The Oxford Companion to United States History by Paul S. Boyer (Merle Curti Professor of History, and Director, Institute for Research in the Humanities, Merle Curti Professor of History, and Director, Institute for Research in the Humanities, University of Wisconsin-Madison)
The Oxford Companion to United States History is a one-volume, alphabetically arranged encyclopedia offering comprehensive coverage of the field for pre-contact Native Americans to the end of the twentieth century. The volume's first aim will be to serve as trustworthy guide to the basics of American history: correct and clearly presented facts, and thorough and extensive coverage of the political, diplomatic, and military core of American history. Users will find the key figures in various fields of endeavour, the central events that represent defining moments in our past, and the principal court decisions that have shaped our Constitutional history. Beyond this essential beginning point, the volume will incorporate the fruits of the last quarter-century of scholarship in the field, with its heightened focus on social history and its widened social and cultural perspectives on traditional political, diplomatic, and military topics. Other areas to be given central and informed attention are science and technology; popular culture, mass culture, and sports; the arts; and religion.