A Teacher's Guide to Land of Hope: An Invitation to the Great American Story

by Wilfred M. McClay, John McBride

Overview

This Teachers’ Guide to Wilfred McClay’s Land of Hope: An Invitation to the Great American Story will be an invaluable aid to classroom teachers who use Land of Hope as a textbook for courses in United States history. McClay has coauthored the Guide with John McBride, a master teacher with over thirty years of secondary and collegiate teaching experience. The result is an exceptionally rich and useful resource for the enhancement of the classroom experience. Each chapter of Land of Hope has a five-part treatment: a short summation of the chapter’s contents, a lengthy set of questions and answers about the text of the chapter, materials that can be deployed in testing or used to sharpen classroom discussion; a set of short objective tests, suitable for quizzes and exams; a primary-source document for class study and analysis; and questions and answers to accompany the document. In addition, there are special units to assist teachers in the giving special coverage to the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the Origins of the Two-Party System. Like Land of Hope itself, these materials are designed to help students come away from the study of the American past with a coherent sense of the larger story, and a sense of history as a profoundly reflective activity, one that goes to the depth of our humanity.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781641771405
Publisher:	Encounter Books
Publication date:	06/30/2020
Pages:	416
Product dimensions:	7.50(w) x 9.90(h) x 0.90(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Wilfred M. McClay is the G. T. and Libby Blankenship Chair in the History of Liberty at the University of Oklahoma and the Director of the Center for the History of Liberty. His book The Masterless: Self and Society in Modern America was awarded the 1995 Merle Curti Award of the Organization of American Historians for the best book in American intellectual history. Among his other books are A Student’s Guide to U.S. History, Religion Returns to the Public Square: Faith and Policy in America, Figures in the Carpet: Finding the Human Person in the American Past, and Why Place Matters: Geography, Identity, and Civic Life in Modern America. He was appointed in 2002 to membership on the National Council on the Humanities, the advisory board for the National Endowment for the Humanities, and served in that capacity for eleven years. He is a member of the U.S. Semiquincentennial Commission, which is planning events for the nation’s 250th anniversary in 2026. He has been the recipient of fellowships from the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the National Academy of Education. He is a graduate of St. John’s College (Annapolis) and received his PhD in History from the Johns Hopkins University.

John McBride was educated at Rice University (BA 1968, MA 1971) and the University of Virginia (PhD 1977). He taught high school (mostly US History AP) in Chattanooga TN from 1974 to 2010, at the Baylor School and David Brainerd Christian School. He has also taught as an adjunct for the past 25 years at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, in political science and in history. For the past six years he has taught (as a volunteer and most recently as an adjunct for Georgia State University) at Walker State Prison, which is Georgia's character-and-faith-based prison. He enjoys employing a wide variety of teaching methods, including games, trivium-style debates, and group projects.

Table of Contents

Preface: A Teacher's Guide to the Teacher's Guide ix

Epigraph and Introduction: One Long Story 1

Chapter 1 Beginnings: Settlement and Unsettlement 5

Document: Columbus's Log of His First Voyage, 1492 10

Chapter 2 The Shaping of British North America 15

Document: The Mayflower Compact, 1620 23

Document: Winthrop, "A Modell of Christian Charity," 1630 25

Chapter 3 The Revolution of Self-Rule 29

Document: Paine, Common Sense, 1775-76 37

Special Unit: Teaching the Declaration of Independence 44

Special Unit: Teaching the Constitution 56

Chapter 4 A War, a Nation, and a Wound 63

Document: The Northwest Ordinance, 1787 72

Special Unit: Teaching the Bill of Rights 79

Chapter 5 The Experiment Begins 85

Document: Madison, Federalist 10 93

Document: Yates, Brutus I 98

Chapter 6 From Jefferson to Jackson: The Rise of the Common Man 106

Document: Tocqueville, "Why the Americans Are So Restless in the Midst of Their Prosperity" 115

