Customer Reviews

The American Future: A History

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Writing a history of the future may seem provocative, or worse, downright nonsensical. What Schama has in fact done is to provide us with a strong indication of where America is likely to head in the future, based on the history of America's responses to its' challenges, now in our past.

The acknowledgement page in this edition is dated August 2008, shortly before the historic outcome of the presidential election in November was known. But the book opens in Des Moines, Iowa at 7:15 p.m. on January 3 with the caucus of Precinct 53 held at Theodore Roosevelt High. This was the exact time that Schama says he knew that "democracy came back from the dead."

A Professor of Art History and History at Columbia University, Schama is a British expatriot who has lived and taught in the United States for over thirty years. As a result of his origin and experience, combined with his masterful writing skills and insight, he might very well be described as a modern-day de Tocqueville. And, similar to Democracy in America, it is my distinct impression that this work was written first and foremost for Europeans, who may not be so well informed in American history. Although, even for an American and an American history buff such as myself, I found plenty that was new, or that was elucidated in a way that was completely new, to me.

The book is a collaborative effort with BBC television, which aired a four hour series in the UK in Autumn of 2008. And, actually, the DVD version was released in the U. S. on January 20. That series is well worth watching (and the subject of a separate review), but the book offers so much more.

Punctuated as it is with contemporary scenes from 2008, such as the aforementioned caucus, an interview with General Ricardo Sanchez, or his rendezvous with the vaqueros in the Bahia Grande of South Texas, who, to a man, consider themselves to be Mexican, while being "fiercely loyal to the United States as well," the vast majority of this volume is devoted to the time surrounding the Revolutionary War and the founding of the Republic, the Civil War and the near demise of the Republic, and the Civil Rights Era and the redefining of the Republic.

The book is divided into four parts. The first, "American War," covers the very different views on statecraft represented by Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton, the founding of West Point, the origins of Arlington National Cemetary, and, in particular, the astonishing history of the "Meigs Dynasty," which began with a trans-oceanic voyage from Dorset to Connecticut as early as 1636. The stories of "Return" Jonathan Meigs who fought with Benedict Arnold in Quebec, his son Jonathan, Jr. who became the first Postmaster General, Montgomery Meigs, Quartermaster General for the Union during the Civil War, and who also designed the dome on the nation's capitol, all the way down to another General Montgomery who in 2006 advised Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld on the Iraq War, are reason enough to buy this book.

Part II, "American Fervour," deals with the issue of slavery and the Civil Rights Movement, citing many of its' lesser known facts. If you are unfamiliar with either Jarena Lee or Fannie Lou Hamer, again, Schama's book is worth the price for these vignettes alone.

Immigration and multiculturalism form the core of part III, "What is an American?" Mexican-Americans, the German-American problem, the seldom-discussed history of Chinese-American "coolies" (even in my hometown of Rocklin, CA--another thing I hadn't known), Muslims in America and Jefferson's Quran (yes, he had one); these chapters portray America as the best, most promising melting pot in world history.

Finally, "American Plenty," which comprises part IV of Schama's work, considers issues of migration, irrigation and alternate energies, his thesis being that America is constantly recreating itself whilst finding ingenious ways to meet its' most pressing problems.

In a time of crippling economic woes, job loss and foreclosures, The American Future: A History may be just the antidote to pessimism we need, helping Americans, as well as the rest of the economies of the world which are dependent on America, to see that she is not likely to be falling anytime soon.

4 1/2 stars, only because I would have enjoyed more direct speculation on what Schama thinks the future actually holds. Not really the job of an historian though.

Highly recommended. Buy it, read it, learn, and feel better.

Like the rest of the brilliant academics who have made a name through dazzling scholarship and cashed it in for big money TV series, Schama loses some of his intellectual synoptic brilliance by writing not, as implied by the title, a history of the USA that gives some indication as to how the future of the country might pan out, but a collection of stories that illuminate some of the ways in which the founding ideas of America have panned out over the past 3 centuries.

Schama pulled off the trick of combining book with TV series in his magesterial History of Britain. But Britain is a different type of historical beast - a deep, but relatively cohesive history with core substantive concepts - church, monarchy, parliament, around which the key shaping themes of British identity have developed. America has a much shorter, yet far more expansive history that encompasses a raft of themes. To name merely some: capitalism, power, clash of civilizations, a secular constitution in a Christian country, militarism without the corresponding desire for a global empire. It is impossible to do all these themes justice in a single volume that tells the history of America by drawing on stories from some of its architypal sons and daugthers - such as the steadfast General Montgomery Meigs, and, more recently, an Islamic American called Chuck who struggles with faith and identity in the post September 11 years.

