by Daniel Howe

Has anyone read this? Most of the reviews are very positive on www.librarything.com and www.amazon.com, however there are a few voraciously opposed to the thesis of this book based on possibly revisionist or anti-white views of the author.

Does anyone have other reading suggestions for this time period?

I just ordered it. I will be reading it for my 19th Century US class starting this January. I will let you know shortly how it is. Looks like it will be the third book we read for it.

Here is the reading list from the class, maybe something here you might like.

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X 1) William L. Barney, Passage of the Republic, D.C. Heath, 1987. ISBN: 13-978-0669047585.

X 2) Drew R. McCoy, Elusive Republic: Political Economy in Jeffersonian America. UNC, 1996. ISBN 13-978-0807846162.

X 3) Daniel Walker Howe, What Hath God Wrought. Oxford, 2007. ISBN 13-978-015078947.

I don’t see any evidence of this book coming out in paper back soon, but do order paper if that is an option.

X 4) Allen C. Guelzo, Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation: The End of Slavery in America. Simon & Schuster, 2004. ISBN: 13-978-0743299657

X 5) Drew Gilpin Faust, This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War. Vintage, 2009. ISBN: 13-978-0375703836.

X 6) Peter Kolchin, American Slavery, 1619-1877. Hill & Wang. ISBN: 0-8090-1554-4.

X 7) Robert Abzug, Cosmos Crumbling: American Reform and the Religious Imagination. Oxford, 1994. ISBN: 0-19-504568-8.

X 8) Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom's Cabin or Life Among the Lowly. Penguin Classic. ISBN: 0-14-039003.

Please alert me if this version edited and intro by Ann Douglas is not available.

X9) Susan-Mary Grant, North over South: Northern Nationalism and American Identity in the Antebellum Era. University Press of Kansas, 2000. ISBN 13-978-0700614257.

X10) Alan Trachtenberg, Incorporation of America: Culture and Society in the Gilded Age. Hill & Wang, 1982. ISBN: 13-978-08090-58280

X11) James Green, Death in the Haymarket: A Story of Chicago, the First Labor Movement, and the Bombing that Divided Gilded Age America. Anchor, 2007. ISBN: 13-978-1400033225.

X12) David Potter, Impending Crisis: 1848-1861. Harper Perennial, 1977. ISBN: 13-978-0061319297.

X13) Matthew Frye Jacobson, Barbarian Virtues: The United States Encounters Foreign Peoples at Home and Abroad: 1876-1917. Hill & Wang, 2001. ISBN: 13-978-0809016280.

X14) Lou Falkner Williams, The Great South Carolina Ku Klux Klan Trials. UGA, 1996. ISBN 13-978-0820326597.

15) Henry Nash Smith, Virgin Land: The American West as Symbol and Myth, Harvard Paperback,, 2007 ed. ISBN: 13-978-0674939554.

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[This message has been edited by Aggies Revenge (edited 12/27/2008 1:20p).]

Thanks AR. Drag this thread back up when you finish.

I just finished reading it. Howe is not a fan of Jackson. It is a very thorough illustration of the time period. I thought it was a little lacking in Texas history, but that is my own bias showing through. Overall, as he states in his afterword, it is an account of that time period, nothing more. It is not written to prove a point or a specific thesis, which you should get by the time you are half-way through with it. The anti-white bias that he shows is the norm for modern day history, nothing overly hateful, but it he doesn't pull any punches when it comes to the racism in that time period.

Howe will be in Blinn in Bryan on February 4 speaking on his book. I believe it is at either 6 or 7. He will be in the Banquet Hall.


Edit: I highly recommend Robert Leckie's From Sea to Shining Sea, which is a good narrative of the events covered from Jefferson's administration to the Civil War. Leckie has three books that cover basically the first half of American History, which I would love to use when I teach this course. They are George Washington's War which encompasses the time before the French and Indian War through John Adams' term. Next is the aforementioned Sea to Shining Sea. The third is None Died in Vain, which is 1850s through the Civil War.

You might want to look at H.W. Brands' Lone Star Nation & Andrew Jackson. The Leckie books give a good narrative account of the time period which would probably help you have an understanding of the more specific issues you will deal with in the books that were posted.

[This message has been edited by Maveric (edited 12/27/2008 4:05p).]

The reason I wouldn't have done well if I'd stayed in Grad school is I would have argued with the profs too much about the obvious liberal bent. I know it's a reaction to the history taught in the past and that one day the pendulum will finally settle down towards an objective view of history, but I'm not one for biting my tongue.

The old adage in History is that the current era of historical research is built on the destruction of the previous generations work. I am glad to see glimpses of work in social history coming to an end.

I have always believed you must have a firm understanding of the basic history before the social is taught. The problem is, most students do not get the basic history taught to them anymore.

Since K-State had a pretty solid military history department the amount of liberal v conservative profs is about equal. So far all have been pretty good at keeping a neutral slant on their views.

Wow - what a terrific thread. This is exactly why I frequent the History board.

History has always been a love of mine. I envy all of you that actually get to study the subject in depth, and hopefully even earn a living at it.

AR, have you gotten a chance to read this? I saw the book while at Barnes & Noble today. Not that I'll have time to read anything til December.

I totally forgot about this thread.

Yes, I read it at the start of the semester. We covered it in two weeks so my reading of it was quite rushed.

I plan to re-read it this summer when I can take time and look at it in detail. It is an excellent book and well worth the money.

Thanks, I'll pick it up next time I see it.