《美国历史》英文版适合高中以上读者阅读使用,对于备考SAT的学生应该很有帮助。全书提供配套英文朗读下载,在提升阅读水平的同时练习英文听力与口语。对于普通英语学习爱好者,也是一本很好的了解美国历史的学习读本。作者在前言中,对《美国历史》的特点作了如下介绍:
It is not upon negative
features, however, that we rest our case. It is rather upon
constructive features.
First. We have written a topical, not a narrative, history. We
have tried to set forth the important aspects, problems, and
movements of each period, bringing in the narrative rather by way
of illustration.
Second. We have emphasized those historical topics which help to
explain how our nation has come to be what it is to-day.
Third. We have dwelt fully upon the social and economic
aspects of our history, especially in relation to the politics of
each period.
Fourth. We have treated the causes and results of wars, the
problems of financing and sustaining armed forces, rather than
military strategy. These are the subjects, which belong to a
history for civilians. These are matters which civilians can
understand—matters which they must understand, if they are to play
well their part in war and peace.
Fifth. By omitting the period of exploration, we have been
able to enlarge the treatment of our own time. We have given
special attention to the history of those current questions which
must form the subject matter of sound instruction in
citizenship.
Sixth. We have borne in mind that America, with all her unique
characteristics, is a part of a general civilization. Accordingly
we have given diplomacy, foreign affairs, world relations, and the
reciprocal influences of nations their appropriate place.
Seventh. We have deliberately aimed at standards of
maturity.
The study of a mere narrative calls mainly for the use of the
memory. We have aimed to stimulate habits of analysis, comparison,
association, reflection, and generalization—habits calculated to
enlarge as well as inform the mind. We have been at great pains to
make our text clear, simple, and direct; but we have earnestly
sought to stretch the intellects of our readers— to put them upon
their mettle. Most of them will receive the last of their formal
instruction in the high school. The world will soon expect maturity
from them. Their achievements will depend upon the possession of
other powers than memory alone. The effectiveness of their
citizenship in our republic will be measured by the excellence of
their judgment as well as the fullness of their information.
關於作者:
作者查尔斯?A?比尔德,美国著名历史学家,去世于1948年。他写作的《美国文明的兴起》一书,被商务印书馆翻译出版并选入“汉译名著”系列。
Charles Austin Beard November 27, 1874—September 1, 1948 was
an American historian. He published hundreds of monographs,
textbooks and interpretive studies in both history and political
science. His works included radical re-evaluation of the Founding
Fathers of the United States, whom he believed were more motivated
by economics than by philosophical principles.
Mary Ritter Beard August 5, 1876—August 14, 1958 was an
influential American historian and
archivist , who played an important role in the women''s
suffrage movement and was a lifelong advocate for social justice
through educational and activist roles in both the labor and
woman''s rights movements. She wrote several books on women''s role
in history including On Understanding Women 1931, America Through
Women''s Eyes 1933 and Woman As Force In History: A Study in
Traditions and Realities 1946. In addition, she collaborated with
her husband, eminent historian Charles Austin Beard on several
distinguished works, most notably The Rise of American Civilization
1927.
目錄:
PART I.THE COLONIAL PERIOD
1 THE GREAT MIGRATION TO AMERICA
2 COLONIAL AGRICULTURE, INDUSTRY, AND COMMERCE
3 SOCIAL AND POLITICAL PROGRESS
4 THE DEVELOPMENT OF COLONIAL NATIONALISM
PART II. CONFLICT AND INDEPENDENCE
5 THE NEW COURSE IN BRITISH IMPERIAL POLICY
6 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION
PART III. FOUNDATIONS OF THE UNION AND NATIONAL POLITICS
7 THE FORMATION OF THE CONSTITUTION
8 THE CLASH OF POLITICAL PARTIES
9 THE JEFFERSONIAN REPUBLICANS IN POWER
PART IV. THE WEST AND JACKSONIAN DEMOCRACY
10 THE FARMERS BEYOND THE APPALACHIANS
11 JACKSONIAN DEMOCRACY
12 THE MIDDLE BORDER AND THE GREAT WEST
PART V. SECTIONAL CONFLICT AND RECONSTRUCTION
13 THE RISE OF THE INDUSTRIAL SYSTEM
14 THE PLANTING SYSTEM AND NATIONAL POLITICS
15 THE CIVIL WAR AND RECONSTRUCTION
PART VI. NATIONAL GROWTH AND WORLD POLITICS
16 THE POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC EVOLUTION OF THE SOUTH
17 BUSINESS ENTERPRISE AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY
18 THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE GREAT WEST
19 DOMESTIC ISSUES BEFORE THE COUNTRY 1865-1897
20 AMERICA A WORLD POWER 1865-1900
PART VII. PROGRESSIVE DEMOCRACY AND THE WORLD WAR
21 THE EVOLUTION OF REPUBLICAN POLICIES 1901-1913
22 THE SPIRIT OF REFORM IN AMERICA
23 THE NEW POLITICAL DEMOCRACY
24 INDUSTRIAL DEMOCRACY
25 PRESIDENT WILSON AND THE WORLD WAR
內容試閱:
CHA
TER 1
THE GREAT MIGRATION TO AMERICA
The tide of migration that set in toward the shores of North
America during the early years of the seventeenth century was but
one
hase in the restless and eternal movement of mankind u
on the surface of the earth. The ancient Greeks flung out
their colonies in every direction, westward as far as Gaul, across
the Mediterranean, and eastward into Asia Minor,
erha
s to the very confines of India. The Romans, su
orted by their armies and their government, s
read their dominion beyond the narrow lands of Italy until it
stretched from the heather of Scotland to the sands of Arabia. The
Teutonic tribes, from their home beyond the Danube and the
Rhine,
oured into the em
ire of the C?sars and made the beginnings of modern Euro
e. Of this great swee
of races and em
ires the settlement of America was merely a
art. And it was, moreover, only one as
ect of the ex
ansion which finally carried the
eo
les, the institutions, and the trade of Euro
e to the very ends of the earth.
