Working With The American Promise Value Edition: What You Actually Need To Know
I picked up the By James L Roark The American Promise Value Edition Volume Ii From 1865 A History Of The United States Fourth Edition back in 2018 when I was helping a student prep for APUSH, and I have kept it around ever since because it turns out to be genuinely useful for anyone who needs a reliable reference text on post-Civil War American history. Volume II covers the period starting in 1865 and runs through the modern era, so if you are looking for content on Reconstruction, industrialization, the Progressive Era, the two World Wars, the Cold War, civil rights, and the late twentieth century, this is the book you want. It is part of the larger American Promise series published by Bedford/St. Martin's, and it is designed primarily for survey courses but works fine as a standalone reference. The text is written in a style that is straightforward and academic without being dense or hard to follow. Roark and his co-authors tend to weave in primary source material directly into the narrative rather than isolating it in boxes, which I think makes the reading flow better. You are less likely to feel like you are jumping between two separate formats.
One thing most people miss when they get this book is that the value edition is sometimes printed on slightly cheaper paper and may not have the same binding durability as the hardcover or standard edition. I learned this the hard way after about a year of heavy use. The spine cracked near the Vietnam War chapter because the binding glue is thinner. My workaround was simple: I switched to a slipcase or stored it flat when not in use, and it has held up fine since then. If you are looking to obtain a copy, the standard route is through major retailers like Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or directly from the publisher's website. You can also find it used on eBay, AbeBooks, or ThriftBooks, where prices often drop significantly after the academic year ends. Here is something most beginners do not realize about using this textbook effectively. The end-of-chapter questions and the primary source discussions are where the real learning happens, but students often skip straight to the summary. I would recommend working through the discussion questions before you read the chapter summary. It changes how you approach the material entirely.
The bibliography and notes section in each chapter is also underused. If you are doing research, those footnotes are a goldmine. I found several credible sources for a paper on the New Deal by simply following the citations in the chapter on FDR. There are downsides to this edition that the publisher does not advertise. The coverage of labor history and economic policy can feel thin compared to more specialized texts. If you are taking a course that focuses heavily on the economic mechanisms behind industrialization, you will want to supplement this with something like Paul Krugman's works or additional journal articles. This book gives you a solid overview, but it is not exhaustive on any single topic. The companion website that used to come with the book has been largely absorbed into the Macmillan Learning digital platform, which means some of the older online resources tied to the fourth edition may be harder to locate now. If you are buying a used copy that claims to include an access code, verify with the seller that the code still works. I once received a code that was already redeemed and wasted an afternoon trying to sort it out.
Get the Full Details
The ISBN-13 for the volume II value edition is typically 978-1319115755 or 978-1319086539 depending on the printing. Check the specific edition carefully because the fourth edition has gone through multiple printings with minor revisions, and some chapters may differ slightly between them. Overall, this is a practical, well-written textbook that serves its purpose well. It is not perfect, but it is one of the more reliable options available for anyone studying American history from Reconstruction onward.
