Each lesson features one or more primary sources that will aid you to understand an issue or event of significance in American life and history. The featured first-hand documents will help you weigh the issues within the cultural perspective of its time. The variety of opinions and feelings you will confront will help you develop an historical perspective as you learn to examine forces such as the impact of war; the development of human-rights sensitivities; America's relations with the international community; the degree of "equality" of education that was supposed to exist during various phases of its history; or the politics and culture of the past centuries since colonial and independence beginnings to modern times.