Experience History: Interpreting America's Past

Connect students to the "stories" of history. Connect students to the "experience" of history. Connect students to "success" in history.

At McGraw-Hill, we have spent the past few years deepening our understanding of the student and instructor experience. Employing a wide array of research tools including surveys, focus groups, and ethnographic studies, we've identified areas in need of improvement to provide an opportunity for greater learning and teaching experiences. "Experience History" is a direct result of this.

"Experience History" is also a first in American History. Its groundbreaking adaptive diagnostic and interactive exercises paired with its lively narrative and engaging visuals create a unique teaching and learning environment propelling greater student success and better course results. Instructors gain better insight into students' engagement and understanding as students develop a base of knowledge and construct critical thinking skills. Gripping stories keep students turning the page while the adaptive diagnostics for each chapter and a personalized study plan for each individual student help students prepare for class discussions and course work while enjoying increased course success.

"Experience History" emphasizes that history is not just a collection of proven facts, but is "created" from the detective work of historians examining evidence from the past. Providing the interactive environment that only an integrated solution can provide, "Experience History" gives students the opportunity to examine primary sources and explore specific periods and events. This leads to greater understanding as well as the building and practicing of critical thinking skills. As students uniquely experience American History, "Experience History" propels students to greater understanding while achieving greater course success.

Give students an experience. Improve course participation and performance. "Experience History," and experience success.

Increased Global Coverage! - As always, each of the book's six parts begins with an essay setting American events in a global context. In the fourth edition, this perspective is carried farther with related material woven throughout the natural narrative flow of each chapter. Good examples of this are in Chapter 2, West Africa and the scope of the African Slave Trade in the early modern period, and in Chapter 23, the Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and its global implications.
New prologue! 'Settling and Civilizing the Americas', devoted entirely to the Pre-Columbian Americas, emphasizes the influence of classical civilizations in ancient Mesoamerica upon many North American societies.
New chapter order Part 4! Now begins with 'The New South and the TransMississippi West' followed by 'The New Industrial Order' and 'The Rise of an Urban Order' to reflect the way most professors teach the course.
Chapters 25 and 26 condensed into one chapter. Now, Chapter 24 'The New Era' covers through the Great Crash, while Chapter 25 covers both the Depression and the New Deal.
Part 6 completely revised to provide stronger themes in order to address a chronic problem with American History survey texts: the difficulty of providing a coherent narrative of more recent events, whose importance are only slowly being sorted out. Therefore:
Chapter 28, the Suburban Era, now takes its coverage through the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, enabling students to focus more clearly on the arc of the first half of the Cold War.
Chapter 29 has been recast as Civil Rights and the Crisis of Liberalism. In the 3rd edition this chapter was simply entitled 'Liberalism and Beyond'. The new chapter focus will better illustrate how the Civil Rights crusade was the defining social movement of the era.
Chapter 30, the Vietnam Era, reorients its coverage of minority activists by focusing on the theme of identity group politics. Coverage of the feminist movement, IRA and abortion rights has been moved to this chapter from 'The Age of Limits' to join expanded coverage of Latino protests, Native Americans, Asian Americans and gay activism.
Chapter 32 now focuses on the Conservative Rebellion and covers from 1980-1992.
NEW CHAPTER! Chapter 33, Nation of Nations in a Global Community, provides an up-to-date, yet more coherent and thematic coverage than most surveys of events from 1992 to the present. The chapter stresses the global connections in today's American history. First a section on the new immigration of the 1980's and 90's, then sections on Clinton foreign and domestic policy; a section on the rise of the Internet and its social implications, and ending with a focus on Multiculturalism and the contested American identity.
Each chapter now begins with a succinct PREVIEW in large type that highlights the chapter's key theme. This helps students to focus in to major points in the chapter before reading the chapter.
New chapter summaries are given in bulleted outline form, allowing major points to stand out clearly. This feature helps students review and study the material they just covered in the reading.
New layout and design visually shows concepts from the narrative.
A strong narrative approach which engages and holds student interest.
Key terms and concepts are printed in the margins throughout the entire text, helping students focus.
Timelines in each chapter help students put events into context in a visual way.
The Daily Lives feature complements the core narrative by vividly describing the lives of ordinary Americans and placing them in their appropriate political and social context.