In the new version of this chapter, the opening image is of the East Front of the Capitol on January 6, 2021. However, the image is flipped — the actual breach of the Capitol here was on the south side of the building, the House of Representatives side. You can easily see by the reverse letters on the Trump flags. It is a violation of standard journalistic ethics to flip an image. We had a discussion in class on this, and one of the students asked, “if the American Yawp would distort an image like this, how can we trust it in other areas?”
Please correct.
I’d like to start by saying I’m a historian who uses American Yawp in many of my courses, so I’m grateful an OER American history text like this exists. Thanks to everyone who has put in such great efforts.
I do think, however, that this chapter “The Recent Past” needs some work. First, as some others have pointed out, starting with the January 6th Capitol attack seems like an odd and rather biased choice. There are so many other more significant events in recent U.S. history, and this act of political theater was more important for people who are “very online” than it actually was for the grand scheme of American history.
Second, and more urgent, in my opinion, this chapter seems to skip over most of the 1990s. There’s some brief talk about Bill Clinton and NAFTA, but that’s it. The 1990s are an important decade for explaining the neoliberalism of our current moment, as well as the major shift rightward by the Democratic Party. A better introduction to the “recent past” would be the contemporary corporate globalization that now dominates our world that could then be tied back to the economic changes happening in American politics and economics during the 1990s. There’s a couple lines about the dot-com bubble, but not much in this regard.
It’s possible I’ve missed something, but there seems to be no mention of some important 1990s events. For instance, this chapter discusses Occupy Wall Street, but there’s no mention of the “Battle in Seattle” WTO protests, which was its predecessor and one of the most important events in the alter-globalization movement. This chapter also mentions Black Lives Matter, but no mention of the 1992 L.A. Riots, which was BLM’s predecessor and the largest nationwide protest against police violence before BLM. There’s also nothing about culture in the 1990s, which differs from previous chapters that at least mention key cultural touchstones from each era. Nothing about grunge and alternative music, the rise of independent and queer cinema, culture jamming, or just generally any Gen X cultural output. I also didn’t see anything about the Oklahoma City bombing and related events.
Part of the problem here is that this chapter is trying to cover 30 years of history when most the others stick to one decade. I think an easy solution to this would be to beef up the previous chapter “Triumph of the Right” with more from the 1990s, and then “Recent Past” can focus more on the 21st century.
In the early years of the twenty-first century, faced significant challenges, the escalation of the “War on Drugs” into a full-blown public-health and criminal-justice challenge. Although the chapter addresses terrorism and economic change, it stops short of fully exploring how drug policy shaped mass incarceration, regional economies, publichealth systems, and social inequality. This is especially important because the drugs conversation intersects with race, class, policing, and governance in ways that continue to the present day.
Beginning in the 1980s and early into the 1990s, punitive approaches to drug use dramatised worldwide by the crack-cocaine epidemic became institutionalised via mandatory minimum sentences, “three‐strikes” laws, and broader criminal-justice expansions. By the 2000s, these strategies led to exceedingly high incarceration rates among African-American and Hispanic populations, as well as those residing in low-income urban and rural areas. The result was the destabilization of entire neighborhoods, restricted job opportunities, and a diversion of public funds towards corrections instead of prevention or treatment.
At the same time, the early 2000s also saw the beginning of a shift: the rise of prescription-opioid misuse, followed by heroin and synthetic opioids, which revealed the limitations of a strictly punitive approach. Gradually, some states began to reconsider drug policies, implementing harm-reduction initiatives, legalizing medicinal cannabis, and taking initial steps toward decriminalization. These developments brought to light the conflict between criminal justice and public health strategies—an issue the chapter could incorporate as it addresses broader themes of inequality, governance, and the growing involvement of the state.
You should add a section that addresses the conservative resurgence of the 1990s with the REpublican Revolution in Congress and their continued dominance until the election of Barack Obama
Hi SIR/ MADAM],
Protect Your Business from Insider Threats
Is your business vulnerable to employee theft and fraud? Our CCTV monitoring services help prevent losses and ensure a safe working environment.
Safeguard Your Assets
– Monitor Employee Activity: Detect suspicious behavior and prevent theft
– Real-time Alerts: Receive instant notifications of potential incidents
– Video Evidence: High-quality footage to support investigations
Industries We Serve:
– Retail Stores
– Marts
– Gas Stations
– Mobile Shops
– Game Shops
Benefits:
– Reduce employee theft and fraud
– Improve employee accountability
– Enhance customer safety
– Support investigations with video evidence
– Receive WhatsApp Notifications every 60 minutes for peace of mind
Get Started Today!
Contact us to learn more about our CCTV monitoring services and protect your business from insider threats.
Best Regards,
[Saadat Arian]
Stylish Pro Monitoring Team
[https://stylishpromonitoring.com/]
[+1 (903) 343-3657 Whatsapp Or Call]
[support@stylishpromonitoring.com]
What is the controversy? This is a meaningless obscuration of what happened. McNamara and VC generals both later stated that there was no attack on 8/4.
clean up on aisle my pants!!!! this was sooooooo goooodddd i had to GOOONNNNNN EVERYWHEREEEEE
Website content © American Yawp / Feedback 2025. All rights reserved.
Source: https://www.americanyawp.com/feedback_2018-2021/general-comments/?replytocom=239
Some of the paragraphs the text size is smaller then others for not apparent reason.
I don’t know if there is way to fix that but, if possible please try.
It would be fantastic if there were instructor resources (quiz questions, etc.) available as well.
It would be useful to include in the primary sources for Chapter 6, the US Constitution, since so much of that chapter is dedicated to that document. It would also be nice to include a selection from The Federalist Papers so students can understand the framing of the debate over the Constitution. Given the polarized nature of the electorate today, perhaps Federalist 10 would serve the purpose.
It would be great if you could highlight the text and underline it, as if it were a real textbook. Having a toolbar that allows you to take notes like you do in a physical book would be utterly helpful.
Where are the page numbers? I am using the online text for class, and we are asked to site directly from the text. However, unless I am missing something, the online text does not have a convenient way to find the page numbers.
It would be wonderful to have text-to-speech function for the text and textual sources. Many of my students commute, are ESL, or have other accessibility issues. Also, they would learn pronunciations, as well.
Most of the discussions that I have had with other instructors and professors regarding the American Yawp have generated very favorable reviews of the text. One consistent critique, however, is the lack of maps to help with understanding the geographic connections, historical context, and the visualization of historical data and information across the entirety of the text. I tend to agree and geographic/historical map additions to each of the chapters would be extremely helpful.