in black and white, a thoughtful touch for those who’d like to print it out, while the online chapters contain color images and links to the previous and following chapters. The online version also lets readers click on a callout number to link straight to its corresponding endnote. Perhaps in later editions the editors could add in-text links to relevant primary sources in the American Yawp primary source reader.

If there are notable grammatical errors, typos, or misspellings, I did not find them. Overall, the text is well-written and well-edited.

The American Yawp, like most modern textbooks, aims to be inclusive in subject matter. For instance, one of the final paragraphs in the Revolution chapter notes that “Ultimately, American independence marked the beginning of the end of what had remained of Native American independence.” This is a great point, but leaves the reader wishing for more than a paragraph of explanation about Native American involvement in the war. Women appear fairly regularly as a collective (enslaved women, white women, middle-class women, etc.), but rarely as individuals. This disparity is most apparent in the list of “Key Terms, Figures, and Events” included in the Teaching Materials section. Of the 300 terms, only three are individual women. The list never claims to be comprehensive, and it’s not directly intended for students, but it does reflect a common tendency to (inadvertently, I hope) minimize women as historical figures in such materials. This is certainly not a unique problem, and it's nice to see that the editors are otherwise working to add more diverse voices to historical narratives. (The American Yawp primary source reader, for instance, includes materials from a wide range of peoples.)

The American Yawp Reader, a collection of primary sources, is particularly handy. Each source has a brief introduction, and the selections include documents and images representing a range of individuals. I do hope the editors add more maps to the next edition. Modern maps would be especially useful in sections on exploration, conquest, Indian removal, wars, and westward expansion. Charts and tables are also noticeably absent, and would be a helpful addition to clarify certain topics. Overall, however, I’d happily adopt it as a textbook, and I’m looking forward to seeing the next round of updates.

Reviewed by Thomas Hamm, Professor of History, Earlham College on 12/17/19

The volume includes just about all of the topics that one expects in a comprehensive US history text. It begins with pre-Columbian America, then looks at Western Europe on the eve of colonization. It treats Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, French, and... read more

The volume includes just about all of the topics that one expects in a comprehensive US history text. It begins with pre-Columbian America, then looks at Western Europe on the eve of colonization. It treats Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, French, and English colonization, then moves on to the American Revolution, the creation of the American republic, the Market Revolution, the coming of the Civil War, and the Civil War and Reconstruction. Of course some historians would make different choices about inclusion. I was surprised to find only passing mention of Northwest Ordinance of 1787. There is no index, which is a flaw.

If the book contains any factual inaccuracies, I did not spot them. It certainly has a point of view, one with which most faculty teaching US history courses today probably sympathize. It is frank in holding up the costs and horrors of colonization, and emphasizes the inhumanity, and centrality, of slavery in the United States before 1865.

The authors achieve a nice balance in blending traditional themes, such as revolution, nationalism, and the Market Revolution, with recent scholarship. For example, the suggested readings in chapter 11, "The Cotton Revolution," include not only older works by John W. Blassingame and Eugene Genovese, but the work of Edward Baptist, Walter Johnson, and Joshua Rothman.

The authorial voice is quite readable, at times breezy. The text is blessedly free of jargon.

The list of contributors runs over 4 double-columned pages. That makes the consistency of the work all the more impressive.

No faults on this score. The chapters are of reasonable length and divided into sections of 3 or 4 pages. Occasionally the desire for "modularity" means that there is repetition. For example, the Missouri crisis of 1819-1821 is discussed in two different chapters.

The organization is mainly chronological, with some topical chapters: colonial society, religion and reform in the antebellum period, the Market Revolution. These are typical of US history texts.

There are few graphs and charts, and the illustrations reproduce clearly.

The text is grammatically and mechanically correct.

The "great men" of US history are here, and the treatment of them is neither hagiographic nor iconoclastic. Doubtless it will too critical for traditionalists, not critical enough for critical theorists. Examples of individual experiences, male and female, of varied races and ethnicities, abound in each chapter. In the chapter on the Civil War, for example, we find much on Abraham Lincoln, but we also learn about Elizabeth Van Lew.

This is a text thoroughly in the mainstream of US historical scholarship. Its arguments generally reflect views that the overwhelming majority of scholars would accept. When there are significant differences, they are acknowledged. It is also mainstream in including references to just about every major work of scholarship of the past 60 years on this period.

Reviewed by Stacey Moore, Adjunct Professor , Western Michigan University on 10/31/19

Overall the text is comprehensive in what it includes. It's meets the standard content that is called "The first half of the U.S. history survey course." The hyper-links in the text takes the reader right to the footnotes of which links directly... read more

Overall the text is comprehensive in what it includes. It's meets the standard content that is called "The first half of the U.S. history survey course." The hyper-links in the text takes the reader right to the footnotes of which links directly to the digitized source. It could be improved by adding some political history especially in the Antebellum period. Additional content on New France, New Spain, the Seven Years War and the Mexican American War would greatly improve the comprehensiveness of the historical period.

