Publisher Description
“With eloquence, wit, passion, and irony, The American Future traces the history of an idea: that of our national destiny….A book of beautiful writing, peppered with wisecracks, slashed with rapier thrusts.” —Philadelphia Inquirer
A De Tocqueville for the 21st century, Simon Schama, NBCC Award winning author of Rough Crossings offers an essential, historical, long view analysis of the American character in The American Future. Shama examines four themes—war, race and faith, immigration, and custodianship of the land—through the prism of the historic 2008 presidential election in a magnificent work that the Wall Street Journal calls a “celebration of American resiliency.” Niall Ferguson says, “I hope Obama will have this book on his bedside table.”
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“This is not a narrative history, more a history built of many narratives, from which themes emerge, such as “American fervour” (religion)and “American plenty” (economy). It’s not a book you can skip or dip into; more an extended essay, it asks commitment from the reader. But it’s worth it. Through the selection of less familiar figures whose stories are woven into the bigger picture and used as archetypes fresh insights emerge; like how for American soldiers the regiment or unit does not replace family as much as in Europe; and how double edged attitudes to immigrants have been, far from the unambiguous welcome of the Statue of Liberty (composed by a Jewish poet). The account of the mistreatment meted out to the Chinese labourers who built the railroads is shocking. There are some moving quotes; some well-known (Jefferson’s “Whereas God hath made the mind free…”) others not (a God-fearing civil rights warrior defied death-threats: “I was not saved to run…”). He is good on how British attempts to keep their colonies defensible by boxing-in territorial expansion made the revolution inevitable, and how noone ever won an Americal election “by lecturing Americans about limits.” Freedom is the freedom “to move on” and Appollo is mischievously described as “the ultimate meaningless road trip”. I warmed to this book as a quirky, often subjective account, history coupled to personal reflection, one of the legitimate uses of history, and one that Schama is rather good at.”
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David (4 out of 5 stars)
