Even after the Civil War ended in 1865, deep fault lines persisted in the United States of America. Substantive freedom remained elusive due to a discriminatory regime that marginalised African Americans, women, and ethnic minorities. Rapid industrialisation, urbanisation, and capitalist growth prompted a political push for geopolitical control over international resources and markets, but also sparked unrest over growing economic inequalities.

This volume, ‘From Reconstruction to a New World Order’,studies this period of immense social upheaval and tracks the USA’s emergence as a global superpower. It covers important themes and historiographical debates:

• The radical Reconstruction programme of the 1860s
• The consolidation of monopolistic businesses and the simultaneous emergence of organised working-class movements, including strikes by women workers
• The Populist and Progressive political movements
• Political struggles to abolish racist laws and segregation, culminating in the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements
• Women’s activism, often across race lines, to demand equal rights and full participation in public and political life
• The Great Depression and the federal government’s ‘New Deal’ programme
• US imperialism, its increasing geopolitical influence, and intervention in the two World Wars

The meticulous research is supported by images, tables with important timelines, and a detailed bibliography.

The first such textbook to be written by an Indian author, this book is specially designed as per the latest undergraduate history syllabi, in accordance with the National Education Policy (2020). Students of history, political science, and sociology will find it an invaluable resource.

Archana Ojha is a Professor of History, Kamala Nehru College, University of Delhi.

List of Figures, Maps, and Tables  ix
Abbreviations xi
Preface xiii
Acknowledgments xvii

Introduction 1

1. Reconstruction: Black Freedom, Won and Lost 17
2. The Rise of Big Business Corporations 53
3. History of the US Labour Movement 74
4. The Lowell Textile Mill Girls: The Emergence of Women’s Labour Unions and Strikes  101
5. The Populist Movement and the Progressive Era 105
6. The New Deal 112
7. A Struggle for Equality: The African American Movement 139
8. The Civil Rights and Black Power Movements: Martin Luther King, Jr., and Malcolm X 161
9. Women in American History 201
10. The Spanish American War of 1898: The Onset of American Imperialism 223
11. A History of US Intervention in World Wars I and II 251

References 287
Index 302