The text is accurate factually, and not particularly biased from an intellectual or political perspective. Unfortunately, the comprehensiveness of the content doesn't lift the overall narrative away from the perception of the American Revolution and the American Civil War were inevitable. This assumption could be interrogated by including more political history.

American Yawp, Vol. 1, is organized chronologically, making it convenient for scholars to examine and update areas of content that may need a future refresh. The chapters are also constructed broad enough for instructors to present the text thematically with multiple perspectives, all while keeping students engaged in the study of history.

The writing is clear, concise, direct and to- the -point. It balances the narrative and the analysis quite well. The textbook would benefit a lot by including timelines and especially maps. Maps that indicate geographical boundaries, especially in the colonial period, trade routes, transportation routes, battles, forts, migration and Native nations to name a few. Linking out to these kinds of information visuals is not as useful as being able to view and refer to them while reading.

Names, terms, and periodization are all consistent throughout the volume. Students could easily read American Yawp, Vol. 1, as a book of narrative history and not even be aware of the amount of collaboration that went into writing the text.

The textbook content is easily divisible into smaller chunks of information, both chronologically and thematically. the text can be reorganized around multiple historical perspectives or repurposed to be effective under different pedagogical models.

Once the text is accessed, you will find a hierarchy of chapters along with an introduction and conclusion. The rest of the text employs a similar hierarchy within each chapter, providing an introduction and conclusion of a few paragraphs, often set off from the rest of the text by an italicized heading or Roman numerals.

I like that this textbook was designed first as an Open Source textbook, and second as an Open Source textbook that looks like a published paper edition. You know what to expect right when you click on the first page. It makes navigation easier, especially when scrolling through the many pages that comprises standard printed textbooks. The format and style are consistent throughout and chapters are similarly organized. The textbook interface is the same whether your reading it on a laptop or a mobile device. So convenient.

Grammatical Errors rating: 4

Overall the grammar is excellent. A couple of minor style inconsistencies perhaps, but nothing that negatively impacts the text.

As it stands, the text is carefully written and inclusive overall, but it's not balanced regarding Native Americans and not just the breadth of content, but also the depth. The early chapters still discuss Native Americans in monolithic and oversimplified terms. This is an old complaint, I know. However, scholarship on Native Americans in early American history has exploded over the last twenty-five years. I can only hope future editions will address this oversight.

I that this textbook was designed as an Open Source textbook. It makes early American history more accessible and affordable to a wider audience than ever before. I would like to have seen discussion questions added at the end of each chapter. Students can learn how to think critically, and instructors don't have to develop the questions on their own. Most historians/professors/history instructors in my experience are more likely to adopt a textbook that includes questions than one that does not. In fact, if faced with a choice between including a 'suggested reading list' or 'critical reading questions to consider' - go with the questions.

Table of Contents

• 1. The New World
• 2. Colliding Cultures
• 3. British North America
• 4. Colonial Society
• 5. The American Revolution
• 6. A New Nation
• 7. The Early Republic
• 8. The Market Revolution
• 9. Democracy in America
• 10. Religion and Reform
• 11. The Cotton Revolution
• 12. Manifest Destiny
• 13. The Sectional Crisis
• 14. The Civil War
• 15. Reconstruction

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About the book.

In an increasingly digital world in which pedagogical trends are de-emphasizing rote learning and professors are increasingly turning toward active-learning exercises, scholars are fleeing traditional textbooks. Yet for those that still yearn for the safe tether of a synthetic text, as either narrative backbone or occasional reference material,  The American Yawp  offers a free and online, collaboratively built, open American history textbook designed for college-level history courses. Unchecked by profit motives or business models, and free from for-profit educational organizations,  The American Yawp  is by scholars, for scholars. All contributors—experienced college-level instructors—volunteer their expertise to help democratize the American past for twenty-first century classrooms.

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The American Yawp: A Massively Collaborative Open U.S. History Textbook, Vol. 2: Since 1877

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The American Yawp  is a free, online, collaboratively built American history textbook. Over 300 historians joined together to create the book they wanted for their own students―an accessible, synthetic narrative that reflects the best of recent historical scholarship and provides a jumping-off point for discussions in the U.S. history classroom and beyond.

Long before Whitman and long after, Americans have sung something collectively amid the deafening roar of their many individual voices. The  Yawp  highlights the dynamism and conflict inherent in the history of the United States, while also looking for the common threads that help us make sense of the past. Without losing sight of politics and power,  The American Yawp  incorporates transnational perspectives, integrates diverse voices, recovers narratives of resistance, and explores the complex process of cultural creation. It looks for America in crowded slave cabins, bustling markets, congested tenements, and marbled halls. It navigates between maternity wards, prisons, streets, bars, and boardrooms.

