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presents 15 chapters on U.S. history: early America, the colonial period, independence, formation of a national government, westward expansion and regional differences, sectional conflict, the Civil War and reconstruction, growth and transformation, discontent and reform, war, prosperity and depression, the New Deal and World War II, postwar America, decades of change (1960-1980), new conservatism and a new world order, and bridge to the 21st century. (Department of State)
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The War of 1812 was, in a sense, a second war of independence that confirmed once and for all the American break with England. With its conclusion, many of the serious difficulties that the young republic had faced since the Revolution disappeared. National union under the Constitution brought a balance between liberty and order. |
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Lincoln, October 1862 |
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