A wonderfully written, sweeping narrative history of the United States that will help Americans discover the land they call home

High School and College Age Students

The Original Land of Hope Narrative in Paperback Edition

We have a glut of text and trade books on American history. But what we don't have is a compact, inexpensive, authoritative, and compulsively readable book that will offer to intelligent young Americans a coherent, persuasive, and inspiring narrative of their own country. Such an account will shape and deepen their sense of the land they inhabit, and by making them understand that land's roots, will equip them for the privileges and responsibilities of citizenship in American society, and provide them with a vivid and enduring sense of membership in one of the greatest enterprises in human history: the exciting, perilous, and immensely consequential story of their own country.

The existing texts simply fail to tell that story with energy and conviction. They are more likely to reflect the skeptical outlook of specialized professional academic historians, an outlook that supports a fragmented and fractured view of modern American society, and that fails to convey to young people the greater arc of that history. Or they reflect the outlook of radical critics of American society, who seek to debunk the standard American narrative, and has an enormous, and largely negative, effect upon the teaching of American history in American high schools and colleges.

This state of affairs cannot continue for long without producing serious consequences. A great nation needs and deserves a great and coherent narrative, as an expression of its own self-understanding: and it needs to convey that narrative to its young effectively. It perhaps goes without saying that such a narrative cannot be a fairy tale or a whitewash of the past; it will not be convincing if it is not truthful. But there is no necessary contradiction between an honest account and an inspiring one. This account seeks to provide both.

A wonderfully written, sweeping narrative history of the United States that will help Americans discover the land they call home.

American History for Middle School -- Grades 6-8

The FIRST book in a two-volume narrative for Young Readers studying Land of Hope

VOLUME ONE: SHAPING A NEW NATION, From 1492 to 1877

From its beginnings America was a land of hope, a magnet for those seeking a new beginning for themselves. The American Founders created a unique plan of government designed to realize those ideals. Implementing the plan was not easy, though, and a bloody civil war would push the American experiment to the breaking point -- and to a new birth of freedom.

A wonderfully written, sweeping narrative history of the United States that will help Americans discover the land they call home.

American History for Middle School -- Grades 6-8

The SECOND book in a two-volume narrative for Young Readers studying Land of Hope

VOLUME TWO: THE MAKING OF MODERN AMERICA, From 1877 to 2020

The Founders of the American nation would have had trouble recognizing the America that emerged after the Civil War. By century's end we had rapidly evolved into the world's greatest industrial power. It was a nation of large new cities populated by immigrants from all over the world. And it was a nation that was taking an increasingly active role on the world stage, even to the point of acquiring an empire of its own. Many Americans began to wonder whether this modern nation had outgrown its original Constitution. That document had been written back in the eighteenth century, after all, and one of its main goals was limiting the size and scope of government. But did that goal make sense in the dynamic new America of the twentieth century?
That became a central question. The Progressive movement and its successors believed it was time to replace the Constitution with laws permitting a larger and more powerful government. Others firmly rejected such changes and insisted on the permanent validity of the Constitution's ideal of limited government. In addition, with the two great world wars of the twentieth century, and the Cold War that came after them, America found itself thrust into a position of overwhelming world leadership--something else that the Founders never imagined or wanted. Such leadership required the development of a large and permanent military establishment whose very existence ran up against the nation's founding traditions. With the end of the Cold War, America faced a decision. Should it shed the world responsibilities it had taken on during the twentieth century? Or should it treat those responsibilities as a permanent obligation? That debate, which has deep roots in American history, continues to this day.

A wonderfully written, sweeping narrative history of the United States that will help Americans discover the land they call home.

High School and College Age Students

The Original Land of Hope Narrative in Hardback Edition

We have a glut of text and trade books on American history. But what we don't have is a compact, inexpensive, authoritative, and compulsively readable book that will offer to intelligent young Americans a coherent, persuasive, and inspiring narrative of their own country. Such an account will shape and deepen their sense of the land they inhabit, and by making them understand that land's roots, will equip them for the privileges and responsibilities of citizenship in American society, and provide them with a vivid and enduring sense of membership in one of the greatest enterprises in human history: the exciting, perilous, and immensely consequential story of their own country.

The existing texts simply fail to tell that story with energy and conviction. They are more likely to reflect the skeptical outlook of specialized professional academic historians, an outlook that supports a fragmented and fractured view of modern American society, and that fails to convey to young people the greater arc of that history. Or they reflect the outlook of radical critics of American society, who seek to debunk the standard American narrative, and has an enormous, and largely negative, effect upon the teaching of American history in American high schools and colleges.

