Brinkley, Alan. 1999. American History : A survey. 10th ed. Boston ; New York: McGraw-Hill College.
Alan Brinkley offers a concise survey of the history of the United States in this collegiate text. In particular, the chapter dealing with the 1920's serves the purposes of this unit well, offering a passable social history and political context.
Calder, Lendol Glen. 1999. Financing the American Dream : A cultural history of consumer credit. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.
Calder's book explores the growth of consumer credit in the United States in the early twentieth century. Calder discusses in depth the Victorian roots of usury laws, and the status of money lending in the late nineteenth century as a foundation to his work. Calder goes on to explain the end of usury laws, and the rise of consumer credit in the 1920s and 1930s.
Cohen, Lizabeth. 2003. A consumer's republic : The politics of mass consumption in postwar america /. New York: Knopf.
Cohen offers a comprehensive look at the history and consequences of American consumerism. Cohen explores the roots of post-war consumerism in the United States, and uses many vivid examples from her own home state of New Jersey. Cohen offers students the opportunity to appreciate the consequences of both consumerism, and suburbanization while contrasting citizen and purchaser consumers as models of modern political participation.
Cross, Gary S. 2000. An all-consuming century : Why commercialism won in modern america. New York: Columbia University Press.
Cross' book explains the process by which consumerism became our model of interaction in the twentieth century. In contrast to Cohen, Cross explores how consumerism grew as a model for organizing our lives. Cross' work is useful for teachers seeking background knowledge.
Hanchett, Thomas. 2001. The other "subsidized housing". Journal of Housing and Community Development 58 (1): 18-49.
Hanchett's article concisely lays out the systems in place to subsidize the growth of suburbs. While dense, this article is extremely useful in its ability to lay out for teachers and students both the policies that subsidized the suburbs, and the consequences of many of those policies.
Lewis, Tom. 1997. Divided highways : Building the interstate highways, transforming american life. London ; New York: Viking.
Tom Lewis has crafted an excellent resource for teachers and students in Divided Highways. Lewis effectively lays out the history of modern highways, assessing their consequences, and exploring the circumstances that surrounded their creation. Individual chapters effectively address battles in New Orleans to save the waterfront, and the political wrangling that led to the 1956 Federal Aid to Highways Act.
Schmidt, Steffen W, and Mack C Shelley. American Government and Politics Today. 2007-2008 ed. Belmont, CA: Thompson, Wadsworth, 2007.
This is a comprehensive text book on American government and politics. The book offers in depth coverage of a wide range of topics. In addition, it includes a full index of ancillary readings as well as both Federalist 10 and 51. I use this book as my text for my AP U.S. Government and Politics course.
