Books in the The American Social Experience series

On May 29, 1917, Mrs E M Craise, citizen of Denver, Colorado, penned a letter to President Woodrow Wilson, which concluded, We have surrendered to your absolute control our hearts' dearest treasures - our sons. If their precious bodies that have cost us so dear should be torn to shreds by German shot.

Thomas Hutchinson, Governor of Massachusetts, was despised for being ardently loyal to the Crown in the days leading up to the American Revolution. This biography traces his decline from respected member of Boston's governing class to leading object of America's revolutionary hostility.

This work draws on a wide range of sources (movies, advertisements, sex confession magazines, letters, diaries, social hygienists, sex manuals and Freudian popularisers) to examine the ideology that has defined modern American manhood in sexual terms.

An overview of the history of social welfare and juvenile justice in Boston. This book traces the origins, development and ultimate failure of Protestant and Catholic reformers' efforts to ameliorate working-class poverty and juvenile delinquency.

This account of the development of Atlantic City and its conflict over the Sabbath brings to light an ongoing crisis in American society - the chasm between religion and mass culture. The book features historical photographs depicting the evolution of the resort's architecture and political scene.

Not once since World War I has even half the US electorate voted in an "off-year" election, and even in Presidential elections voting has plummeted. This study of mass political behaviour in 20 successive national elections combines political and social analysis.

Presents a detailed description of the everyday life of early Dutch settlers in New York and New Jersey. Cohen gives special attention to the rise of the Dutch Reformed Church in these areas - particularly to the denomination's transformation into an "American" culture.

The story of 19th-century Winston-Salem, a community of artisans and small farmers, united, as members of a religious congregation, by a single vision of life. Its transformation into an industrial centre within a few decades, illustrates the changes that swept through America's Southern society.

The late eighteenth century marked a period of changing expectations about marriage. The difficulties that rose, including abuse, and domestic violence differ little from those with which couples struggle today. This account reveals a strongly communicative world in which neighbors came to the aid of those locked in unhappy marriages.

A study of the childhood and youth of William Dean Howells, that demonstrates how the turbulent social and cultural changes of the early nineteenth century shaped the young Howells' emotional and intellectual life. It portrays the ordeal of coming of age during a momentous period of American history.

Reconstructing the life of the slave woman at the center of the notorious Salem witch trials, this book follows Tituba from her likely origins in South America to Barbados, forcefully dispelling the commonly-held belief that Tituba was African.

In this survey of the modern American Christmas, Waits shows how this holiday emerged, tracing its evolution from the days prior to 1880 to the present day. In addition, he examines the differing traditions of giftgiving to friends, employees, the poor, and among communtys.

An examination of how the community of Lynchburg, Virginia, experienced four distinct but overlapping events: secession, civil war, black emancipation, and reconstruction. The book seeks to demonstrate how ordinary people influenced the contours of race and class relations in their town.

Of the twenty-nine major generals who served in the American Revolution, all but six have been the subjects of full-length biographies. General Richard Montgomery--who captured St. John and Montreal in the same fortnight in 1775; who, upon his death during the storming of Quebec, was eulogized in British Parliament by Burke, Fox, and Barre; and after whom sixteen American counties have been named--has, to date, been one of the neglected half-dozen.

In "Shrinking Violets and Caspar Milquetoasts", Patricia McDaniel tells the story of shyness. Using popular self-help books and magazine articles she shows how prevailing attitudes toward shyness frequently work to disempower women.

This title examines America's first foreign war, the Mexican War of 1846-1848, through the daily experiences of the American soldier in battle, in camp and on the march.

A new intellectual community came together in the United States in the 1910s and 1920s, a community outside the universities, the professions and, in general, the established centers of intellectual life. This book is a cultural history of this community of free-lance critics.

Tracing the evolution of each of the bad habits, this title shows how liquor control boards encouraged the consumption of alcohol; how alcoholic beverage producers got their workers deferred from the draft during World War II; and how convenience stores and accounting firms pursued profits by pushing legalized gambling.

This account discusses the outbreak of medical malpractice litigation in the 1840s in America that disrupted professional relations, injured individual reputations, and burdened physicians with legal fees and damage awards.