This state of affairs cannot continue for long without producing serious consequences. A great nation needs and deserves a great and coherent narrative, as an expression of its own self-understanding: and it needs to convey that narrative to its young effectively. It perhaps goes without saying that such a narrative cannot be a fairy tale or a whitewash of the past; it will not be convincing if it is not truthful. But there is no necessary contradiction between an honest account and an inspiring one. This account seeks to provide both.

A wonderfully written, sweeping narrative history of the United States that will help Americans discover the land they call home.

Workbook for High School Students studying Land of Hope

This workbook accompanies Land of Hope

This Student Workbook for Wilfred M. McClay's Land of Hope: An Invitation to the Great American Story will be an invaluable supplemental resource for students and teachers who use Land of Hope as a textbook for courses in U.S. history. Prepared by Dr. McClay in collaboration with Dr. John McBride, a master teacher with more than thirty years of secondary and collegiate teaching experience, it is an exceptionally rich and useful tool for classroom instructors. The Student Workbook is designed to be used in tandem with the Teacher's Guide to Land of Hope and includes additional materials, such as extensive map exercises, that will build students' geographical knowledge. In the Student Workbook, each chapter of Land of Hope receives a four-part treatment: questions and answers about the chapter, short objective tests suitable for quizzes and exams, a primary-source document for class analysis, and questions and answers to accompany the document. In addition, the Student Workbook contains special units to assist students in understanding the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. Finally, in addition to the map exercises, the Student Workbook features handy reference tools for student use and an extensive list of suggested topics for research papers and further investigation.

Contemporary American society, with its emphasis on mobility and economic progress, all too often loses sight of the importance of a sense of place; and community. Appreciating place is essential for building the strong local communities that cultivate civic engagement, public leadership, and many of the other goods that contribute to a flourishing human life.

Do we, in losing our places, lose the crucial basis for healthy and resilient individual identity, and for the cultivation of public virtues? For one can't be a citizen without being a citizen of some place in particular; one isn't a citizen of a motel. And if these dangers are real and present ones, are there ways that intelligent public policy can begin to address them constructively, by means of reasonable and democratic innovations that are likely to attract wide public support?

Why Place Matters takes these concerns seriously, and its contributors seek to discover how, given the American people as they are, and American economic and social life as it now exists; and not as those things can be imagined to be in some utopian scheme; we can find means of fostering a richer and more sustaining way of life. The book is an anthology of essays exploring the contemporary problems of place and placelessness in American society.

The book includes contributions from distinguished scholars and writers such as poet Dana Gioia (former chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts), geographer Yi-Fu Tuan, urbanist Witold Rybczynski, architect Philip Bess, essayists Christine Rosen and Ari Schulman, philosopher Roger Scruton, transportation planner Gary Toth, and historians Russell Jacoby and Joseph Amato.

Contemporary American society, with its emphasis on mobility and economic progress, all too often loses sight of the importance of a sense of place and community. Appreciating place is essential for building the strong local communities that cultivate civic engagement, public leadership, and many of the other goods that contribute to a flourishing human life.

Do we, in losing our places, lose the crucial basis for healthy and resilient individual identity, and for the cultivation of public virtues? For one can't be a citizen without being a citizen of some place in particular; one isn't a citizen of a motel. And if these dangers are real and present ones, are there ways that intelligent public policy can begin to address them constructively, by means of reasonable and democratic innovations that are likely to attract wide public support?

Why Place Matters takes these concerns seriously, and its contributors seek to discover how, given the American people as they are, and American economic and social life as it now exists--and not as those things can be imagined to be in some utopian scheme--we can find means of fostering a richer and more sustaining way of life. The book is an anthology of essays exploring the contemporary problems of place and placelessness in American society.

The book includes contributions from distinguished scholars and writers such as poet Dana Gioia (former chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts), geographer Yi-Fu Tuan, urbanist Witold Rybczynski, architect Philip Bess, essayists Christine Rosen and Ari Schulman, philosopher Roger Scruton, transportation planner Gary Toth, and historians Russell Jacoby and Joseph Amato.

A wonderfully written, sweeping narrative history of the United States that will help Americans discover the land they call home.

Guide for Teachers using Land of Hope: Young Readers Edition. Middle School grades 6-8

The SECOND Teachers Guide to accompany the two-volume narrative Land of Hope: Young Readers Edition

This Teacher's Guide to the Young Reader's Edition of Wilfred McClay's Land of Hope: An Invitation to the Great American Story is an invaluable supplemental resource for teachers who use the Young Reader's Edition as a textbook for middle-grade courses in US history. Prepared by McClay in collaboration with John McBride, a master teacher with more than thirty years of secondary and collegiate teaching experience, it is one exceptionally rich and useful tool for classroom instructors.

