继哈佛大学**历史学家钱宁的《美国学生历史》(英汉双语版)出版问市后,受到众多读者欢迎,不少读者期望能买到英文原版关于美国历史的教材,此书正是为满足这部分读者纯英文阅读的需求。
这本全英文版的《美国历史》由美国**历史学家比尔德编写,以西方人的视角,深入浅出地介绍了从殖民地时期到世界大战期间美国历史上的重大事件与文明发展。本书按不同历史时期,分知识点,一一讲述,便于理解记忆。为使读者更好地理解和掌握各章的**和难点,每章末尾还附有练习题和思考题。文中还配有相应的插图,便于对不同地域和各个时期人物及事件有更直观感受。通过阅读本书,能理清美国历史发展脉络,获得对美国历史全景式认知,从而能更好地了解美国这个社会和文化多元的**。
本英文版适合高中以上读者阅读使用,对于备考SAT的学生应该很有帮助。全书提供配套英文朗读下载,在提升阅读水平的同时练习英文听力与口语。对于普通英语学习爱好者,也是一本很好的了解美国历史的学习读本。作者在前言中,对此书的特点作了如下介绍:
It is not upon negative features, however, that we rest our

CHAPTER 1 THE GREAT MIGRATION TO AMERICA
The tide of migration that set in toward the shores of North America during the early years of the seventeenth century was but one phase in the restless and eternal movement of mankind upon the surface of the earth. The ancient Greeks flung out their colonies in every direction, westward as far as Gaul, across the Mediterranean, and eastward into Asia Minor, perhaps to the very confines of India. The Romans, supported by their armies and their government, spread their dominion beyond the narrow lands of Italy until it stretched from the heather of Scotland to the sands of Arabia. The Teutonic tribes, from their home beyond the Danube and the Rhine, poured into the empire of the C?sars and made the beginnings of modern Europe. Of this great sweep of races and empires the settlement of America was merely a part. And it was, moreover, only one aspect of the expansion which finally carried the peoples, the institutions, and the trade of Europe to the very ends of the earth.
In one vital point, it must be noted, American colonization differed from that of the ancients. The Greeks usually carried with them affection for the government they left behind and sacred fire from the altar of the parent city; but thousands of the immigrants who came to America disliked the state and disowned the church of the mother country. They established compacts of government for themselves and set up altars of their own. They sought not only new soil to till but also political and religious liberty for themselves and their children.
The Agencies of American Colonization
It was no light matter for the English to cross three thousand miles of water and found homes in the American wilderness at the opening of the seventeenth century. Ships, tools, and supplies called for huge outlays of money. Stores had to be furnished in quantities sufficient to sustain the life of the settlers until they could gather harvests of their own. Artisans and laborers of skill and industry had to be induced to risk the hazards of the new world. Soldiers were required for defense and mariners for the exploration of inland waters. Leaders of good judgment, adept in managing men, had to be discovered. Altogether such an enterprise demanded capital larger than the ordinary merchant or gentleman could amass and involved risks more imminent than he dared to assume. Though in later days, after initial tests had been made, wealthy proprietors were able to establish colonies on their own account, it was the corporation that furnished the capital and leadership in the beginning.
The Trading Company.-English pioneers in exploration found an instrument for colonization in companies of merchant adventurers, which had long been employed in carrying on commerce with foreign countries. Such a corporation was composed of many persons of different ranks of society-noblemen, merchants, and gentlemen-who banded together for a particular undertaking, each contributing a sum of money and sharing in the profits of the venture. It was organized under royal authority; it received its charter, its grant of land, and its trading privileges from the king and carried on its operations under his supervision and control. The charter named all the persons originally included in the corporation and gave them certain powers in the management of its affairs, including the right to admit new members. The company was in fact a little government set up by the king. When the members of the corporation remained in England, as in the case of the Virginia Company, they operated through agents sent to the colony. When they came over the seas themselves and settled in America, as in the case of Massachusetts, they became the direct government of the country they possessed. The stockholders in that instance became the voters and the governor, the chief magistrate.
Four of the thirteen colonies in America owed their origins to the trading corporation. It was the London Company, created by King James I, in 1606, that laid during the following year the foundations of Virginia at Jamestown. It was under the auspices of their West India Company, chartered in 1621, that the Dutch planted the settlements of the New Netherland in the valley of the Hudson. The founders of Massachusetts were Puritan leaders and men of affairs whom King Charles I incorporated in 1629 under the title: &"The governor and company of the Massachusetts Bay in New England.&" In this case the law did but incorporate a group drawn together by religious ties. &"We must be knit together as one man,&" wrote John Winthrop, the first Puritan governor in America. Far to the south, on the banks of the Delaware River, a Swedish commercial company in 1638 made the beginnings of a settlement, christened New Sweden; it was destined to pass under the rule of the Dutch, and finally under the rule of William Penn as the proprietary colony of Delaware.
In a certain sense, Georgia may be included among the &"company colonies.&" It was, however, originally conceived by the moving spirit, James Oglethorpe, as an asylum for poor men, especially those imprisoned for debt. To realize this humane purpose, he secured from King George II, in 1732, a royal charter uniting several gentlemen, including himself, into &"one body politic and corporate,&" known as the &"Trustees for establishing the colony of Georgia in America.&" In the structure of their organization and their methods of government, the trustees did not differ materially from the regular companies created for trade and colonization. Though their purposes were benevolent, their transactions had to be under the forms of law and according to the rules of business.
