Chapter 9 examines the influences shaping popular culture.

The next chap- ter, on the civil rights movement, looks at the way popular culture can influ- ence our views of the past. As with many episodes from the recent American past, popular memories of this movement have been shaped by images con- veyed by the media. Those images, however, may distort our view of the past. Often, historians attempt to make more accurate assessments of an event by relying on the accounts of those involved in them. Doing so usually requires that researchers synthesize many individual memories into an accurate and coherent collective memory. And, as we shall see, using the accounts of many people who participated in such a broad movement again illustrates that the past looks different depending on whether it is presented from the “bottom up” or the “top down.”

Many of the preceding chapters have used a single historical essay and an accompanying set of primary sources to examine problems of evidence, motivation, ideology, causation, grand forces, and writing of history from both the “top down” and the “bottom up.” The next chapter offers an opportunity to pull together the lessons of previous chapters. Chapter 11 compares what two historians have written about a single topic, the war in Vietnam. We will consider the way the United States fought this war, historians’ explanations for the way it turned out, and the lessons they draw from the experience. This requires that we examine the actions of a small but influential set of indi- viduals as well as the attitudes of many ordinary Americans. Thus, explaining America’s biggest military loss enables us to consider, in a single topic, such questions as motivation, the role of grand historical forces, and the role of the individual in history.

The goal of Chapter 12 is similar to that of Chapter 11: a synthesis, or pull- ing together, of lessons learned in preceding chapters. Here, however, the em- phasis is on the problems of historical evidence, causation, and the role of ideology. Chapter 12 contains two essays on the rise of the women’s move- ment in the 1960s and 1970s and a small collection of primary sources. It asks you to compare and analyze conflicting arguments, using not only primary sources but also insights drawn from previous chapters.

All of the chapters in this volume have a common purpose: to encourage you to think more like a historian and to sharpen your critical thinking skills. Chapter 13 returns to a point emphasized throughout this volume: The pursuit of the past cannot occur apart from a consideration of historical interpretation, and differences in historical interpretation matter not just to historians but to everyone. This final chapter examines differing interpretations about the im- pact of contemporary immigration. It contains two explanations of large-scale immigration today and primary documents that illuminate both interpretations. In addition, it underscores the way our view of the past can be used to justify policies and practices in a later time.

5Introduction

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