Blessed Among Nations: How the World Made America [Hardcover]

Eric Rauchway (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 27, 2006

In a mere fifty years, the United States transformed itself from a second-tier country crippled by its effort to abolish the appalling institution of human slavery into a great power unlike any the world had ever seen. The question of how it did this should command our attention all by itself, but the question of why it became such a peculiar—and incompetent—empire surely ranks as one of the great questions of modern history. For truly, measured by consequences, few global disasters can match the mismanagement of the international system in the 1920s, which owed almost entirely to bad decisions made in America. All that saves the United States from complete responsibility is the answer to the first question, of how this change happened so fast: America became a great power so swiftly, and became such a peculiar empire, because the rest of the world made it that way.

Globalization does not always level the world’s playing field. It produces winners, losers, and, on occasion, global economic disasters. As Eric Rauchway compellingly shows, no nation so clearly reflects the effects of globalization’s uneven influence than the United States. A historian’s answer to the rosier predictions of journalists, Blessed Among Nations is a sharply narrated reminder that we need merely to review the decades between the end of the Civil War and the aftermath of World War I—the first era of globalization—to realize that one nation’s enrichment need not benefit the whole world.

An incisive explanation of why America has inspired more envy than imitation, Blessed Among Nations warns that if we do not better understand how the United States failed, early on, to master the forces that made it what it is, we stand to make the same mistakes again, in a world with even higher stakes.

Eric Rauchway has written for the Financial Times and the Los Angeles Times. He teaches at the University of California, Davis, and is the author of Murdering McKinley: The Making of Theodore Roosevelt's America. He lives in northern California.

In a mere fifty years, the United States transformed itself from a second-tier country crippled by its effort to abolish the appalling institution of human slavery into a great power unlike any the world had ever seen. The question of how it did this should command our attention all by itself, but the question of why it became such a peculiar—and incompetent—empire surely ranks as one of the great questions of modern history. For truly, measured by consequences, few global disasters can match the mismanagement of the international system in the 1920s, which owed almost entirely to bad decisions made in America. All that saves the United States from complete responsibility is the answer to the first question, of how this change happened so fast: America became a great power so swiftly, and became such a peculiar empire, because the rest of the world made it that way.

 

Globalization does not always level the world's playing field. It produces winners, losers, and, on occasion, global economic disasters. As Eric Rauchway compellingly shows, no nation more clearly reflects the effects of globalization's uneven influence than the United States. A historian's answer to the rosier predictions of economists, Blessed Among Nations is a narrated reminder that we need merely to review the decades between the end of the Civil War and the aftermath of World War I—the first era of globalization—to realize that one nation's enrichment need not benefit the whole world.

 

An incisive explanation of why America has inspired more envy than imitation, Blessed Among Nations warns that if we do not better understand how the United States failed, early on, to master the forces that made it what it is today, we stand to make the same mistakes again, in a world with even higher stakes.

"I can always depend on Eric Rauchway to display the meticulousness of a careful historian with the literary flair of a fine novelist. Blessed Among Nations: How the World Made America adds to this admixture a powerful public voice as well. A tour de force."—Eric Alterman, author of When Presidents Lie: A History of Official Deception and Its Consequences

"I can always depend on Eric Rauchway to display the meticulousness of a careful historian with the literary flair of a fine novelist. Blessed Among Nations: How the World Made America adds to this admixture a powerful public voice as well. A tour de force."—Eric Alterman, author of When Presidents Lie: A History of Official Deception and Its Consequences

 

"American 'exceptionalism' is one of those things often asserted, seldom proved. By setting the history of the United States in the context of the history of the first age of globalization, Eric Rauchway has come up with a powerful new argument about what exactly made the American experience different. Blessed Among Nations is brilliant and convincing."—Niall Ferguson, author of Colossus: The Rise and Fall of the American Empire

 

"With his trademark lapidary elegance, Rauchway shows us that America's position astride the currents of globalization is due not merely to a mysteriously voracious capitalistic impulse, but also to often fortuitous effects of seemingly unconnected particulars."—John McWhorter, author of Winning the Race: Beyond the Crisis in Black America