In one vital
oint, it must be noted, American colonization differed from
that of the ancients. The Greeks usually carried with them
affection for the government they left behind and sacred fire from
the altar of the
arent city; but thousands of the immigrants who came to
America disliked the state and disowned the church of the mother
country. They established com
acts of government for themselves and set u
altars of their own. They sought not only new soil to till
but also
olitical and religious liberty for themselves and their
children.
The Agencies of American Colonization
It was no light matter for the English to cross three thousand
miles of water and found homes in the American wilderness at the
o
ening of the seventeenth century. Shi
s, tools, and su
lies called for huge outlays of money. Stores had to be
furnished in quantities sufficient to sustain the life of the
settlers until they could gather harvests of their own. Artisans
and laborers of skill and industry had to be induced to risk the
hazards of the new world. Soldiers were required for defense and
mariners for the ex
loration of inland waters. Leaders of good judgment, ade
t in managing men, had to be discovered. Altogether such an
enter
rise demanded ca
ital larger than the ordinary merchant or gentleman could
amass and involved risks more imminent than he dared to assume.
Though in later days, after initial tests had been made,
wealthy
ro
rietors were able to establish colonies on their own account,
it was the cor
oration that furnished the ca
ital and leadershi
in the beginning.
The Trading Com
any.—English
ioneers in ex
loration found an instrument for colonization in com
anies of merchant adventurers, which had long been em
loyed in carrying on commerce with foreign countries. Such a
cor
oration was com
osed of many
ersons of different ranks of society—noblemen, merchants, and
gentlemen—who banded together for a
articular undertaking, each contributing a sum of money and
sharing in the
rofits of the venture. It was organized under royal authority;
it received its charter, its grant of land, and its
trading
rivileges from the king and carried on its o
erations under his su
ervision and control. The charter named all the
ersons originally included in the cor
oration and gave them certain
owers in the management of its affairs, including the right to
admit new members. The com
any was in fact a little government set u
by the king. When the members of the cor
oration remained in England, as in the case of the Virginia
Com
any, they o
erated through agents sent to the colony. When they came over
the seas themselves and settled in America, as in the case of
Massachusetts, they became the direct government of the country
they
ossessed. The stockholders in that instance became the voters
and the governor, the chief magistrate.
Four of the thirteen colonies in America owed their origins to
the trading cor
oration. It was the London Com
any, created by King James I, in 1606, that laid during the
following year the foundations of Virginia at Jamestown. It was
under the aus
ices of their West India Com
any, chartered in 1621, that the Dutch
lanted the settlements of the New Netherland in the valley of
the Hudson. The founders of Massachusetts were
uritan leaders and men of affairs whom King Charles I
incor
orated in 1629 under the title: “The governor and com
any of the Massachusetts Bay in New England.” In this case the
law did but incor
orate a grou
drawn together by religious ties. “We must be knit together
as one man,” wrote John Winthro
, the first
uritan governor in America. Far to the south, on the banks of
the Delaware River, a Swedish commercial com
any in 1638 made the beginnings of a settlement, christened
New Sweden; it was destined to
ass under the rule of the Dutch, and finally under the rule of
William
enn as the
ro
rietary colony of Delaware.
In a certain sense, Georgia may be included among the “com
any colonies.” It was, however, originally conceived by the
moving s
irit, James Oglethor
e, as an asylum for
oor men, es
ecially those im
risoned for debt. To realize this humane
ur
ose, he secured from King George II, in 1732, a royal charter
uniting several gentlemen, including himself, into “one
body
olitic and cor
orate,” known as the “Trustees for establishing the colony of
Georgia in America.” In the structure of their organization and
their methods of government, the trustees did not differ materially
from the regular com
anies created for trade and colonization. Though
their
ur
oses were benevolent, their transactions had to be under the
forms of law and according to the rules of business.
……