American Historical Sources to 1945

American Historical Sources to 1945

Łukasz Niewiński

24X17 cm, Hardcover, 219 stron

The subject matter of this selection is focused on political (and military), social and legal aspects of the U.S. history to 1945 and consists of two parts: basic documents (the U.S. Declaration of Independence and Constitution) and other sources amounting to eighty items. The first part contains two instruments the entire political system of the United States of America has been based on until now. Whereas the second part includes, among others, full texts or excerpts of such sources as treaties, court cases, acts of law, Presidents’ inaugural addresses, letters, autobiographies and memoirs. Moreover, the second part contains texts regarding women, North American Indians and African Americans. Some of the presented in the collection sources are little-known, others slightly forgotten.

I was inspired to work on this collection by teaching needs as well. My purpose was to encourage students of history and international relations (American Studies), of the University of Bialystok in particular, to understand how Americans’ awareness has been developing and how the power of their country has been strengthening. What is more, an undeniably advantage of source materials is a possibility of forming one’s own opinion on key issues considering the USA since its beginning to 1945.