In August 1955, the mutilated body of Emmett Till -- a fourteen-year-old black Chicago youth -- was pulled from Mississippi's Tallahatchie River. Abducted, severely beaten, and finally thrown into the river with a weight fastened around his neck with barbed wire, Till, an eighth-grader, was killed for allegedly whistling at a white woman. The nation was horrified by Till's death. When the all-white, all-male jury hastily acquitted the two white defendants,...

An authoritative survey of the most important topics and themes of 20th-century American history and historiography. Each essay synthesizes the current state of contemporary American scholarship, covering topics such as foreign policy, religion, labour, ethnicity, law, the military and the media.