Simon Schama - The American Future: A History (2008)
History – 380 pages / Bought for £10 in Jan 2009 from Waterstones
- 5 nods out of 5 –
America is the land of plenty, of the free and of the brave; many have marvelled at its size and its people, while others have simply been bewildered. To Israel Zangwill, it was ‘God’s Crucible, the great Melting Pot’ whilst in the 1950s the broadcaster Arnold Toynbee stated that America was ‘a large, friendly dog in a very small town; every time it wags its tail it knocks over a chair’. Such a country, rich in diversity, is a historical topic not undertaken lightly, a task celebrated historian Simon Schama has taken to hand.
One thing is immediately apparent: Schama’s foreign blood – even if we do consider his residence on the eastern seaboard for many years – aids him in his perception of America. A mammoth land, yet his book does not pretend to scale the heights of his previous three volumes on Britain’s history that covered the dawn of time to the present day. Rather, The American Future is a portrait of a country primarily based on the author’s taste and own experiences. Indeed, Schama is involved in the setting, action and dialogue within the book right from the off on the first page: ‘I can tell you exactly, give or take a minute or two, when American democracy came back from the dead because I was there’; in reference to the presidential battle of 2008 (the result of which remained unknown the time the book when to the printers). It does not pretend to be comprehensive history, but rather one in which Schama has dipped into and selected according to his own tastes: to rattle, to thrill, to sadden, to inform and enlarge our knowledge of this land and people.
The book is cut into four segments: in ‘American War’ he details the ongoing conflict upon the continent between Jefferson idealism (with its related pacifistic undertones) and Hamiltonian militarism), from the revolutionary period, through the Civil War, to the present day operations in the Middle East; which centres roughly on the Meigs family – a large proportion of whom have served and died in various branches of the armed forces. In the second part, ‘American Fervour’, Schama recounts us with numerous trials of faith and race, before tackling thornier questions of American’s existence: ‘What is an American?’ The final instalment, ‘American Plenty’, highlights the insatiable thirst that the United States has shown since its birth in striving forward, from gaining independence to the conquering of the west, and eventually the world: its long hailed ‘Manifest Destiny’.
The results keep the reader entertained, page after page; a feat all the more commendable if it is noted how Schama was under pressure of a schedule of not only the book but also the BBC documentary series. Throughout, Schama maintains a novelist’s touch in bringing to life the history of the past; and for this I salute him with five nods.
History – 380 pages / Bought for £10 in Jan 2009 from Waterstones
- 5 nods out of 5 –
America is the land of plenty, of the free and of the brave; many have marvelled at its size and its people, while others have simply been bewildered. To Israel Zangwill, it was ‘God’s Crucible, the great Melting Pot’ whilst in the 1950s the broadcaster Arnold Toynbee stated that America was ‘a large, friendly dog in a very small town; every time it wags its tail it knocks over a chair’. Such a country, rich in diversity, is a historical topic not undertaken lightly, a task celebrated historian Simon Schama has taken to hand.
One thing is immediately apparent: Schama’s foreign blood – even if we do consider his residence on the eastern seaboard for many years – aids him in his perception of America. A mammoth land, yet his book does not pretend to scale the heights of his previous three volumes on Britain’s history that covered the dawn of time to the present day. Rather, The American Future is a portrait of a country primarily based on the author’s taste and own experiences. Indeed, Schama is involved in the setting, action and dialogue within the book right from the off on the first page: ‘I can tell you exactly, give or take a minute or two, when American democracy came back from the dead because I was there’; in reference to the presidential battle of 2008 (the result of which remained unknown the time the book when to the printers). It does not pretend to be comprehensive history, but rather one in which Schama has dipped into and selected according to his own tastes: to rattle, to thrill, to sadden, to inform and enlarge our knowledge of this land and people.
The book is cut into four segments: in ‘American War’ he details the ongoing conflict upon the continent between Jefferson idealism (with its related pacifistic undertones) and Hamiltonian militarism), from the revolutionary period, through the Civil War, to the present day operations in the Middle East; which centres roughly on the Meigs family – a large proportion of whom have served and died in various branches of the armed forces. In the second part, ‘American Fervour’, Schama recounts us with numerous trials of faith and race, before tackling thornier questions of American’s existence: ‘What is an American?’ The final instalment, ‘American Plenty’, highlights the insatiable thirst that the United States has shown since its birth in striving forward, from gaining independence to the conquering of the west, and eventually the world: its long hailed ‘Manifest Destiny’.
The results keep the reader entertained, page after page; a feat all the more commendable if it is noted how Schama was under pressure of a schedule of not only the book but also the BBC documentary series. Throughout, Schama maintains a novelist’s touch in bringing to life the history of the past; and for this I salute him with five nods.
