The Human Tradition in America from the Colonial Era through Reconstruction is a collection of the best biographical sketches from several volumes in SR Books' popular Human Tradition in America Series. Compiled by Series Editor Charles W. Calhoun, this book brings American history to life by illuminating the lives of ordinary Americans. This examination of common individuals helps personalize the nation's past in a way that examining only broad concepts and forces cannot. By including a wide range of people with respect to ethnicity, race, gender and geographic region, Prof. Calhoun has developed a text that highlights the diversity of the American experience.

From Custer and Geronimo to John Wayne and the Marlboro Man, American notions of masculinity have been deeply interwoven with our ideas about the West. But there's more to the relationship between manhood and the frontier than a simple tale of cowboys and Indians, ruggedness and civilization. In Across the Great Divide some of our leading historians look to both the history of masculinity in the West and to the ways that this experience has been represented in movies, popular music, dimestore novels, and folklore. Intriguing, provocative, and important, Across the Great Divide makes us rethink easy assumptions about the nature of American masculinity.

From Custer and Geronimo to John Wayne and the Marlboro Man, American notions of masculinity have been deeply interwoven with our ideas about the West. But there's more to the relationship between manhood and the frontier than a simple tale of cowboys and Indians, ruggedness and civilization. In Across the Great Divide some of our leading historians look to both the history of masculinity in the West and to the ways that this experience has been represented in movies, popular music, dimestore novels, and folklore. Ramon Gutierrez (When Jesus Came, the Corn Mothers Went Away) describes the culture of machismo in early New Mexico; Susan Lee Johnson (Roaring Camp) takes on social life in Gold Rush boom towns; and other contributors introduce us to cross-dressing cowboys, cuckolded husbands hell-bent on revenge, and convicted outlaws walking to the gallows, among other characters. Intriguing, provocative, and important, Across the Great Divide makes us rethink easy assumptions about the nature of American masculinity.

For decades, women's history has been one of the most dynamic fields in all of American history. More recently, the study of manhood has drawn the attention of scholars, students, and general readers. Despite the obvious intersections of female and male gender roles, the nineteenth-century doctrine of "separate spheres" has dominated historical inquiry. The shared experiences and complementary lives of men and women have rarely been considered. This important new anthology, reflecting recent trends in the history of men and women, calls for the reintegration of the study of gender.

Only by focusing on the "similarities," as well as the differences, in the lives of men and women can we achieve a fully representative portrait. The essays in this exciting collection, most commissioned exclusively for this book, cover American history from colonial times to the present, representing multicultural and interdisciplinary scholarship at its most persuasive.

Combining compelling subjects and thorough research, the contributors represent an appealing mix of established authors and new scholars. A lively blend of experience and innovation, A Shared Experiencemarks an important step in the development of American history and the burgeoning field of gender studies.