Readers of this book will meet some of the most interesting, important, and memorable characters in American historymen and women whose stories are expertly and beautifully recounted in these pages. But they will also see reflected and illuminated in these lives great forces and momentous issues, the passions and motives and movements that have shaped our country. The authors' approach humanizes what might have been lifeless abstractions, showing how the largest of matters can touch and change the lives of individuals and how individuals can give life and voice to things bigger than themselves.These well-researched, highly readable biographical narratives vividly evoke key issues and trends in American history from the early Colonial era through the Civil War and Reconstruction. The subjects are well chosen to illuminate central features of their era, and each chapter's introductory essay positions these men and women in their larger historical context. Lives and Times: Individuals and Issues in American History should find a broad audience of readers.Lives and Times is a biographical reader designed for use in American history courses, with each volume consisting of thirteen chapters in which two significant individuals are examined in the context of a major historical issue or event. Written in a narrative style, this text offers students new and intriguing perspectives about major issues in the nation's political, economic, social, cultural, intellectual and military history.Lives and Times is a biographical reader designed to acquaint students with major issues in American history through the lives of individuals, prominent and otherwise, whose ideas and activities were crucial in shaping the course of the nation's history. Employing a narrative style, each volume consists of thirteen chapters in which the lives of two individuals are examined in the broader context of major historical themes. Readers will find not only a diversity of individuals profiledinclulc$