America, Empire of Liberty: A New History of the United States - Hardcover

Reynolds, David

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 046501500X ISBN 13: 9780465015009

Publisher: Basic Books, 2009

Synopsis

It was Thomas Jefferson who envisioned the United States as a great empire of liberty. This paradoxical phrase may be the key to the American saga: How could the anti-empire of 1776 became the worlds greatest superpower? And how did the country that offered unmatched liberty nevertheless found its prosperity on slavery and the dispossession of Native Americans? In this new single-volume history spanning the entire course of US historyfrom 1776 through the election of Barack Obamaprize-winning historian David Reynolds explains how tensions between empire and liberty have often been resolved by faithboth the evangelical Protestantism that has energized American politics for centuries and the larger faith in American righteousness that has driven the countrys expansion. Written with verve and insight, Empire of Liberty brilliantly depicts America in all of its many contradictions.

About this title

Review:

Publishers Weekly
“In an animated overview up to the present time, Cambridge historian Reynolds (In Command of History) captures the sprawling chronicle of a nation forged from the fires of revolution, populated by immigrants and constantly evolving politically and culturally... Most readers will find Reynolds’s epic overview provocative and enjoyable.”

American History Magazine
“Dazzlingly sweeping yet stippled with detail, this one-volume narrative runs from 1776 to Obama’s election, serving up fresh insights along the way.”

Kirkus
“Concise and still-inclusive...teeming...an evenhanded distillation of America's story from a singular outside observer.”

The National Interest
“Let us not mince words...this is the best one-volume history of the United States ever written...At least on the face of it, no single mind can master this mountain of material, avoid the almost-inevitable factual blunders, negotiate the long-standing scholarly controversies, and control the narrative in clear and at-times-lyrical prose. But that is precisely what Reynolds has done...[A] remarkable tour of the American past.”

Book Description:

Volume Two of David Reynolds’s major BBC Radio 4 series traces America’s story from the Civil War to World War Two.

About this edition

• Publisher: Basic Books
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 046501500X
• ISBN 13: 9780465015009
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 592