The fully peer-reviewed edition of  The American Yawp  will be available in two print volumes designed for the U.S. history survey. Volume II opens in the Gilded Age, before moving through the twentieth century as the country reckoned with economic crises, world wars, and social, cultural, and political upheaval at home. Bringing the narrative up to the present, The American Yawp  enables students to ask their own questions about how the past informs the problems and opportunities we confront today.

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1.2: The First Americans

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• American YAWP
• Stanford via Stanford University Press

American history begins with the first Americans. But where do their stories start? Native Americans passed stories down through the millennia that tell of their creation and reveal the contours of indigenous belief. The Salinan people of present-day California, for example, tell of a bald eagle that formed the first man out of clay and the first woman out of a feather. 1 According to a Lenape tradition, the earth was made when Sky Woman fell into a watery world and, with the help of muskrat and beaver, landed safely on a turtle’s back, thus creating Turtle Island, or North America. A Choctaw tradition locates southeastern peoples’ beginnings inside the great Mother Mound earthwork, Nunih Waya, in the lower Mississippi Valley. 2 Nahua people trace their beginnings to the place of the Seven Caves, from which their ancestors emerged before they migrated to what is now central Mexico. 3 America’s indigenous peoples have passed down many accounts of their origins, written and oral, which share creation and migration histories.

Archaeologists and anthropologists, meanwhile, focus on migration histories. Studying artifacts, bones, and genetic signatures, these scholars have pieced together a narrative that claims that the Americas were once a “new world” for Native Americans as well.

The last global ice age trapped much of the world’s water in enormous continental glaciers. Twenty thousand years ago, ice sheets, some a mile thick, extended across North America as far south as modern-day Illinois. With so much of the world’s water captured in these massive ice sheets, global sea levels were much lower, and a land bridge connected Asia and North America across the Bering Strait. Between twelve and twenty thousand years ago, Native ancestors crossed the ice, waters, and exposed lands between the continents of Asia and America. These mobile hunter-gatherers traveled in small bands, exploiting vegetable, animal, and marine resources into the Beringian tundra at the northwestern edge of North America. DNA evidence suggests that these ancestors paused—for perhaps fifteen thousand years—in the expansive region between Asia and America. 4 Other ancestors crossed the seas and voyaged along the Pacific coast, traveling along riverways and settling where local ecosystems permitted. 5 Glacial sheets receded around fourteen thousand years ago, opening a corridor to warmer climates and new resources. Some ancestral communities migrated southward and eastward. Evidence found at Monte Verde, a site in modern-day Chile, suggests that human activity began there at least 14,500 years ago. Similar evidence hints at human settlement in the Florida panhandle at the same time. 6 On many points, archaeological and traditional knowledge sources converge: the dental, archaeological, linguistic, oral, ecological, and genetic evidence illustrates a great deal of diversity, with numerous groups settling and migrating over thousands of years, potentially from many different points of origin. 7 Whether emerging from the earth, water, or sky; being made by a creator; or migrating to their homelands, modern Native American communities recount histories in America that date long before human memory.

In the Northwest, Native groups exploited the great salmon-filled rivers. On the plains and prairie lands, hunting communities followed bison herds and moved according to seasonal patterns. In mountains, prairies, deserts, and forests, the cultures and ways of life of paleo-era ancestors were as varied as the geography. These groups spoke hundreds of languages and adopted distinct cultural practices. Rich and diverse diets fueled massive population growth across the continent.

Agriculture arose sometime between nine thousand and five thousand years ago, almost simultaneously in the Eastern and Western Hemispheres. Mesoamericans in modern-day Mexico and Central America relied on domesticated maize (corn) to develop the hemisphere’s first settled population around 1200 BCE. 8 Corn was high in caloric content, easily dried and stored, and, in Mesoamerica’s warm and fertile Gulf Coast, could sometimes be harvested twice in a year. Corn—as well as other Mesoamerican crops—spread across North America and continues to hold an important spiritual and cultural place in many Native communities.

Agriculture flourished in the fertile river valleys between the Mississippi River and the Atlantic Ocean, an area known as the Eastern Woodlands. There, three crops in particular—corn, beans, and squash, known as the Three Sisters—provided nutritional needs necessary to sustain cities and civilizations. In Woodland areas from the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River to the Atlantic coast, Native communities managed their forest resources by burning underbrush to create vast parklike hunting grounds and to clear the ground for planting the Three Sisters. Many groups used shifting cultivation, in which farmers cut the forest, burned the undergrowth, and then planted seeds in the nutrient-rich ashes. When crop yields began to decline, farmers moved to another field and allowed the land to recover and the forest to regrow before again cutting the forest, burning the undergrowth, and restarting the cycle. This technique was particularly useful in areas with difficult soil. But in the fertile regions of the Eastern Woodlands, Native American farmers engaged in permanent, intensive agriculture, using hand tools rather than European-style plows. The rich soil and use of hand tools enabled effective and sustainable farming practices, producing high yields without overburdening the soil. 9 Typically in Woodland communities, women practiced agriculture while men hunted and fished.

