Customer Reviews

Excellent read, American history with the red meat on.. - By: A. J. Sudworth, 22 Oct 2008
This book is for those of you who like history as a sweep of events & with interlocking sections that you have to piece together to get your overall picture. Although this makes reference to the current election I think its only because I think the author sees the two candidates as potentially the Hamilton & Jefferson characters of this age - one quite happy to use American military strength & the other very sey against it. And its this splitin the US approach that the four sections of the book address. The four sections cover war, religion , what is an american, & the belief you can have it all if you just try hard enough & while I don;t think you get a full final view I think the observation at the end that the role of government is about making people happy & not to destroy life is hard to argue with.
Apart from the violence of the Civil War which had some horrific parts what these sections bring to vivid lifein the internal violencein US history , the programs against the Cherokee, the violence & hatred against the black population as they battled for civil rights, the mis tratment of Chinese & Mexicans & they were killed with impunity & with legal sanction makes for some grim reading. The section on religion makes it very clear why religion plays such a big partin US politics & you can see why as it was & till is a vital way to express a sense of community. The best part for me was the section on multiculturalism where its clear that you can retain a sense of your rootsin the US AND still be an American with a fierce committment to the country
It was with a sense of diappointment that I finished this book simply bacause I had not had enough of the American story which is spite of the things done still seems essentially optimistic - & so if Obama wants to use the phase 'Yes we can' then this book will help explain why his audience responds to it