What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815-1848 (Oxford History of the United States)
Oxford University Press, USA - Oxford University Press, USA
Release date: 2007-10-29
Hardcover
Author: Daniel Walker Howe
American history, American history: c 1800 to c 1900, c 1800 to c 1900, History, History - U.S., History: American, USA, History / United States / 19th Century, United States - Antebellum Era, United States - 19th Century, 1815-1861, 19th century, Foreign relations, Social change, United States, Regional History
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What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815-1848 (Oxford History of the United States)
Date undefined"...the historian's duty is to understand, not simply condemn" (p. 590).
"This book tells a story; it does not argue a thesis" (p. 849)
These boasts apparently signify Daniel Walker's Howe's understanding of his "duty" and his book "What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815-1848."
They are also an unmistakable sign that Howe is delusional not only about American history, but also about himself and his work.
This work, which is so awful and so offensive that it is beyond my ability to express it in words, is about 850 pages of this so-called historian simply condemning ante-bellum America on his thesis that its actions and policies were comprehensively, exclusively motivated by racism and imperialism, resulting in evil and genocide.
Perhaps the most obnoxious aspect of all is Howe's persistence in referring to American leaders including James Monroe, Andrew Jackson, Martin Van Buren, W.H. Harrison, James K. Polk, as "white supremacists" and their policies as "white supremacy" - why not, dear Professor, just go ahead and call them "skinheads" or "Nazis" while you are at it? The use of this terminology is anachronistic and puerile - what one would expect from an excitable collegiate term paper, not from the work of a Professor Emeritus (although, I guess, today there is little to distinguish them).
This book is not history; it is an amalgamation of distorted facts and extremely selective references constructed to support the author's antipathy toward America's past. To anyone thinking, this book is not so much of a damning indictment of our past as our present universities and educators.
There are, of recent vintage, much more balanced and informative histories of America during this extremely interesting period ("Waking Giant", "Throes of Democracy") and biographies of Jackson and Polk, among other. On the other hand, if you are someone titillated by reading words that tell you that America is a fundamentally racist, oppressive - even genocidal - force of history, then, this is your book.
What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815-1848 (Oxford History of the United States)
Date undefinedI 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.
What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815-1848 (Oxford History of the United States)
Date undefinedThere 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.)