Agriculture allowed for dramatic social change, but for some, it also may have accompanied a decline in health. Analysis of remains reveals that societies transitioning to agriculture often experienced weaker bones and teeth. 10 But despite these possible declines, agriculture brought important benefits. Farmers could produce more food than hunters, enabling some members of the community to pursue other skills. Religious leaders, skilled soldiers, and artists could devote their energy to activities other than food production.

North America’s indigenous peoples shared some broad traits. Spiritual practices, understandings of property, and kinship networks differed markedly from European arrangements. Most Native Americans did not neatly distinguish between the natural and the supernatural. Spiritual power permeated their world and was both tangible and accessible. It could be appealed to and harnessed. Kinship bound most Native North American people together. Most peoples lived in small communities tied by kinship networks. Many Native cultures understood ancestry as matrilineal: family and clan identity proceeded along the female line, through mothers and daughters, rather than fathers and sons. Fathers, for instance, often joined mothers’ extended families, and sometimes even a mother’s brothers took a more direct role in child-raising than biological fathers. Therefore, mothers often wielded enormous influence at local levels, and men’s identities and influence often depended on their relationships to women. Native American culture, meanwhile, generally afforded greater sexual and marital freedom than European cultures. Women, for instance, often chose their husbands, and divorce often was a relatively simple and straightforward process. Moreover, most Native peoples’ notions of property rights differed markedly from those of Europeans. Native Americans generally felt a personal ownership of tools, weapons, or other items that were actively used, and this same rule applied to land and crops. Groups and individuals exploited particular pieces of land and used violence or negotiation to exclude others. But the right to the use of land did not imply the right to its permanent possession.

Native Americans had many ways of communicating, including graphic ones, and some of these artistic and communicative technologies are still used today. For example, Algonquian-speaking Ojibwes used birch-bark scrolls to record medical treatments, recipes, songs, stories, and more. Other Eastern Woodland peoples wove plant fibers, embroidered skins with porcupine quills, and modeled the earth to make sites of complex ceremonial meaning. On the Plains, artisans wove buffalo hair and painted on buffalo skins; in the Pacific Northwest weavers wove goat hair into soft textiles with particular patterns. Maya, Zapotec, and Nahua ancestors in Mesoamerica painted their histories on plant-derived textiles and carved them into stone. In the Andes, Inca recorders noted information in the form of knotted strings, or khipu . 11

Two thousand years ago, some of the largest culture groups in North America were the Puebloan groups, centered in the current-day Greater Southwest (the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico), the Mississippian groups located along the Great River and its tributaries, and the Mesoamerican groups of the areas now known as central Mexico and the Yucatán. Previous developments in agricultural technology enabled the explosive growth of the large early societies, such as that at Tenochtitlán in the Valley of Mexico, Cahokia along the Mississippi River, and in the desert oasis areas of the Greater Southwest.

Chaco Canyon in northern New Mexico was home to ancestral Puebloan peoples between 900 and 1300 CE. As many as fifteen thousand individuals lived in the Chaco Canyon complex in present-day New Mexico. 12 Sophisticated agricultural practices, extensive trading networks, and even the domestication of animals like turkeys allowed the population to swell. Massive residential structures, built from sandstone blocks and lumber carried across great distances, housed hundreds of Puebloan people. One building, Pueblo Bonito, stretched over two acres and rose five stories. Its six hundred rooms were decorated with copper bells, turquoise decorations, and bright macaws. 13 Homes like those at Pueblo Bonito included a small dugout room, or kiva , which played an important role in a variety of ceremonies and served as an important center for Puebloan life and culture. Puebloan spirituality was tied both to the earth and the heavens, as generations carefully charted the stars and designed homes in line with the path of the sun and moon. 14

The Puebloan people of Chaco Canyon faced several ecological challenges, including deforestation and overirrigation, which ultimately caused the community to collapse and its people to disperse to smaller settlements. An extreme fifty-year drought began in 1130. Shortly thereafter, Chaco Canyon was deserted. New groups, including the Apache and Navajo, entered the vacated territory and adopted several Puebloan customs. The same drought that plagued the Pueblo also likely affected the Mississippian peoples of the American Midwest and South. The Mississippians developed one of the largest civilizations north of modern-day Mexico. Roughly one thousand years ago, the largest Mississippian settlement, Cahokia, located just east of modern-day St. Louis, peaked at a population of between ten thousand and thirty thousand. It rivaled contemporary European cities in size. No American city, in fact, would match Cahokia’s peak population levels until after the American Revolution. The city itself spanned two thousand acres and centered on Monks Mound, a large earthen hill that rose ten stories and was larger at its base than the pyramids of Egypt. As with many of the peoples who lived in the Woodlands, life and death in Cahokia were linked to the movement of the stars, sun, and moon, and their ceremonial earthwork structures reflect these important structuring forces.

