Book Review: Ideas and Movements That Shaped America: From the Bill of Rights to “Occupy Wall Street"

Abstract

This three volume encyclopedia offers more than 200 key concepts in American history from “Abolition” to “Zionism” similar to the earlier Encyclopedia of American Social Movements edited by Immanuel Ness (Sharpe 2004). While Ness uses sixteen larger groupings, Green and Stabler present more than 200 discrete ideas in alphabetical order in 1,000-3,000–word commentaries coupled with related excerpts of primary documents including laws, speeches, essays, and interviews that highlight significant voices and moments in American history. A timeline in the first volume situates the ideas in their historical context.