Making History

It's time to take history personally. This unique text takes a personal approach to American history to get readers excited about their own roles in making history and improving their country.

Making History: A Personal Approach to Modern American History begins with the important point that while many textbooks cover events that have shaped America, these events didn't happen to America--they happened to individual Americans.

With this perspective in mind, students read and think differently about post-Civil War history, including industrialization, the Spanish-American War and World Wars, the Depression, the Cold War, the Civil Rights Era, Vietnam, the rise of modern conservatism, and the country's current state of decline. The third edition includes a new chapter that covers the Trump presidency, COVID-19 pandemic, January 6th attack on the Capitol, the Black Lives Matter movement, and the election of President Joe Biden. The first history textbook to include comic book pages, Making History features artwork by comic book artist Gary Dumm of American Splendor.

Featuring a unique and innovative approach, Making History: A Personal Approach to Modern American History is a fresh alternative for survey courses in American history and historiography or classes in American civilization or popular culture.