Michael Bellesiles – författare

Violence forms a constant backdrop to American history, from the revolutionary overthrow of British rule, to the struggle for civil rights, to the present-day debates over the death penalty. It has served to challenge authority, defend privilege, advance causes, and throttle hopes.In the first anthology of its kind to appear in over thirty years, Documenting American Violence brings together excerpts from a wide range of sources about incidents of violence in the United States. Each document is set into context, allowing readers to see the event through the viewpoint of contemporary participants and witnesses and to understand how these deeds have been excused, condemned, or vilified by society. Organized topically, this volume looks at such diverse topics as famous crimes, vigilantism, industrial violence, domestic abuse, and state-sanctioned violence. Among the events these primary sources describe are:--Benjamin Franklin''s account of the Conestoga massacre, when an entire village of American Indians was killed by the Paxton Boys, a group of frontier settlers--militant abolitionist John Brown''s attack on Harper''s Ferry--Ida B. Wells'' condemnation of lynchings in the South--the massacre of General Custer''s 7th Cavalry at Little Bighorn, as witnessed by Cheyenne war chief Two Moon--Nat Turner''s confession about the slave revolt he led in Southampton County, Virginia--Oliver Wendell Holmes'' diaries and letters as a young infantry officer in the Civil War--a police officer''s account of the Haymarket Trials--Harry Thaw''s murder of the Gilded Age''s most prominent architect, Stanford White, through his own published version of the events--the post-trial, public confessions of Ray Bryant and J.W. Milam for the murder of Emmett Till--the Los Angeles Police Department''s investigation into the causes of the 1992 riotTaken as a whole, this anthology opens a new window on American history, revealing how violence has shaped America''s past in every era.

Through contemporary voices, Documenting American Violence tracks the changes in the nature of American violence. This anthology looks at violence as an integral part of American history and includes excerpts from a wide range of primary sources, including court records. newspaper accounts, and political documents. Topics include violence and the conquest of America, Revolutionary violence, slavery, the Civil War, lynching, the West, industrial violence, civil rights, domestic violence, and crime as social drama. Taken together, they open a new window on American history, covering the colonial period, the American Revolution, the Age of Jackson, the Civil War, the industrial revolution, World War II, the Sixties, and contemporary America.

Violence forms a constant backdrop to American history, from the revolutionary overthrow of British rule, to the struggle for civil rights, to the present-day debates over the death penalty. It has served to challenge authority, defend privilege, advance causes, and throttle hopes.In the first anthology of its kind to appear in over thirty years, Documenting American Violence brings together excerpts from a wide range of sources about incidents of violence in the United States. Each document is set into context, allowing readers to see the event through the viewpoint of contemporary participants and witnesses and to understand how these deeds have been excused, condemned, or vilified by society. Organized topically, this volume looks at such diverse topics as famous crimes, vigilantism, industrial violence, domestic abuse, and state-sanctioned violence. Among the events these primary sources describe are:--Benjamin Franklin''s account of the Conestoga massacre, when an entire village of American Indians was killed by the Paxton Boys, a group of frontier settlers--militant abolitionist John Brown''s attack on Harper''s Ferry--Ida B. Wells'' condemnation of lynchings in the South--the massacre of General Custer''s 7th Cavalry at Little Bighorn, as witnessed by Cheyenne war chief Two Moon--Nat Turner''s confession about the slave revolt he led in Southampton County, Virginia--Oliver Wendell Holmes'' diaries and letters as a young infantry officer in the Civil War--a police officer''s account of the Haymarket Trials--Harry Thaw''s murder of the Gilded Age''s most prominent architect, Stanford White, through his own published version of the events--the post-trial, public confessions of Ray Bryant and J.W. Milam for the murder of Emmett Till--the Los Angeles Police Department''s investigation into the causes of the 1992 riotTaken as a whole, this anthology opens a new window on American history, revealing how violence has shaped America''s past in every era.

The battle for true equality in America seen through the men, ideas, and politics behind the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments passed at the end of the Civil War.

In 1877, a decade after the Civil War, not only was the US gripped by a deep depression, but the country was also in the throes of nearly unimaginable violence and upheaval marking the end of the brief period known as Reconstruction and a return to white rule across the South. Celebrated historian Michael A. Bellesiles reveals how the fires of that fated year also fuelled a hothouse of cultural and intellectual innovation. The story of 1877 is also related through the the lives of famous historical icons such as Billy the Kid and John D. Rockefeller.