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PART ITHE COLONIAL PERIOD
1 THE GREAT MIGRATION TO AMERICA
The Agencies of American Colonization
The Colonial Peoples
The Process of Colonization
2 COLONIAL AGRICULTURE, INDUSTRY, AND COMMERCE
The Land and the Westward Movement
Industrial and Commercial Development
3 SOCIAL AND POLITICAL PROGRESS
The Leadership of the Churches
Schools and Colleges
The Colonial Press
The Evolution in Political Institutions
4 THE DEVELOPMENT OF COLONIAL NATIONALISM
Relations with the Indians and the French
The Effects of Warfare on the Colonies
Colonial Relations with the British Government
Summary of the Colonial Period
PART II CONFLICT AND INDEPENDENCE
5 THE NEW COURSE IN BRITISH IMPERIAL POLICY
George III and His System
George III s Ministers and Their Colonial Policies
Colonial Resistance Forces Repeal
Resumption of British Revenue and Commercial Policies
Renewed Resistance in America
Retaliation by the British Government
From Reform to Revolution in America
6 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION
Resistance and Retaliation
American Independence
The Establishment of Government and the New Allegiance
Military Affairs
The Finances of the Revolution
The Diplomacy of the Revolution
Peace at Last
Summary of the Revolutionary Period
PART III FOUNDATIONS OF THE UNION AND NATIONAL POLITICS
7 THE FORMATION OF THE CONSTITUTION
The Promise and the Difficulties of America
The Calling of a Constitutional Convention
The Framing of the Constitution
The Struggle over Ratification
8 THE CLASH OF POLITICAL PARTIES 115
The Men and Measures of the New Government
The Rise of Political Parties
Foreign Influences and Domestic Politics
9 THE JEFFERSONIAN REPUBLICANS IN POWER 132
Republican Principles and Policies
The Republicans and the Great West
The Republican War for Commercial Independence
The Republicans Nationalized
The National Decisions of Chief Justice Marshall
Summary of the Union and National Politics
PART IV THE WEST AND JACKSONIAN DEMOCRACY
1 THE FARMERS BEYOND THE APPALACHIANS 155
Preparation for Western Settlement
The Western Migration and New States
The Spirit of the Frontier
The West and the East Meet
11 JACKSONIAN DEMOCRACY 17
The Democratic Movement in the East
The New Democracy Enters the Arena
The New Democracy at Washington
The Rise of the Whigs
The Interaction of American and European Opinion
12 THE MIDDLE BORDER AND THE GREAT WEST 194
The Advance of the Middle Border
On to the Pacific-Texas and the Mexican War
The Pacific Coast and Utah
Summary of Western Development and National Politics
PART V SECTIONAL CONFLICT AND RECONSTRUCTION
13 THE RISE OF THE INDUSTRIAL SYSTEM 211
The Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution and National Politics
14 THE PLANTING SYSTEM AND NATIONAL POLITICS 226
Slavery-North and South
Slavery in National Politics
The Drift of Events toward the Irrepressible Conflict
15 THE CIVIL WAR AND RECONSTRUCTION 245
The Southern Confederacy
The War Measures of the Federal Government
The Results of the Civil War
Reconstruction in the South
Summary of the Sectional Conflict
PART VI NATIONAL GROWTH AND WORLD POLITICS
16 THE POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC EVOLUTION OF THE SOUTH 27
The South at the Close of the War
The Restoration of White Supremacy
The Economic Advance of the South
17 BUSINESS ENTERPRISE AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 285
Railways and Industry
The Supremacy of the Republican Party (1861-85)
The Growth of Opposition to Republican Rule
18 THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE GREAT WEST 3
The Railways As Trail Blazers
The Evolution of Grazing and Agriculture
Mining and Manufacturing in the West
The Admission of New States
The Influence of the Far West on National Life
19 DOMESTIC ISSUES BEFORE THE COUNTRY (1865-1897) 322
The Currency Question
The Protective Tariff and Taxation
The Railways and Trusts
The Minor Parties and Unrest
The Sound Money Battle of 1896
Republican Measures and Results
2 AMERICA A WORLD POWER (1865-19) 34
American Foreign Relations (1865-98)
Cuba and the Spanish War
American Policies in the Philippines and the Orient
Summary of National Growth and World Politics
PART VII PROGRESSIVE DEMOCRACY AND THE WORLD WAR
21 THE EVOLUTION OF REPUBLICAN POLICIES (19-1913) 362
Foreign Affairs
Colonial Administration
The Roosevelt Domestic Policies
Legislative and Executive Activities
The Administration of President Taft
Progressive Insurgency and the Election of 1912
22 THE SPIRIT OF REFORM IN AMERICA 382
An Age of Criticism
Political Reforms
Measures of Economic Reform
23 THE NEW POLITICAL DEMOCRACY 395
The Rise of the Woman Movement
The National Struggle for Woman Suffrage
24 INDUSTRIAL DEMOCRACY 4
Cooperation between Employers and Employees
The Rise and Growth of Organized Labor
The Wider Relations of Organized Labor
Immigration and Americanization
25 PRESIDENT WILSON AND THE WORLD WAR 418
Domestic Legislation
Colonial and Foreign Policies
The United States and the European War
The United States at War
The Settlement at Paris
Summary of Democracy and the World War

《美国历史(英文版)》是美国**历史学家比尔德为美国中学生写作的一本历史读本,曾在美国学校使用并受到欢迎。全书根据美历史的不同阶段,划分为七个部分,从美洲大陆的发现到世界大战,共29篇。每一篇章归纳出若干知识点,便于学习理解。章节后面附有总结与讨论话题,引导读者进一步探讨与发现。
全英文文本,配合下载的朗读文件,对国内读者全提升英语更有很大帮助。