 

"Written by an accomplished, imaginative historian who well understands those beginnings of modern America—the years of the Progressive Era—this book on one level suggests why socialism never took root in the United States, and why the supposed melting pot and the early Federal Reserve System worked as they did, but on quite another level develops a highly revealing argument how Americans' faith in their 'empire' and their exceptionalism shaped in often unexpected ways what we now call globalization and their part in it."—Walter LaFeber, Tisch University Professor, Cornell University

 

"Laying the groundwork for American empire was an international enterprise—so why doesn't the world want to be American? 'The earth's people have more often envied than imitated America,' writes Rauchway, preferring parliamentarianism and welfare statism to republicanism and laissez-faire. To find out why, Rauchway examines America's rise to empire, which occupied the years between 1865 and 1917. During that time, he writes, America received both financial and human capital from abroad; the working class was predominantly immigrant, as was the army that tamed the western frontier, while huge flows of European cash into the post-Civil War economy made an industrial super-revolution possible, leading to a manifold increase in the nation's wealth. Yet Americans refused to do the things that newly wealthy countries do—namely, invest in public infrastructure and build social-welfare institutions and mechanisms. Rauchway observes that just before WWI, America's army was smaller than Ethiopia's, while 'relative to the size of its economy it had a smaller government than the Netherlands;' he reckons that at least some of the refusal to build a welfare state had precisely to do with the fact that the working class 'appeared visibly to consist of people from other countries,'

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

American exceptionalism is an old idea, but in at least one respect, historian Rauchway (Murdering McKinley) argues, it reflects a geopolitical truth that remains relevant to current trends in globalization. From the Civil War to WWI, he finds, the country's unique position in the global economy-unmatched flow of foreign capital and labor to its shores, expansive opportunities on the Western frontier-meant that the U.S., unlike European countries, was not forced to develop complex federal agencies to regulate commerce, assemble statistics, and provide for the unemployed. The small steps the U.S. did take in this direction, Rauchway contends, were distinctively shaped by the country's relationship to globalization. Efforts to regulate credit and monopolies, he says, arose not in response to Socialist agitation but out of distrust of foreign bankers among recent migrants in the West. Lacking strong, centralized government institutions experienced in large-scale economic matters, the U.S. was unprepared after WWI to take the leading role in the global economy, a failure that, he argues, led to the Great Depression and would eventually scare Americans into supporting international financial organizations after World War II. Rauchway notes with concern that in the decades since the 1960's, as the U.S. has shifted from international creditor to debtor, the country has again begun "edging away from its commitments to globalization" and leaving the international economy to take care of itself. Though he leaves the implications of his innovative historical analysis on the present largely implicit, he provides valuable perspective for the debate about American's proper role in the world today.
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Review

“Provocative…Blessed Among Nations combines the same fluid writing style, bold interpretive approach, and ambitious agenda that made the work of mid–twentieth century historians like Richard Hofstadter, Arthur Schlessigner, Jr., and C. Vann Woodward so important and so broadly relevant.” —Joshua Zeitz, American Heritage
 
 “America’s rise to preeminence, the author argues, was the product of a perfect storm of foreign investment, luck, and global instability, and we forget at our peril the fickle nature of such forces. With hegemony comes responsibility, he suggests, responsibility that the U.S. may presently be all too willing to shirk.” —Atlantic Monthly
 