Each chapter of this Teacher's Guide receives a five-part treatment: a short summation of the chapter's contents, questions and answers about the chapter, a list of key names and terms appearing within each one, a crossword puzzle based on those names and terms, and one or more primary source documents for class analysis with accompanying questions and answers. Longer documents are broken into shorter passages with questions interspersed to help younger readers. This Teacher's Guide also features a collection of map exercises, as well as special units to assist instructors in teaching students about the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the two-party system.

A wonderfully written, sweeping narrative history of the United States that will help Americans discover the land they call home.

Guide for Teachers using Land of Hope: Young Readers Edition. Middle School -- Grades 6-8

The FIRST Teachers Guide to accompany the two-volume narrative Land of Hope: Young Readers Edition

This Teacher's Guide to the Young Reader's Edition of Wilfred McClay's Land of Hope: An Invitation to the Great American Story is an invaluable supplemental resource for teachers who use the Young Reader's Edition as a textbook for middle-grade courses in US history. Prepared by McClay in collaboration with John McBride, a master teacher with more than thirty years of secondary and collegiate teaching experience, it is an exceptionally rich and useful tool for classroom instructors.

Each chapter of this Teacher's Guide receives a five-part treatment: a short summation of the chapter's contents questions and answers about the chapter, a list of key names and terms appearing within each one, a crossword puzzle based on those names and terms, and one or more primary source documents for class analysis with accompanying questions and answers. Longer documents are broken into shorter passages with questions interspersed to help younger readers.

This Teacher's Guide also features a collection of map exercises as well as special units to assist instructors in teaching students about the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the two-party system.

A wonderfully written, sweeping narrative history of the United States that will help Americans discover the land they call home.

Workbook for Students studying the Young Readers Edition of Land of Hope. Middle School -- Grades 6-8

The FIRST Student Workbook to accompany the two-volume Young Readers Edition of Land of Hope

This Student Workbook to the Young Reader's Edition of Wilfred McClay's Land of Hope: An Invitation to the Great American Story is an invaluable supplement for students reading the Land of Hope in their courses. Prepared by Wilfred McClay in collaboration with John McBride, a master teacher with more than thirty years of secondary and collegiate teaching experience, the workbook expands on the Land of Hope, offering corresponding primary source documents and hands-on map reading exercises. It will help students develop their close reading and geography skills in order to better understand the materials presented in the Land of Hope.

This Student Workbook and the Teacher's Guide are complementary and designed to be used together. Both provide chapter summaries which instructors may use in teaching students to read for the main idea. The Student Workbook contains reading questions for each chapter of the Land of Hope text; the Teacher's Guide has the same questions with answers. Primary source documents, including speeches, diary entries, song lyrics, compacts, letters, essays, legal documents, and more, accompany each chapter and are broken into shorter segments to help with reading comprehension. In the Student Workbook, each primary source is followed by reading questions directed to help students understand the main ideas; the Teacher's Guide provides the answers. The Student Workbook offers fourteen map exercises; the Teacher's Guide provides the keys. Both editions offer synthetical essay questions for each chapter and for final exams, learning strategies, and study tricks.

A wonderfully written, sweeping narrative history of the United States that will help Americans discover the land they call home.

Guide for Teachers using Land of Hope in the classroom

This Guide accompanies the original Land of Hope for High School and College age students

This Teacher's Guide to Wilfred McClay's Land of Hope: An Invitation to the Great American Story will be an invaluable supplemental resource for teachers who use Land of Hope as a textbook for courses in U.S. history. Prepared by Dr. McClay in collaboration with Dr. John McBride, a master teacher with more than thirty years of secondary and collegiate teaching experience, it is an exceptionally rich and useful tool for classroom instructors. Each chapter of Land of Hope receives a five-part treatment: a short summation of the chapter's contents, questions and answers about the chapter, short objective tests suitable for quizzes and exams, a primary-source document for class analysis, and questions and answers to accompany the document. In addition, there are special units to assist teachers in helping students to understand the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the origins of the two-party system.

What does it mean to be a human person? This volume is a historical inquiry into that foundational, deceptively simple question. Viewing the human person from various perspectives -- law, education, business, media, religion, medicine, community life, gender, art -- sixteen historians of American life explore how our understanding of personhood has changed over time and how that changing understanding has significantly affected our ideas about morality and human rights, our conversations about public policy, and our American culture as a whole.

