Who Built America? Volume 1, to 1877: Working People and the Nation's Economy, Politics, Culture, and Society

by Bruce Levine, Nancy A. Hewitt

Who Built America? surveys the nation's past from the perspective of working men and women. Growing out of the effort to reinterpret American history from "the bottom up, " Who Built America? not only documents the country's presidents, politics, and wars along with the life and values of the nation's elite but also focuses on the fundamental social and economic conflicts in our history, integrating the history of community, family, gender roles, race, and ethnicity.

Genres: History, Labor, Nonfiction, American History

721 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1990

Reviews

[Richard Subber]

Who Built America? is a comprehensive, widely sourced reference work that tackles the story of the actual building of America and our cities, commerce/industries, and infrastructures.
Clark and Hewitt give full attention to the groups of people who labored to do so: native Americans, women and children, minorities, and immigrants are fully credited.
A useful feature is the summary chronology and suggested complementary readings at the end of each chapter.
Who Built America? is a go-to reference for any serious student of American history.
Volume Two, covering the Reconstruction through the end of the 20th century, is an equally appealing component of this series published by the American Social History Project, City University of New York.
This edition was written by Christopher Clark and Nancy A. Hewitt, based on the original edition written by Levine, Brier, Brundage, Countryman, Fennel, and Rediker.
Read more of my book reviews and poems here:
www.richardsubber.com

[Oliver Bateman]

Boasting a fantastic selection of primary sources (the images, in particular, are tremendous--WBA's graphic design editors deserve hearty applause for their good work) as well as top-notch historical analysis, Vol. 1 of this series is even better than Vol. 2. Although some of the early chapters proved a bit too dense and information-packed for my less committed students, I'd recommend this book to other instructors who have been assigned to teach the first half of the US history survey.

[Crystal Carley]

School

[Krystal]

This is one of the best American history books out there. It shows the middle and lower classes more then the upper class as the lower classes are the ones that built America