Her contribution to the Union was incalculable and unique. It also became the defining event in Barton's life, giving her the opportunity as a woman to reach out for a new role and to define a new profession. Nursing, regarded as a menial service before the war, became a trained, paid occupation after the conflict. Although Barton went on to become the founder and first president of the Red Cross, the accomplishment for which she is best known, A Woman of Valor convinces us that her experience on the killing fields of the Civil War was her most extraordinary achievement.
]]>More than 20 percent of the essays in the Ninth Edition are new. Each selection is preceded by an introduction for context, and a helpful glossary identifies important individuals, events, and concepts. Study questions follow each selection, prompting students to make comparisons between the readings.
<ul><li>New! Important new works in the Ninth Edition include "John Adams and the Coming of the Revolution," David McCullough; "Runaways from a Hellish System," John Hope Franklin and Loren Schweninger; and "Reagan: His Place in History," Richard Brookhiser.<li>Historians whose works are featured in the reader include Ira Berlin, Dee Brown, Eric Foner, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Gary B. Nash, Page Smith, and Gordon S. Wood.<li>Many selections are taken from books that have received the Pulitzer Prize, Bancroft Prize, and National Book Award.</ul>]]>The Second Edition features a full-color design, making its pedagogy, map, and art programs more appealing and accessible than other brief texts. Chapter-opening maps, timelines, and chronology charts emphasize key developments, enhance geographical awareness, and highlight political events. Each chapter opener contains critical-thinking questions linked to major headings of the chapter, while key terms and concepts are highlighted in the text narrative and defined in a separate box at the bottom right-hand corner of each page.
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