The ideas in this book are clearly slung around the shooting schedule for the corresponding TV series. And the problem with this is what makes compelling TV doesn't necessarily yield crisp, rigorous historical analysis. Especially given the weight and range of themes Schama wrestles with here, like a 19th Century cowboy trying to marshall a stampede out on the long drive. Schama mixes personal experience, name dropping and journalism (the Iowa primaries where Obama made a key splash, a Downing Street dinner where he talks to George Bush, a trip to Denver Colorado), and uses such flimsy pretexts to draw out generalisations about how faith, army, race and ecomomics have cohered and shaped America out over the years. Sometimes the trick works -such as comparing the diligence of the early West Point cadets in nation building with the more bucaneering strategies of the military charged with sorting out Iraq post invasion. But often it doesn't. And at these moments Schama is left burbling purple prose platitudes about how the multi-racial melting pot of the USA gives much hope for the future, and how ironically Las Vegas may just be the springboard for solving global warming.

All well and good if you are some easy going, glib TV schmoozer. But Schama is not - he is one of our finest historians, with the rare quality these days of being comfortable in a range of time periods and across continents. He has the intellectual capacity to tackle the themes that are shaping the present, but like his fellow British historian Niall Ferguson (another brilliant scholar who now seems to only produce made for TV mush), he has sacrificed rigour for flashy dazzle. With the result that the serious lay reader of history - surely the target audience for such books - is likely to feel rather short changed.

The 2008 Presidential election, despite all the hype about new themes and ideas, was really just a continuation of a few time-tested American themes. At least it was according to Simon Schama.

In The American Future, Schama examines what he views as the four main issues of the campaign: war, religion, immigration, and the environment. What makes this book different from most coverage of the election is that Schama attempts to embed these issues into the grand arc of American history. Schama does not use the outcome of the election as a starting point for extrapolating into the future. Instead, he places each of the four debates into its respective historical context.

To do this, Schama frequently moves between past and present, mixing stories about people he met throughout the US during 2008 (this book is a companion to a BBC television series that was shown on a few PBS stations recently) with research on historical figures, many of whom are somewhat obscure. So, in the section about war, for example, the history of a distinguished American military family, the Meigs, which spans close to 400 years, is interspersed with an exploration of how veterans in Texas view the current US campaign in Iraq.

What, then, is the point of all this? It's actually quite simple, even though the message is slightly hidden by the book's complicated structure. Schama, like most people in the US, has been affected by the national feelings of anxiety that began after the 9/11 attacks and reached new heights during the financial market implosion in 2008. He seeks to show that many of the things Americans are worried about, especially the big issues of the election, are really nothing new. The United States has faced these problems before. And, reassuringly, Americans have always found ways to survive--or even thrive--in the face of these challenges. Best of all, this survival is due to many unique facets of the American character, not because of any special qualities American leaders may (or may not) have had during times of crisis.

Bottom line: at its core, The American Future presents an optimistic view of what lies ahead for the United States. This book is not a light read; Schama writes in a dense, somewhat dry style that takes on an academic tone at times. Still, The American Future is a worthwhile book for anybody who is interested in taking a long-term view of the events and issues of the 2008 Presidential election. 3.5 stars.

I had such high hopes for this book, but was so disappointed. The history was interesting, but Mr. Schama's idea of the future is little more than Obama worship. Sadly, I can't even say the Obama worship is thinly veiled; it's nauseatingly blatant. I'm no Bush fan, but I have enough of a perspective on both history and politics to recognize that Bush is not the worst president we've ever had. Mr. Schama, on the other hand, never misses an opportunity (in fact, he goes out of his way to create opportunities) to lament how he believes Bush has destroyed the country, and that only Obama can save it. Rubbish. The country is in bad shape economically, but it's been in far worse shape before and always come back. Further, not every bad thing that has happened to the U.S. - economically and otherwise - can be laid at the feet of George W. Bush. (For example, the United States, a.k.a. the "Great Satan," has been pretty unpopular in the Middle East since well before anyone ever heard of George W. Bush.)

