Witnessing America: The Library of Congress Book of First-Hand Accounts of Public Life

Collected from diaries, letters, memoirs, court records, articles, tracts, pamphlets, and advertisements in the incomparable collections of the Library of Congress, Witnessing America provides the authentic and fascinating story of our country's past by using the words of those who actually lived it. Most of the firsthand accounts are those of ordinary men and women: foot soldiers and laborers, pioneer wives and schoolteachers, farmers and slaves. Interspersed with these are a few extraordinary selections from such notable figures as W. E. B. Du Bois, Emma Goldman, Carry Nation, Benjamin Franklin, Buffalo Bill, and others, recording what they personally saw, heard, and experienced in a growing America. Covering the period from the very earliest arrivals in the New World to the start of the twentieth century, Witnessing America contains selections on the first settlers as well as immigrants, stories about schooling, marriage and love, working, hunting, houses and housekeeping, food and drink, enduring hard times and enjoying high times, religion, the law and lawbreaking, medicine and sickness, dying, burials, and even ghosts. The result is an astonishingly varied and comprehensive portrait of America's social and cultural history and the life of its peoples from cradle to grave, handsomely illustrated throughout with unusual and rare pieces of art from the Library of Congress.
ASIN: 0670864005
VSKU: BVV.0670864005.A
Condition: Acceptable
Author/Artist:Rae, Noel|Billington, James H.
Binding: Hardcover
Note: Any images shown are stock photographs and product may differ from what is shown.
Condition Notes: The item is very worn but is perfectly usable. Signs of wear can include aesthetic issues such as scratches, dents, worn and creased covers, folded page corners and minor liquid stains. All pages and the cover are intact, but the dust cover may be missing. Pages may include moderate to heavy amount of notes and highlighting, but the text is not obscured or unreadable. Page edges may have foxing age related spots and browning . May NOT include discs, access code or other supplemental materials.