Document: Crockett, Letter to Charles Schultz on Indian Removal, 1834 119

Special Unit: Teaching the Two-Party System 121

Chapter 7 The Culture of Democracy 129

Document Emerson, Self-Reliance, 1841 137

Document: Stanton, Declaration of Sentiments, 1848 141

Chapter 8 The Old South and Slavery 145

Documents: The Songs of African American Slavery 151

Chapter 9 The Gathering Storm 157

Document Lincoln, Speech on the Dred Scott Decision, 1857 166

Chapter 10 The House Divides 179

Document: Lincoln, The Gettysburg Address, 1863 186

Chapter 11 The Ordeal of Reconstruction 188

Document: The Fourteenth Amendment 196

Chapter 12 A Nation Transformed 200

Document: Lazarus, "The New Colossus" 1883 209

Chapter 13 Becoming a World Power 211

Document: Adams, An Address Celebrating the Declaration of Independence, 1821 217

Document: Beveridge, "March of the Flag," 1898 225

Chapter 14 The Progressive Era 232

Document: Wilson, "What Is Progress?," 1913 239

Chapter 15 Woodrow Wilson and the Great War 249

Document: Wilson, Fourteen Points, 1918 257

Chapter 16 From Boom to Bust 265

Document: Coolidge, Speech on the 150th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, 1926 275

Chapter 17 The New Deal 286

Document: Roosevelt, Commonwealth Club Address, 1932 293

Chapter 18 The Finest Hour: World War II 305

Document: Roosevelt, State of the Union Address, "The Four Freedoms," 1941 317

Chapter 19 All Thoughts and Things Were Split: The Cold War 323

Document: Kennan, The Sources of Soviet Conduct, 1947 331

Chapter 20 Out of Balance: The Turbulent Sixties 348

Document: King, "I Have a Dream," 1963 355

Chapter 21 Fall and Restoration: From Nixon to Reagan 361

Document: Reagan, Remarks at the Brandenburg Gate, 1987 369

Chapter 22 The World since the Cold War 376

Document: Bush, Remarks at the National Day of Prayer and Remembrance Service, 2001 381

Epilogue: The Shape of American Patriotism 385

Editorial Reviews

Praise for Land of Hope:

“At a time of severe partisanship that has infected many accounts of our nation’s past, this brilliant new history, Land of Hope, written in lucid and often lyrical prose, is much needed. It is accurate, honest, and free of the unhistorical condescension so often paid to the people of America’s past. This generous but not uncritical story of our nation’s history ought to be read by every American. It explains and justifies the right kind of patriotism.”

— Gordon S. Wood, author of Friends Divided: John Adams and Thomas Jefferson

“Those who are acquainted with Wilfred McClay’s writing will not be surprised that Land of Hope, his latest book, is a lucid and engaging account of the ‘great American story.’ McClay is a charming storyteller—and a first-rate scholar and appreciator of America’s political and cultural development.”

— Michael Barone, resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, senior political analyst at the Washington Examiner, and coauthor of The Almanac of American Politics

“We’ve long needed a readable text that truly tells the American story, neither hiding the serious injustices in our history nor soft-pedaling our nation’s extraordinary achievements. Such a text cannot be a mere compilation of facts, and it certainly could not be written by someone lacking a deep understanding and appreciation of America’s constitutional ideals and institutions. Bringing his impressive skills as a political theorist, historian, and writer to bear, Wilfred McClay has supplied the need.”

— Robert P. George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence, Princeton University

“In a time when America seems pulled in opposite directions, Wilfred McClay has written a necessary book—the most balanced, nuanced history of the United States I have read in the past fifty years.”

— Daniel Henninger, deputy editor, editorial page, The Wall Street Journal

“Too many recent historians have tried to rewrite America’s history as a tale of squalor and exploitation. Wilfred McClay tells it like it is: as a story of hope.”

— Glenn Harlan Reynolds, Beauchamp Brogan Distinguished Professor of Law, University of Tennessee

“No one has told the story of America with greater balance or better prose than Wilfred McClay. Land of Hope is a history book that you will not be able to put down. From the moment that ‘natives’ first crossed here over the Bering Strait, to the founding of America’s great experiment in republican government, to the horror and triumph of the Civil War, and to the stirring election of Barack Obama, McClay’s account will capture your attention while offering an unforgettable education.”

— James W. Ceaser, Professor of Politics, University of Virginia

“I wish Land of Hope had been there when I was teaching U.S. history. It is history as literature—broad, detailed, compassionate—and it can help anyone who wants to know where we came from and how we got here. Professor McClay has made a welcome gift to the history of our country.”

— Will Fitzhugh, Founder, The Concord Review

From the Publisher