Cahokia was politically organized around chiefdoms, a hierarchical, clan-based system that gave leaders both secular and sacred authority. The size of the city and the extent of its influence suggest that the city relied on a number of lesser chiefdoms under the authority of a paramount leader. Social stratification was partly preserved through frequent warfare. War captives were enslaved, and these captives formed an important part of the economy in the North American Southeast. Native American slavery was not based on holding people as property. Instead, Native Americans understood slaves as people who lacked kinship networks. Slavery, then, was not always a permanent condition. Very often, a former slave could become a fully integrated member of the community. Adoption or marriage could enable a slave to enter a kinship network and join the community. Slavery and captive trading became an important way that many Native communities regrew and gained or maintained power.

Around 1050, Cahokia experienced what one archaeologist has called a “big bang,” which included “a virtually instantaneous and pervasive shift in all things political, social, and ideological.” 15 The population grew almost 500 percent in only one generation, and new people groups were absorbed into the city and its supporting communities. By 1300, the once-powerful city had undergone a series of strains that led to collapse. Scholars previously pointed to ecological disaster or slow depopulation through emigration, but new research instead emphasizes mounting warfare, or internal political tensions. Environmental explanations suggest that population growth placed too great a burden on the arable land. Others suggest that the demand for fuel and building materials led to deforestation, erosion, and perhaps an extended drought. Recent evidence, including defensive stockades, suggests that political turmoil among the ruling elite and threats from external enemies may explain the end of the once-great civilization. 16

North American communities were connected by kin, politics, and culture and sustained by long-distance trading routes. The Mississippi River served as an important trade artery, but all of the continent’s waterways were vital to transportation and communication. Cahokia became a key trading center partly because of its position near the Mississippi, Illinois, and Missouri Rivers. These rivers created networks that stretched from the Great Lakes to the American Southeast. Archaeologists can identify materials, like seashells, that traveled over a thousand miles to reach the center of this civilization. At least 3,500 years ago, the community at what is now Poverty Point, Louisiana, had access to copper from present-day Canada and flint from modern-day Indiana. Sheets of mica found at the sacred Serpent Mound site near the Ohio River came from the Allegheny Mountains, and obsidian from nearby earthworks came from Mexico. Turquoise from the Greater Southwest was used at Teotihuacan 1200 years ago.

In the Eastern Woodlands, many Native American societies lived in smaller, dispersed communities to take advantage of rich soils and abundant rivers and streams. The Lenapes, also known as Delawares, farmed the bottomlands throughout the Hudson and Delaware River watersheds in New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware. Their hundreds of settlements, stretching from southern Massachusetts through Delaware, were loosely bound together by political, social, and spiritual connections.

Dispersed and relatively independent, Lenape communities were bound together by oral histories, ceremonial traditions, consensus-based political organization, kinship networks, and a shared clan system. Kinship tied the various Lenape communities and clans together, and society was organized along matrilineal lines. Marriage occurred between clans, and a married man joined the clan of his wife. Lenape women wielded authority over marriages, households, and agricultural production and may even have played a significant part in determining the selection of leaders, called sachems. Dispersed authority, small settlements, and kin-based organization contributed to the long-lasting stability and resilience of Lenape communities. 17 One or more sachems governed Lenape communities by the consent of their people. Lenape sachems acquired their authority by demonstrating wisdom and experience. This differed from the hierarchical organization of many Mississippian cultures. Large gatherings did exist, however, as dispersed communities and their leaders gathered for ceremonial purposes or to make big decisions. Sachems spoke for their people in larger councils that included men, women, and elders. The Lenapes experienced occasional tensions with other indigenous groups like the Iroquois to the north or the Susquehannock to the south, but the lack of defensive fortifications near Lenape communities convinced archaeologists that the Lenapes avoided large-scale warfare.

The continued longevity of Lenape societies, which began centuries before European contact, was also due to their skills as farmers and fishers. Along with the Three Sisters, Lenape women planted tobacco, sunflowers, and gourds. They harvested fruits and nuts from trees and cultivated numerous medicinal plants, which they used with great proficiency. The Lenapes organized their communities to take advantage of growing seasons and the migration patterns of animals and fowl that were a part of their diet. During planting and harvesting seasons, Lenapes gathered in larger groups to coordinate their labor and take advantage of local abundance. As proficient fishers, they organized seasonal fish camps to net shellfish and catch shad. Lenapes wove nets, baskets, mats, and a variety of household materials from the rushes found along the streams, rivers, and coasts. They made their homes in some of the most fertile and abundant lands in the Eastern Woodlands and used their skills to create a stable and prosperous civilization. The first Dutch and Swedish settlers who encountered the Lenapes in the seventeenth century recognized Lenape prosperity and quickly sought their friendship. Their lives came to depend on it.

