6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Two-thirds decent history, one-third only the Presidents, October 1, 2010
The chief selling point of this book is that it is a one volume history of the United States using three themes, empire, liberty and faith. Except it doesn't. The true themes of this book are the levels of rights and powers between the State Governments, the Federal Government, and the Supreme Court. Faith is a topic discussed in its own sections of a chapter. 'Empire' and 'liberty' are terms frequently invoked at the beginning and end of chapters, but rarely are they put in context.
The book is divided into three sections. The first starts in the distant past with the arrival of prehistoric humans, and winds down to the beginning of the Civil War. The second continues with the Civil War through to the end of World War II. These sections are an interesting but conventional and conservative overview of US history. To anyone familiar with American history, there should be few surprises here, except some of the author's conservative spin on events. For instance, he takes a consistently negative and 'interfering' view of the decisions of the Supreme Court.
The third section of the book is set from after World War II right up to the Obama Presidency. I found this section the most memorable but also the most frustrating. Apart from a chapter on the civil rights movement of the Sixties and a section on the Information Revolution, this section is a series of shallow biographies of the US presidential administrations. It covers what they intended to do, and what standard histories say they achieved. American events not involving the Presidents are not covered. Apart from Watergate, scandals are only mentioned, not truly covered. This section is also where the author's viewpoint goes from just conservative to aggressively imperial. He lightly covers criticism of the checks and balances governing system with claims that the Constitution is too antiquated for the twentieth century. Then, at the end of the chapter on Nixon (of all Presidents), he literally insults the American people as a whole for not granting the Presidency unlimited power with which to rule their (government's) global empire.
What good points, then, does this book have? The author does a very good job of showing how the American system evolved from strong states' rights and weak central government, to a powerful central government and a citizenry with strong individual rights (when that central government is willing to enforce those rights). Also, despite what he directly states, he does a good job showing how the Supreme Court has been responsible for establishing and defending those individual rights. The author is also a good writer. The quality of the writing made the book enjoyable, or at least readable, no matter how much I disagreed with the author's viewpoint. Finally, while the author deals only briefly with the Founding Fathers' separation of Church and State, he uses some brilliant quotes to make the truth of that separation crystal clear.
It is hard to summarise this book. Overall, it is highly readable and informative in surprising ways. The chapters up to World War II are a good overview of American historical trends. However, the author's viewpoint is conservative, and in the post-war chapters, the overview of events becomes too shallow and too focused on just the Presidency.
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Nothing new, but still good, January 8, 2010
This review is from: America, Empire of Liberty: A New History of the United States (Hardcover)
Those who are well read students in the history of the Republic won't find much new in this single volume overview, but it serves its purpose as such: a single volume for readers needing a refresher on the nation's history; and younger people who would be better served by a readable, near-comprehensive narrative history than some of the history books written now focusing more on social analysis, etc. than the story.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent balanced overview, August 17, 2010
This is an excellent narrative overview of American history from the beginnings to late 2008. The author covers a lot of ground but gives more emphasis to the 20th century as major events and cultural movements then shaped America today. He weaves his narrative together with three themes: empire, liberty and faith. The book explores how the American people shaped their story and confronted the paradoxes inherent in these three themes.
As the author admitted, this is written from an outsider's perspective. While the book does cover native americans, sexual revolution, civil rights, etc., it does not pay homage to the liberal agenda. Some reviewers complain that this constitutes a bias towards "landed white guys". Actually this is part of the outsider's perspective. The narrative of American history has been dominated by the liberal establishment since the culture wars of the 1990s. I find it refreshing to read a history book that actually focuses on history rather than political correctness.
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