With this book, students, teachers, and general readers get a most important look at primary documents-essentially history's "first draft"-revealing rare insights into how American life in past eras really was, and also about how professional historians begin their work.

Daily Life through American History in Primary Documents presents a large sweep of American history through the voices of the American people themselves. This multivolume work explores the daily lives of American people from colonial times to the present through primary documents that include diaries, letters, memoirs, speeches, sermons, pamphlets, and all manner of public and private writings from "the people."

The emphasis is on the variety of people's experiences as they ordered and lived their daily lives. The cast includes Americans of every class and condition, men and women, parents and children, free and "unfree," native-born and immigrant. Hundreds of images further illustrate American life as it developed over more than four centuries and as Americans moved across a continent.

Organized both chronologically and topically, this collection invites many uses by students, teachers, librarians, and anyone wanting to discover what counted in American lives at any one time and over time. Its focus on primary documents encourages readers of the volume to explore specific and critical events by taking a firsthand look at the actual documents from which those events draw historical meaning. The documents show Americans at work, at home, at play, in the public square, in places of worship, and on the move. As such, they perfectly complement the acclaimed Greenwood Encyclopedia of Daily Life in America and will enrich any American history, social science, and sociology classroom.

Randall M. Miller, PhD, is professor of history at Saint Joseph's University, Philadelphia, PA. Miller is also set editor for the 4-volume Greenwood Encyclopedia of Daily Life in America.

Theodore J. Zeman, PhD, earned his doctorate from Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, and is lecturer in history at Saint Joseph's University, PA.

Francis J. Sicius, PhD, is professor of history at St. Thomas University, Miami Gardens, FL, and has been faculty there since 1979.

Jolyon P. Girard, PhD, is professor emeritus at Cabrini College, Radnor, PA, where he received the Lindbach Award for Excellence in Teaching.