In the Pacific Northwest, the Kwakwaka’wakw, Tlingits, Haidas, and hundreds of other peoples, speaking dozens of languages, thrived in a land with a moderate climate, lush forests, and many rivers. The peoples of this region depended on salmon for survival and valued it accordingly. Images of salmon decorated totem poles, baskets, canoes, oars, and other tools. The fish was treated with spiritual respect and its image represented prosperity, life, and renewal. Sustainable harvesting practices ensured the survival of salmon populations. The Coast Salish people and several others celebrated the First Salmon Ceremony when the first migrating salmon was spotted each season. Elders closely observed the size of the salmon run and delayed harvesting to ensure that a sufficient number survived to spawn and return in the future. 18 Men commonly used nets, hooks, and other small tools to capture salmon as they migrated upriver to spawn. Massive cedar canoes, as long as fifty feet and carrying as many as twenty men, also enabled extensive fishing expeditions in the Pacific Ocean, where skilled fishermen caught halibut, sturgeon, and other fish, sometimes hauling thousands of pounds in a single canoe. 19

Food surpluses enabled significant population growth, and the Pacific Northwest became one of the most densely populated regions of North America. The combination of population density and surplus food created a unique social organization centered on elaborate feasts, called potlatches. These potlatches celebrated births and weddings and determined social status. The party lasted for days and hosts demonstrated their wealth and power by entertaining guests with food, artwork, and performances. The more the hosts gave away, the more prestige and power they had within the group. Some men saved for decades to host an extravagant potlatch that would in turn give him greater respect and power within the community.

Many peoples of the Pacific Northwest built elaborate plank houses out of the region’s abundant cedar trees. The five-hundred-foot-long Suquamish Oleman House (or Old Man House), for instance, rested on the banks of Puget Sound. 20 Giant cedar trees were also carved and painted in the shape of animals or other figures to tell stories and express identities. These totem poles became the most recognizable artistic form of the Pacific Northwest, but peoples also carved masks and other wooden items, such as hand drums and rattles, out of the region’s great trees.

Despite commonalities, Native cultures varied greatly. The New World was marked by diversity and contrast. By the time Europeans were poised to cross the Atlantic, Native Americans spoke hundreds of languages and lived in keeping with the hemisphere’s many climates. Some lived in cities, others in small bands. Some migrated seasonally; others settled permanently. All Native peoples had long histories and well-formed, unique cultures that developed over millennia. But the arrival of Europeans changed everything.

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American History 1--HIST 2111 (OER): Chapter 12: Manifest Destiny

• Chapter 1: The New World
• Chapter 2: Colliding Cultures
• Chapter 3: British North America
• Chapter 4: Colonial Society
• Chapter 5: The American Revolution
• Chapter 6: A New Nation
• Chapter 7: The Early Republic
• Chapter 8: The Market Revolution
• Chapter 9: Democracy in American
• Chapter 10: Religion and Reform
• Chapter 11: The Cotton Revolution
• Chapter 12: Manifest Destiny
• Chapter 13: Sectional Crisis
• Chapter 14: The Civil War
• Chapter 15: Reconstruction
• Teaching Resources (Updated Fall 2023)
• Test Bank Request (Instructors Only)

American Yawp Chapter Summary

John Louis O’Sullivan, a popular editor and columnist, articulated the long-standing American belief in the God-given mission of the United States to lead the world in the peaceful transition to democracy. In a little-read essay printed in  The United States Magazine and Democratic Review , O’Sullivan outlined the importance of annexing Texas to the United States:

Why, were other reasoning wanting, in favor of now elevating this question of the reception of Texas into the Union, out of the lower region of our past party dissensions, up to its proper level of a high and broad nationality, it surely is to be found, found abundantly, in the manner in which other nations have undertaken to intrude themselves into it, between us and the proper parties to the case, in a spirit of hostile interference against us, for the avowed object of thwarting our policy and hampering our power, limiting our greatness and checking the fulfillment of our manifest destiny to overspread the continent allotted by Providence for the free development of our yearly multiplying millions. John Louis O’Sullivan  ((John O’Sullivan, “Annexation,”  United States Magazine and Democratic Review  17, no.1 (July-August 1845), 5-10.))

O’Sullivan and many others viewed expansion, particularly to the West, as necessary to achieve America’s destiny and protect American interests. The antebellum period saw the quasi-religious call to spread democracy coupled with the reality of thousands of settlers pressing westward. The precepts of manifest destiny, grounded in the twin beliefs of virtuous American institutionalism and the uplifting effects of agrarian republicanism, rode the wagon trails westward in advance of the destinarian belief in American greatness – the proverbial city on the hill of the colonial period began its move westward. Read more of Chapter 12 .