In his blatant Obama worship, Mr. Schama commits the blunder of many amateur historians: that of looking for the so-called "great men." He talks of the government by, for and of the people; he speaks of the virtue of the common man; yet he thinks the country is so broken that only the next "great man" (Obama) can fix it. Again, rubbish.

Save your money. If you simply must read this book, do yourself a favor and check it out from the library.

THE AMERICAN FUTURE: A HISTORY is Simon Schama's very personal book about his adopted country. Schama moves back and forth between genres as he explores the themes of war, religion, immigration, and energy. Really the book is an exploration of the American Dream, in its many different manifestations. The book contains history, but it is equally a book of political commentary and personal meditation.

The book has a number of commendable features. Schama is a great writer, and his prose is, for the most part, clear and engaging. I found myself not wanting to put the book down on a number of occasions. Schama also has a very fertile mind. He connects the various strands of his narrative in inventive ways. Though these connections can sometimes be controversial, they are always interesting. Another benefit of the book is that since he covers so many different aspects of American life, chances are he'll give you his take on your favorite soapbox.

Though the book is good, it could have been much better. Most of the historical narrative focuses on the Revolution and the Civil War, the founding and refounding of America. As I said, these chapters are very engaging and well written, but it seems as though Schama repackaged other scholars' works, adding his own spin. This isn't a terrible crime, but it does make this "history" a bit of a disappointment coming from a noted scholar.

Another disappointing aspect of this book is that Schama's tone occasionally becomes inexplicably uncivil. The book is, on the whole, written in a winsome manner, yet every so often, Shama makes comments that are beneath him. Those comments regarding Dick Cheney (whether deserved or not) seemed particularly harsh and unfortunately cliche.

Very few people will agree with everything Schama writes in this book, but open-minded people of all political persuasions can profit from his meditations on the ideals of America.

The American Future: A History is a delightful bundle of narratives that seem to underscore Schama's thesis that Europe should not give up on America; that for every "bad' (racist, imperial, anti-immigrant) America there is a "good" (liberal, anti-racist, anti-imperial, and pro-immigrant) America--and that the good and the bad sometimes reside in the same person. Take the Meiggs family for example. Montgomery Meiggs managed the Civil War and many have claimed made a Union victory possible; his descendant teaches a course on `Why presidents go to war when they don't have to'; and one of his other ancestors, White Path, ended up betraying the Cherokees. Or take Harriett Beecher Stowe's father--a fervent abolitionist and an equally fervent anti-Catholic whose "Boston sermon against the Catholic invasion of the West was duly followed by the burning of an Ursuline convent in that city."

But somehow or another, Americans because the institutions the Founders (imperfect men all) created have such faith in the American peoples, the Americans are able to get up and move on and, what is more, to reinvent themselves.

This, Schama suggests is indeed a land of opportunity by which he means a place of boundless energy. A place where people can, through good times and bad, recover the better angels of their history; and so create their own future. A place in which a transplanted agnostic English Jew like himself can be made to feel at home even in a mega-church where the seats were marked SAVED.

A place where an Obama candidacy (the book was written before the election) to the highest office in the land was as possible as a Muslim Congressman taking the oath of office on Jefferson's Quran. As possible as Jews being able to vote and hold office; in short to be citizens and Jews all at the same time in the newborn American republic at a time when this was simply not possible in Europe.

This, Schama says, is surely not the sort of place Europeans or the rest of the world for that matter should give up on. Simon Schama (who has lived more than half his life here) certainly has not.

I strongly recommend this book for the history you won't often get (the history of momentous events is told most often through the eyes of "secondary" characters like the Meiggs family; Major Powell; Grace Abbott; others like them) and for the writing that flows easily from theme to theme without bothering too much with chronology. It is in short a history that reads like a good novel.

Did I mention I recommend it?

