Document Sets, Volume 1 for Boyer/Clark/Halttunen/Hawley/Kett/Rieser/Salisbury/Sitkoff/Woloch's The Enduring Vision: A History of the American People, Complete

by Paul S. Boyer

This supplement offers a wide range of primary-source documents in sets built around a historical "problem." Each set comprises several documents, including excerpts from letters, diaries, speeches, and petitions, as well as song lyrics, political cartoons, and advertisements. Introductions and questions guide readers in understanding and interpreting the documents.

368 pages, Paperback

First published September 2, 1999

About the author

Paul S. Boyer is a U.S. cultural and intellectual historian (Ph.D., Harvard University, 1966) and is Merle Curti Professor of History Emeritus and former director (1993-2001) of the Institute for Research in the Humanities at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He has held visiting professorships at UCLA, Northwestern University, and William & Mary; has received Guggenheim and Rockefeller Foundation Fellowships; and is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Society of American Historians, and the American Antiquarian Society. Before coming to Wisconsin in 1980, he taught at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst (1967-1980).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_S._...

Reviews

[Dekota Lancaster · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a very informative composition of primary-source documents. I wish more historical texts and evidence were provided in history classes.

My favorite document was the 1840 "Benefits of Association" article by Albert Brisbane which talked about the importance of unity in working against the "Nine Permanent Scourges of Civilization" and working in favor of the "Nine Permanent Benefits to Be attained."

Listed below, they help us to observe that the issues we are facing now are nowhere near being new to us and that still through our educational and technological advancements we are still in need of a drastic change in our thinking as a “developed” society.

This is from the text:

9 Permanent Scourges of Civilization
Indigence
Fraud
Oppression
War
Derangement of Climate
Diseases artificially produced: plague, yellow fever, cholera, smallpox, etc.
Vicious circle, without any opening for improvement
UNIVERSAL SELFISHNESS
DUPLICITY OF SOCIAL ACTION

9 Permanent Benefits to Be Attained
General riches
Practical truth in all relations of life
Effective liberty in the same
Constant Peace
Equilibrium of temperature and climate
System of preventative medicine and extirpation of artificial diseases
Opening offered to all improvements and ameliorations
COLLECTIVE AND INDIVIDUAL PHILANTHROPY
UNITY OF SOCIAL ACTIONS

After almost 200 years of this document's creation we are still at square 1, but all hope is not lost. As individuals, we should use our knowledge of the past to persevere for a brighter tomorrow. Ask yourself, how can I make a difference today? How can I be a part of collective and individual philanthropy and how can I show unity in social actions that will affect the generations to come?