Things to Consider

Questions to be thinking about as you move through the content of this chapter.

• What role did the policy of “Indian Removal” play in westward expansion?
• Why was the “Florida Model” so appealing to proponents of westward expansion?
• How did the Cherokee Nation attempt to resist American encroachment through treaty-making and assimilation? Why did that attempt ultimately fail?
• Explain the role played by Comanchia in the Mexican-American War (US-Mexican War).
• How did frontier society affect gender norms?
• In what ways did the federal government incentivize settlement in the west?
• How did the Mexican-American War change the American notion of “the West”?
• What were the short-term and long-term consequences of the Mexican-American War on Mexico? What about on the United States?
• What were the reasons behind the Monroe Doctrine? What was the United States attempting to accomplish with this approach to foreign policy?  What role did the Caribbean play??

Additional Primary Sources

• President Monroe outlines the Monroe Doctrine, 1823
• Cherokee Nation v. the State of Georgia, 1831
• Black Hawk’s Surrender Speech, 1832
• Cherokee petition protesting removal, 1836
• Cherokee Letter protesting the Treaty of New Echota , 1836 (Quiz)
• John L. O’Sullivan on Manifest Destiny, 1839
• John O’Sullivan declares America’s manifest destiny, 1845
• Diary of a woman migrating to Oregon, 1853
• Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, 1848
• Anti-immigrant cartoon, 1860
• Chinese merchant complains of racist abuse, 1860
• “Spirit of the Frontier” by John Gast, 1872 (painting)

Learning Objectives and Assessment

Student learning outcomes.

• Identify key events that define change over time in a particular place or region, and identify how change occurs over time
• Understand the dynamics of change over time
• Distinguish between historical facts and historical interpretations
• Evaluate a variety of historical sources for their credibility, position, significance, and perspective

Course Objectives

• Students will be able to analyze economic development & cultural reform movements during the first half of the 19 th century.
• Students will be able to understand the relationship between events connected to Manifest Destiny & the causes of sectionalism & the Civil War.

Videos, Maps and Images

• Interactive Map of Native American Land Seizure
• GPB Learning: Interactive Map of Westward Expansion
• Lewis and Clark Expedition (Wikimedia Commons)
• Adams-Onis Treaty (1819) (Wikimedia Commons)
• Texas Revolution (Texas and disputed territory) (Wikimedia Commons)
• The Mexican-American War (Wikimedia Commons)
• Trail of Tears (Wikimedia Commons)
• Seminole Wars (Wikimedia Commons)
• Crash Course US History: War & Expansion
• Khan Academy: Jacksonian Democracy: Spoils System, Bank War, and the Trail of Tears
• National Park Service: Trail of Tears
• GPB Learning: Building the Erie Canal
• GPB Learning: The Trail of Tears – We Shall Remain
• Eric Foner (Learn Columbia): The Mexican War and the Expansion of Slavery
• << Previous: Chapter 11: The Cotton Revolution
• Next: Chapter 13: Sectional Crisis >>
• Last Updated: Nov 3, 2023 3:29 PM
• URL: https://getlibraryhelp.highlands.edu/c.php?g=677685

Dickinson College, Fall 2023

• Course Policies
• Methods Center
• First Essay –Reconstructing America
• Second Essay –Cold War America
• Oral History Project
• Student Hall of Fame

First Essay –Reconstructing America

Due October 2, 2023

On  Monday, October 2 , students will submit a 3-5 page typed, double-spaced essay on a topic covering post-Civil War American life that will be provided to them in class on Thursday, Sep. 28. All essays must include information and quotations from the  American Yawp  online textbook, properly cited with Chicago-style footnotes. Outside research is allowed but not required.  Late essays will be penalized up to 5 points per day.  PLEASE CHOOSE ONE OF THE FOLLOWING:

• What was the most significant political or social change in the United States between 1865 and 1920?
• What was the most persistent political or social injustice in the United States between 1865 and 1920?
• Relevant reading assignments for this essay include several chapters from American Yawp and the primary sources featured on the course site.
• Please open your paper with a descriptive title and your name (byline).
• Make sure to address a question and devise a thesis statement that can be effectively argued in a short paper.  Consult the Methods Center handout on How to Write a Thesis Statement  
• As with any essential question, make sure to define terms, consider the landscape of opinion, and demonstrate respect for complexity and change over time
• Be specific.  Use examples, dates, statistics and snippets of quotation to support your claims.
• All   essay s must include both primary and secondary source material from the assigned readings properly cited using Chicago-style footnotes. Outside research is allowed but not required.
• Make sure you are using and formatting your footnotes correctly.  Provide footnotes for all quotations and highly specific information (such as statistics). See the models below as well as this methods handout on How to Use Footnotes  and consult as needed with the  library’s Chicago-style guide , but make sure to use sample footnote models for formatting and NOT bibliography examples.
• Prof. Pinsker will comment on full or partial drafts over email until Sunday evening.  You may also consult with the Writing Center for help with your essay.  Do not work with other students in the course on your answer.

