35 of 39 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Schama Does It Again, March 19, 2009
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.
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12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Ideas slung around a film-shoot, April 7, 2010
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.
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19 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Looking backwards to move forwards--3.5 stars, May 30, 2009
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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.
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