Title: United States 1776-1992
Genre: History
Year: 2001
Pages: 410
Origin: a tried and trusted library book
Nod Rating: 2 nods out of 5
Two hundred and sixteen years of history of one country, contained into four hundred and ten pages of text. The United States seems to hold a special allure amongst historians: of the new world freed from the tyranny of the old, expanding to become the world’s only superpower after decades of frantic growth. It is like the countries of the world – in language and customs – and yet, unlike anything else on this planet. A land of contradictions; the same country that can produce works of art of the like of the Worm’s favourite author, William Faulkner, and also produce a President of the make-up of George Bush.
This textbook focuses on particular eras of the history of the United States, including the early years of Washington and Jefferson; Western expansion in the 1800s; the causes and course of the Civil War; the consequences of the war in what is termed ‘the Gilded Age’, foreign policy, including the Spanish, First and Second World wars; the boom and bust of 1919-1933; Roosevelt’s New Deal period; the Cold War; the civil rights movement, and recent domestic policy.
There is a large focus on the second half of the twentieth century, with two whole chapters devoted to the Cold War (including one on the USA in Asia from 1945-1973), as well as two focusing on domestic policy in the post-war period. It is noted that these are particularly big events in American’s recent history; but the extended focus skews the balance of the book.
Ultimately, this is everything that anyone would need in becoming acquainted with such a history. For the Worm, this wasn’t a first experience of reading up on the history of the States; however, it was interesting to find focus on different presidents. These included the importance of the Polk administration in the expansion of the west in the 1840s, the growing tension of Lincoln’s presidential election victory in 1860, as well as the succession of failed presidencies in the post-Civil War period, whose scandals and carpet-bagging put many modern corruption incidents in the shade.
As can be surmised by this “best-bit” collection, the book focuses heavily on the men (usually white, usually Christian) in charge, and less on faceless social changes. Regular readers of this blog might find it a tad rich of the Worm to be criticising this book for doing the exact same thing the Worm scolded Sked’s history of the Habsburg empire for not doing; and yes, dear reader, you would be right: the Worm is an erratic creature. However, the lack of historical debate – despite bite-sized chunks, such as the Turner Thesis relating to the idea of America’s ‘Manifest Destiny’ – leaves the reader wanting much more from the reading experience.
Of course, you – the readers out there – might wish to dispute that this book never had the intention of providing greater insight into America’s history. And, you are correct to object. On the plus side of this publication are the strong collection of maps, a framework of key events, and a glossary of useful terms. Furthermore, there is an interesting feature of the evolution of the governmental departments, including who held what in the key ministries as the decades progress.
This book is a solid history that never threatens to become a captivating read; it keeps to the facts, and for an introductory overview of two hundred years of history, it fits the bill quite well.
Buy it here
