Product Description

The Oxford History of the United States is by far the most respected multi-volume history of our nation. The series includes three Pulitzer Prize winners, a New York Times bestseller, and winners of the Bancroft and Parkman Prizes. Now, in What Hath God Wrought, historian Daniel Walker Howe illuminates the period from the battle of New Orleans to the end of the Mexican-American War, an era when the United States expanded to the Pacific and won control over the richest part of the North American continent.
Howe's panoramic narrative portrays revolutionary improvements in transportation and communications that accelerated the extension of the American empire. Railroads, canals, newspapers, and the telegraph dramatically lowered travel times and spurred the spread of information. These innovations prompted the emergence of mass political parties and stimulated America's economic development from an overwhelmingly rural country to a diversified economy in which commerce and industry took their place alongside agriculture. In his story, the author weaves together political and military events with social, economic, and cultural history. He examines the rise of Andrew Jackson and his Democratic party, but contends that John Quincy Adams and other Whigs--advocates of public education and economic integration, defenders of the rights of Indians, women, and African-Americans--were the true prophets of America's future. He reveals the power of religion to shape many aspects of American life during this period, including slavery and antislavery, women's rights and other reform movements, politics, education, and literature. Howe's story of American expansion culminates in the bitterly controversial but brilliantly executed war waged against Mexico to gain California and Texas for the United States.
By 1848 America had been transformed. What Hath God Wrought provides a monumental narrative of this formative period in United States history.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2476 in Books
• Published on: 2007-10-29
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 928 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. In the latest installment in the Oxford History of the United States series, historian Howe, professor emeritus at Oxford University and UCLA (The Political Culture of the American Whigs), stylishly narrates a crucial period in U.S. history—a time of territorial growth, religious revival, booming industrialization, a recalibrating of American democracy and the rise of nationalist sentiment. Smaller but no less important stories run through the account: New York's gradual emancipation of slaves; the growth of higher education; the rise of the temperance movement (all classes, even ministers, imbibed heavily, Howe says). Howe also charts developments in literature, focusing not just on Thoreau and Poe but on such forgotten writers as William Gilmore Simms of South Carolina, who helped create the romantic image of the Old South, but whose proslavery views eventually brought his work into disrepute. Howe dodges some of the shibboleths of historical literature, for example, refusing to describe these decades as representing a market revolution because a market economy already existed in 18th-century America. Supported by engaging prose, Howe's achievement will surely be seen as one of the most outstanding syntheses of U.S. history published this decade. 30 photos, 6 maps. (Sept.)
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From Bookmarks Magazine
Both academics and lay readers praised What Hath God Wrought, but they appreciated it for different reasons. It is certainly an exhaustively researched and well-written historical survey—exactly what a volume in the Oxford History Series ought to be. American historians admired its elegant synthesis but also understood that Howe is attempting to lead his readers and colleagues away from the strictly economic explanations that have often dominated writing on this period. Historian Jill Lepore, for example, thought that the change in perspective helps Howe subtly explain many aspects of the period, such as the women’s rights movement. Only historian Glenn C. Altschuler believed that Howe has some "axioms to grind" in his reworking of so-called Jacksonian Democracy. Howe’s approach also brings nonacademic readers back into the conversation, though at over 900 pages, the book is probably best suited for history buffs.
Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc.

Review
A comprehensive, richly detailed, and elegantly written account of the republic between the War of 1812 and the American victory in Mexico a generation later...a masterpiece. The Atlantic Howe has written a stunning synthesis of work in economic, political, demographic, social and cultural history, and he gives a fascinating, richly detailed portrait of the U.S. as its very boundaries so dramatically and often violently shifted...it is a rare thing to encounter a book so magisterial and judicious and also so compelling; it is a great achievement and deserves many readers beyond the academy. Chicago Tribune

Customer Reviews

preview, but amazing experience
I admit I have yet to read this book, but I have listened to and talked with the author and am excited to read it! You wouldn't think that an older professor with a droning-like voice could have a bit of a sense of humor that would usually make a semi-boring topic like this one interesting, but Howe does just that. He was able to make a group of 50+ college students pay attention, listen intently, and enjoy his lecture. If the author, while speaking about this book can do that, I am willing to sit down and read my signed copy of this book...all 800+ pages of it.

I will update my review for this book after I have finished it.

Excellent entry in the Oxford series
There seems to be a general consensus that "The Oxford History of the United States" has done much better by the early years of the American Republic than the post-World War II era. Howe maintains the tradition with this outstanding survey of American life between 1815 and 1848. Some have complained of "political correctness" in Howe's treatment of Indian Removal, slavery, and the women's rights movement, but, in my opinion, Howe really goes far afield only when discussing the last of these, when he terms the Seneca Falls convention of 1848 "[the most] encouraging" of America's "hopeful aspects" during this chaotic period. "More encouraging" than the rise of the movement to abolish slavery, which was a far more morally pressing matter at the time? Somehow, I doubt it. On the other side of the coin, Howe's championing of the leading lights and ideas of the Whig Party takes direct aim at the "PC" conventional wisdom that "Jacksonian Democracy" was the "heroic" political movement of this period. Howe does an excellent job of alternating discussions of "meat-and-potatoes" historical information (elections, political disputes, warfare, etc.) with surveys of various facets of American culture. He places particular emphases on the dramatic developments in transportation and communications that both facilitated economic development and made it possible for various popular movements to flourish. Howe's work is fully worthy to stand next to McPherson's "Battle Cry of Freedom" and Middlekauff's "The Glorious Cause" as the best books in the Oxford series. (For others interested in antebellum America, I'd also recommend MacDougall's "Throes of Democracy" for a slightly different, somewhat more cynical take on the subject.)

What Hath God Wrought
I debated giving this book a five star rating but decided to go with four stars because author Howe is a bit over the top on occassion with his political digs. Was the Whig party truly as wonderful as he portrays it as it challenged the Democrats? If it was so great why did it die out or morph into the Republican party within 15 years? But politics aside, this book is great. Clearly this book sets a new standard for completeness in its scope. The period 1815-1848 was an incredibly active period with events going on not only in the geo-political spectrum, but also in social history, economics, church history, arts and literature, and philosophy. The author seems to have a good handle on each of these, maiking this book an excellent starting point for anyone intersted in how America emerged from the early constitutional period to that which more or less resembles our own society.

Political bickering between parties begins in this period, so does uniquely "American" industry and imperialism. Some have criticized Howe's approach to history by saying he is too politically correct. Well, tell that to hundreds of thousands of African slaves or tens of thousands of displaced Indians. The white dominated government was brutal. At one point in the book Howe says the historian's job is to understand, not condemn. Slavery in the land of the free is more than just a paradox, it's a disgrace. Imperial attitudes towards the conquored Indians and Mexicans shows how determined our imperialist policies were. President Polk went to war based on lies. His claim that the war started on American soil took advantage of the general ignorance of the American people. Other presidents have unfortunately followed this bad example.

But this book covers so much ground I can see it becoming a required text in college history courses. The author clearly has a solid grasp on his subject matter and his writing style, while polemical at times, it does get the message across.