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Title: Manifest Destiny : American Expansion & the Empire of Right by Anders Stephanson ISBN: 0-8090-1584-6 Publisher: Hill & Wang Pub Pub. Date: 31 January, 1996 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $11.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.5 (2 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Cutting through the latice.
Comment: Manifest destiny is an all too often ignored subject in American history, if for any other reason than it rather vividly illustraits the paradoxes of American history.
Where this book's major aim is not expressedly moralizing (although this is not avoided), but rather an attempt to paint a history of the development of the concept and show how it has been carried through to the very near past, it does so in a way which is compact and concise. In short, only those very well versed in American political and philosophical thought will be able to understand the signifigance of even 50% of the subjects discussed. The total volume of information in this rather slim book is difficult to rate in terms of relavance without a deep understanding of even the most minute areas of the United State's past.
Does this mean the book is unreadable to a beginner to American history? Not at all. However without any guide regarding the signifigance of each passage and quote only the initiated will be able to determin whether the author is making an important statement, or simply adding on extra for effect.
The small size and extreemly condensed subject matter will be just the thing for neonates of American history looking to become well versed in the subject. The amount of sources and concepts drawn upon are many and fairly diverse.
Aside from the above strengths/weaknesses, there is one unfortunate oversight which is all too common in writing or discussion of the subject. That is, a broader grasp of the European origins of the fledgling "divine doctrine". The view of America as the "great experiment of man, provided by God for the faithful" is well known, but no attention was spent looking in to the already present philosophy of the "White Man's Burden", which had already blazed across South and East Asia for over a centry preceeding the full scale colonization of the New World. More attention to these origins would have been appreciated.
All in all, this will be an excelent book to start on unraveling the concept of manifest destiny as well as the overall framework of American history, if for any other reason than it will provide practice in determining the relavance and import of sources. For those sources which are almost beyond question, even to the average reader, this will serve more as an elementary introduction to an all-too-often ignored segment of the history of the United States.
Rating: 3
Summary: Interesting but not a good bedtime story
Comment: The interesting point of the book is demonstrating how religious righteousness has manifested itself into the very core of American politics and self identity since its inception. An eye opener to see how racist our country has always been. However, the author's arrogance and pomposity makes for dense difficult reading and tends to distract from the message.
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Title: The Tragedy of American Diplomacy by William Appleman Williams ISBN: 0393304930 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: August, 1988 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: The New Empire: An Interpretation of American Expansion, 1860-1898 by Walter Lafeber ISBN: 0801485959 Publisher: Comstock Pub Assoc Pub. Date: October, 1998 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
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Title: Modernization As Ideology: American Social Science and "Nation-Building" in the Kennedy Era by Michael E. Latham, Michaed E. Latham, John Lewis Gaddis ISBN: 0807848441 Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Pr Pub. Date: May, 2000 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Ideology and U.S. Foreign Policy by Michael H. Hunt ISBN: 0300043694 Publisher: Yale Univ Pr Pub. Date: August, 1988 List Price(USD): $18.00 |
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Title: The Sorrows of Empire : Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic [The American Empire Project ] by Chalmers Johnson ISBN: 0805070044 Publisher: Metropolitan Books Pub. Date: 13 January, 2004 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
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