The DVD version of Simon Schama's overview of the American present is a splendid visual panorama. This book provides the added depth that puts meat on Schama's arguments and opinions. Schama uses individual biographies to highlight a historical period or American issue that he considers illustrative of our character as a nation. As an immigrant from England who has now spent more than half of his live as a resident of America, Schama's voice is unique and not always flattering. Some of what he uncovers about the American psyche is clearly discomforting but it never seems unfair. His views on the American Civil War and its continuing resonance today is particularly moving. His examination of the immigrant experience in our history seems cogent and true. How a society treats its weakest and most vulnerable members is one strong indication of its efficacy. Our history in that regard has been less than sterling: occasional compassion accompanied by periods of neglect and outright antipathy has been the norm. But Schama is always hopeful. Although it is obvious that he loves America, Schama holds it to account as he pleads for its deeds to match its loftiest words. And those words are indeed lofty as Schama's portrayal of Jefferson reveals. This is an excellent book with an unique viewpoint that will reward careful and open-minded reading.

I've enjoyed Simon Schama's work in the past. He is excellent at summarizing historical periods and the significance of events. In addition, Schama is an engaging storyteller and that makes his writing enjoyable to read. Although I found The American Future worth reading, primarily because it contained stories that were new to me, I found the book overall to be less engaging than Schama's previously works. Some discussions and stories went on too long for my taste. In my opinion the book would have been better had it been edited down to be more succinct. That said, if you've enjoyed Simon Schama in the past, The American Future is worth a read.

Upon skimming over this book for the first time I was not very enthused about sitting down and reading it in detail. The author, Simon Schama, organized "The American Future" in a unique manner. Upon giving this book a thorough read, however, I began to understand the brilliance of the author's approach.

Schama packs an absolute ton of information and thoughts into each chapter, yet the book reads very easily. I like the author's style of writing, as it flows incredibly well and he is able to weave a lot of material into something that is easy to understand. I will not go into a blow-by-blow account of the contents of the book since so many other reviewers have done a fine job of that already.

The one aspect of "The American Future" I want to focus on is its injection of the stories of remarkable people who generally do not necessarily get a lot of "glory" in other books of this type. For example, Schama wisely refers to Fannie Lou Hamer on many occasions in the book. He sets the scene of Fannie Lou's life and times so well that it was almost as if I were there, taking in the sights and sounds of the 1960s. There are many other people and eras in which Schama does the same thing.

People may agree or disagree with some of the editorializing of the author, but the fact remains that the reader will definitely learn a great deal about key moments and people in the history of America. It will also make the reader think about where we go from here, given what we can learn from the past.

The American Future: A History by Simon Schama is written in ebullient rigorous prose of an author who cares about the direction of our country. But this book is no polemic. It is, at its subtitle says, a history. This is no ordinary history, however. Schama is expert at taking some of the most cataclysmic events of our age--the election of Obama, the failed Bush Presidency, the downfall of the US auto industry, to name a few--and juxtaposing these developments with landmark historical events.

In Part I American War, Schama juxtaposes Bush's failed Iraq War with the tragedies of the Civil War and shows that as Americans we cannot support wars unless they are born of necessity, as the Iraq War was not. He uses the Iraq War to contrast Hamiltonian politics (from which Bush and the neo-cons belong) which is based on an ongoing war machine and Jeffersonian politics which is to use the war machine as sparingly as possible. The current dilemma we're in, which lacks support from citizens and soldiers alike, Shama shows, gives more credence to the Jeffersonian approach.

In Part II American Fervour, the election of Obama is compared to the Great Awakening of the 1860s and the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. Schama points out that when Obama was criticized for attending the "confrontational" Jermiah Wright's church, Obama defended himself by giving a speech about the history of "race and religion" in America and talked about the history of racial anger rather than justifying that anger in Wright's church.

In Part III What Is an American? we see the juxtaposition of coyotes brining in immigrants with the "German threat" of 1855 and see the triumph of the melting pot even in a country that over and over again commits the crimes of provincialism and tribalism.

Part IV American Plenty is the most ominous chapter and shows that we are at a crossroads in American history (an excellent companion to Part IV is the book The Hunger for More by Lawrence Shames). Traditionally, we have been a country whose mind, Schama writes, can be summed up in one word: "boundless." We are he writes, quoting Tocqueville, a "restless spirit" and we succumb over and over to Gatsby's "orgiastic future." Presidents who fail to capture our spirit of excess, like Jimmy Carter, fail. And Presidents who make us proud of our abundance like Ronald Reagan are heralded as beloved icons. But Schama ends this sobering chapter by pointing out that our dependence on foreign oil, our failed auto industry, our rampant foreclosures, our global warming, and other crises are pointing for the need to re-invent ourselves. And there is an optimistic spirit in Schama's book that suggests that such a re-invention is possible.