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 activities and ideas 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 profiled, but also themes spanning political, economic, social, cultural, intellectual and military history. This combined biographical/thematic approach provides the reader with more extensive biographical information and a fuller examination of key issues than is commonly offered in core texts. Each chapter also offers study questions and a bibliography.