Sample Footnotes

According to the editors of the American Yawp textbook, “ reform became the word of the age.” [1]   Any subsequent citation to Yawp can be abbreviated with only chapter and section number. [2]

[1] Mary Anne Henderson, ed., “The Progressive Era,” in  The American Yawp , eds. Joseph Locke and Ben Wright (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2018).

[2] Yawp, 20: IV.

Essays will be graded on depth of analysis, use of evidence, and quality of prose. Late essays will be penalized up to 5 points each day.

• Organize your   essay   in a way that respects chronology and historical context.
• Use past tense except when describing modern scholarship
• Avoid first person pronouns, including “our”
• Take to care to evaluate your sources as you deploy them in your essay.  See this methods post on Evaluating Sources for a helpful overall framework.
• Don’t underestimate the importance of integrating your quoted evidence with some degree of fluidity.  Awkwardly inserting quotations is one of the hallmarks of mediocre undergraduate essays.  Consult this handout from the methods center for a range of good tips.
• Also, please guard against plagiarism.  Remember our discussion from the very first day of the semester .  Never write your own words while looking directly at your sources, especially secondary sources –unless you are quoting them.
• And finally, always remember to proofread your work by printing it out and reading it aloud, slowly. See our methods handout on  How to Proofreed [sic]

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Capital and Labor

The march of capital transformed patterns of American labor. While a select few enjoyed historically unparalleled levels of wealth, and an ever-growing slice of middle-class workers possessed an ever more comfortable standard of living, vast numbers of farmers lost their land while a growing working class struggled to earn wages sufficient to support families and justify their labor. Industrial capitalism brought wealth and it brought poverty, it created owners and investors and it created employees. Whether winners or losers in the new American economy, Americans of all stripes had to reckon with the new ways of life unleashed by industrialization.

This chapter was edited by Joseph Locke, with content contributions by Andrew C. Baker, Nicholas Blood, Justin Clark, Dan Du, Caroline Bunnell Harris, David Hochfelder Scott Libson, Joseph Locke, Leah Richier, Matthew Simmons, Kate Sohasky, Joseph Super, and Kaylynn Washnock.

• American Yawp. Located at : http://www.americanyawp.com/index.html . Project : American Yawp. License : CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike

THE AMERICAN YAWP

Why “american yawp”, what does “open” mean, editorial intent.

In an increasingly digital world in which pedagogical trends are de-emphasizing rote learning and professors are increasingly turning toward active-learning exercises, scholars are fleeing traditional textbooks. Yet for those that still yearn for the safe tether of a synthetic text, as either narrative backbone or occasional reference material,  The American Yawp  offers a free and online, collaboratively built, open American history textbook designed for college-level history courses. Unchecked by profit motives or business models, and free from for-profit educational organizations,  The American Yawp  is by scholars, for scholars. All contributors—experienced college-level instructors—volunteer their expertise to help democratize the American past for twenty-first century classrooms.

Many American history textbooks struggle to encapsulate American history. Some organize around themes— The American Promise ,  The Story of American Freedom —while others surrender to the impossibility of synthesis and retreat toward generality— America’s History ,  The American People . But in the oft-cited lines of the American poet Walt Whitman we find as good an organizing principle as any other: “I too am not a bit tamed—I too am untranslatable,” he wrote, “I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world.” Long before Whitman and long after, Americans have sung something collectively amid the deafening roar of their many individual voices. Here we find both, chorus and cacophony, together, as one. Always free, always open, this textbook offers the story of that barbaric, untranslatable American yawp.

The American Yawp is an open resource: you are encouraged to use it, download it, distribute it, and modify it as you see fit. The project is formally operated under a  Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International (CC-BY-SA) License  and is designed to meet the standards of a  “Free Cultural Work.”  We are happy to share it and we hope you do the same.

The American Yawp  constructs a coherent and accessible narrative from all the best of recent historical scholarship. Without losing sight of politics and power, it incorporates transnational perspectives, integrates diverse voices, recovers narratives of resistance, and explores the complex process of cultural creation. It looks for America in crowded slave cabins, bustling markets, congested tenements, and marbled halls. It navigates between maternity wards, prisons, streets, bars, and boardrooms. Whitman’s America, like ours, cut across the narrow boundaries that strangle many narratives. Balancing academic rigor with popular readability,  The American Yawp  offers a multi-layered, democratic alternative to the American past.

Any questions, concerns, or requests may be sent to  Joseph Locke  or  Ben Wright .