In this provocative book, Wilfred McClay considers the long-standing tension between individualism and social cohesion in conceptions of American culture. Exploring ideas of unity and diversity as they have evolved since the Civil War, he illuminates the historical background to our ongoing search for social connectedness and sources of authority in a society increasingly dominated by the premises of individualism. McClay borrows D. H. Lawrence's term 'masterless men'--extending its meaning to women as well--and argues that it is expressive of both the promise and the peril inherent in the modern American social order.

Drawing upon a wide range of disciplines--including literature, sociology, political science, philosophy, psychology, and feminist theory--McClay identifies a competition between visions of dispersion on the one hand and coalescence on the other as modes of social organization. In addition, he employs intellectual biography to illuminate the intersection of these ideas with the personal experiences of the thinkers articulating them and shows how these shifting visions are manifestations of a more general ambivalence about the process of national integration and centralization that has characterized modern American economic, political, and cultural life.

Get an Indispensable Education in American History in One Sitting!

How do you even begin to study U.S. history today? Historians now present a fractured view of American society. If any guiding national narrative remains, it is a tale of exploitation and oppression.

But the acclaimed historian Wilfred M. McClay is here to correct these problems. This slim guide shows you how to study the history of our country... and why. If you have ever found studying American history tedious or irrelevant, you won't after reading McClay's short and compulsively readable introduction. And if you have ever wondered how to challenge narratives of American oppression without whitewashing the past, this is the perfect place to start.

A wonderfully written, sweeping narrative history of the United States that will help Americans discover the land they call home.

Workbook for students studying the Young Readers Edition of Land of Hope. Middle School, Grades 6-8

The SECOND Student Workbook to accompany the two-volume Young Readers Edition of Land of Hope

This Student Workbook to the Young Reader's Edition of Wilfred McClay's Land of Hope: An Invitation to the Great American Story is an invaluable supplement for students reading the Land of Hope in their courses. Prepared by Wilfred McClay in collaboration with John McBride, a master teacher with more than thirty years of secondary and collegiate teaching experience, the workbook expands on the Land of Hope, offering corresponding primary source documents and hands-on map reading exercises. It will help students develop their close reading and geography skills in order to better understand the materials presented in the Land of Hope.

This Student Workbook and the Teacher's Guide are complementary and designed to be used together. Both provide chapter summaries which instructors may use in teaching students to read for the main idea. The Student Workbook contains reading questions for each chapter of the Land of Hope text; the Teacher's Guide has the same questions with answers. Primary source documents, including speeches, diary entries, song lyrics, compacts, letters, essays, legal documents, and more, accompany each chapter and are broken into shorter segments to help with reading comprehension. In the Student Workbook, each primary source is followed by reading questions directed to help students understand the main ideas; the Teacher's Guide provides the answers. The Student Workbook offers fourteen map exercises; the Teacher's Guide provides the keys. Both editions offer synthetical essay questions for each chapter and for final exams, learning strategies, and study tricks.

The volume before you arose out of a series of conferences and programs under the banner Restoring the American Story, directed primarily at educators working in both Jewish and non-Jewish school settings and educational nonprofits, and addressing itself to the various ways that the American tradition and the Jewish tradition are intertwined, and speak in strikingly similar and mutually supportive ways to some of the most fundamental human concerns--concerns that are foundational to what we call Western Civilization. Much of the book consists of papers and presentations arising out of these programs, particularly a conference held at Yeshiva University in spring of 2023, convened by the two editors of this volume, and attended by a lively group of teachers and other educators from around the country. We are grateful for the generous support of Mitch Julis, Elie Gindi, and the Jack Miller Center in these efforts. Other contributions have been added, and in some cases solicited for this volume, as the editors discerned gaps and potential points of interest and illumination.

In Land of Hope, historian Wilfred M. McClay offers readers an inspiring and balanced exploration of American history, focusing on the individuals, events, and ideals that define the American experience. This beautifully written narrative provides a refreshing look at the United States' journey, from its founding to its triumphs and struggles, while acknowledging the complexities and contradictions of the nation's past. Designed as both a high school textbook and an engaging read for general audiences, Land of Hope provides an honest, non-ideological, yet affirmative glimpse of our American story. Through carefully selected stories and a clear, engaging writing style, Land of Hope immerses readers in key historical moments, encouraging readers to envision themselves as an integral part of this shared legacy. With Land of Hope, McClay invites students, teachers, and history enthusiasts alike to engage with America's past and our ongoing quest for liberty and justice for all.