Foundations
Part I of this book serves as a gateway to an America that often remains invisible to students exposed primarily to Anglo-centric versions of American history throughout their school years. Although many American history textbooks have become more honest and inclusive over time, debates over how American history should be taught remain highly contentious, with some political movements pushing for narrower and more sanitized interpretations of the national past.
This book, and particularly the chapters of Part I, take the opposite approach. Three of the four chapters in this section are centered directly on perspectives derived from the confrontation of Indigenous America, Hispanic America, and African America with the historical hegemony of Anglo America. The argument is that, as some of the nation’s earliest inhabitants and most important formative influences, these four elements played foundational roles in shaping the direction and character of American development. Moreover, I try to highlight the historical injustices visited by Anglo America upon the other three foundational communities throughout much—if not all—of the nation’s history.
Chapter 1 deals with Indigenous America and is positioned first because of the historical status of Indigenous peoples as First Nations, to use a fitting Canadian term, and because of their moral claims on and historical stewardship of the lands of North America since time immemorial. At the same time, I strive to emphasize that Indigenous peoples are not relics of a bygone era, but contemporary participants in the ongoing American story. Accordingly, the chapter emphasizes aspects of Indigenous history most relevant to the social and legal issues Native peoples continue to confront today. For instance, appreciating contemporary Indigenous legal claims requires understanding the unique status of Native peoples as members of sovereign nations as well as citizens of the United States. The chapter therefore lays out the story of Indigenous resistance to dispossession, forced assimilation, and efforts to undermine tribal sovereignty, particularly during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It concludes with an account of the increasingly successful movements toward self-determination and cultural revival that emerged from the 1960s onward.
Chapter 2 takes up the story of Hispanic America, specifically that aspect of the story rooted in Mexico. This story is positioned second because the earliest ancestors of Mexican Americans predated the arrival of English settlers in Jamestown and because a large portion of the southwestern United States was once part of Mexico. The narrative begins with the conquest of Mexico and the establishment of the Kingdom of New Spain, touching upon the tragic interactions between Spanish colonizers and the Indigenous peoples of Mexico. It then traces the expansion of Spanish influence into the northern borderlands of New Spain—now the American Southwest—while chronicling the challenges and adaptations experienced by Mexican Americans as their homeland was transformed into U.S. territory and eventually divided into multiple American states.
In Chapter 3, we turn our attention to Anglo America. This chapter is considerably shorter than many of the others in the book, partly because the Anglo story is woven throughout so many of the other chapters. Traditional histories often center the national story on its Anglo elements while giving comparatively little attention to the experiences of non-Anglo peoples—a tendency this book largely reverses. At the same time, Chapter 3 focuses on an aspect of Anglo America that is often neglected in standard accounts, which sometimes present the English as though they were a culturally homogeneous people. Instead, the chapter summarizes a theory proposed by historian David Hackett Fischer, who argues that the foundations of American regional culture were laid between 1629 and 1775 by four major waves of English-speaking migrants. Each came from a different region of England, exhibited distinct cultural characteristics, settled in different parts of British North America, and helped shape regional cultures in enduringly different ways.
Chapter 4, African America, explores the Black experience in America beginning with the first Africans who arrived in Jamestown in 1619. It highlights the involuntary contributions of enslaved people to the building of the country and to the accumulation of wealth from which they inherited very little. The chapter also examines the persistent efforts of African Americans to force the United States to live up to its professed ideals of liberty and justice for all, from the struggle against slavery before the Civil War to the various civil rights movements of the century and a half that followed, including ongoing struggles for social justice today. In addition, the chapter highlights the diverse cultural contributions of Black Americans, from innovations in music to achievements in literature, art, sports, and culinary traditions.