 "Laying the groundwork for American empire was an international enterprise—so why doesn't the world want to be American? 'The earth's people have more often envied than imitated America,' writes Rauchway, preferring parliamentarianism and welfare statism to republicanism and laissez-faire. To find out why, Rauchway examines America's rise to empire, which occupied the years between 1865 and 1917. During that time, he writes, America received both financial and human capital from abroad; the working class was predominantly immigrant, as was the army that tamed the western frontier, while huge flows of European cash into the post-Civil War economy made an industrial super-revolution possible, leading to a manifold increase in the nation's wealth. Yet Americans refused to do the things that newly wealthy countries do—namely, invest in public infrastructure and build social-welfare institutions and mechanisms. Rauchway observes that just before WWI, America's army was smaller than Ethiopia's, while 'relative to the size of its economy it had a smaller government than the Netherlands;' he reckons that at least some of the refusal to build a welfare state had precisely to do with the fact that the working class 'appeared visibly to consist of people from other countries,' leading native-born Americans to look the other way when issues of, say, occupational safety and labor exploitation arose. Our laissez-faire ways seemed particularly problematic when it came time to raise an army to fight overseas, leading to the creation of particularly inept bureaucracies, for 'routine competence simply did not lie within the experience of Americans who had relied for years on an incidentally benevolent world to take care of them.' And when it came time to protect the world economy with American initiatives after the armistice, Americans failed to come through, yielding worldwide depression—good reason to avoid imitating the American way of life. Given the current reliance on foreign capital and immigrant labor, Rauchway's book is right on time and right on target."—Kirkus Reviews
 
"The furor created in the United States by recent demonstrations on behalf of illegal immigrants makes Rauchway's analysis of America's early experiences with a global community especially timely. Rauchway posits that the United States became quintessentially 'American,' i.e., an economic powerhouse, in the years between the Civil War and World War I. In a staunchly unbiased fashion, he draws upon events during those years that made the United States the favored recipient of foreign capital investment. Cheap immigrant labor played a central role in the building of America, while other countries spent far more on the social welfare of their citizens than did the United States. Yet the influx of labor and capital did not make America more like other nations but instead more distinctive; it came to see itself, in President Wilson's phrase, as 'blessed among nations,' a concept that fostered the smug isolationism it abandoned when the United States was forced to enter World War I and become a major player in world affairs. Rauchway believes that the United States, by virtue of its standing among nations, has the obligation to maintain a commitment to globalization rather than to regard it as a self-regulating mechanism . . . [E]xcellent."—Library Journal

 

"Written by an accomplished, imaginative historian who well understands those beginnings of modern America -- the years of the Progressive Era -- this book on one level suggests why socialism never took root in the United States, and why the supposed melting pot and the early Federal Reserve System worked as they did, but on quite another level develops a highly revealing argument how Americans' faith in their "empire" and their exceptionalism shaped in often unexpected ways what we now call globalization and their part in it." —Walter LaFeber, Tisch University Professor, Cornell University

“I can always depend on Eric Rauchway to display the meticulousness of a careful historian with the literary flair of a fine novelist. Blessed Among Nations: How the World Made America adds to this admixture a powerful public voice as well; a tour de force.” — Eric Alterman, author of When Presidents Lie: A History of Official Deception and Its Consequences...
 
 “With his trademark lapidary elegance, Rauchway shows us that America's position astride the currents of globalization is due not merely to a mysteriously voracious capitalistic impulse, but to often fortuitous effects of seemingly unconnected particulars, such as monopolies rather than government dominating lending, and the diversity of our immigrants impeding a socialist revolution. A flinty and compelling synthesis.”—John McWhorter, author of Winning the Race: Beyond the Crisis in Black America
 
“American ‘exceptionalism’ is one of those things often asserted, seldom convincingly proved. By setting the history of the United States in the context of the history of the first age of globalization, Eric Rauchway has come up with a powerful new argument about what exactly made the American experience different. Blessed Among Nations is both brilliant and convincing. For the breadth of his vision, the author deserves to be blessed among U.S. historians” —Niall Ferguson, Laurence A. Tisch Professor of History at Harvard University and author of Colossus: The Rise and Fall of the American Empire

Praise for Murdering McKinley:

“A fascinating story of America at a crossroads.” --Bob Hoover, Post-Gazette, Pittsburgh

“A fascinating trip through late-19th century America . . . A compact masterpiece . . . A book that holds high the standard for popular history.” --Heather Cox Richardson, Chicago Tribune

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Hill and Wang (June 27, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0809055805
• ISBN-13: 978-0809055807
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #919,562 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Analysis, November 15, 2008

By 

R. Albin (Ann Arbor, Michigan United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Blessed Among Nations: How the World Made America (Paperback)

While devoted to the second half of the 19th century and early 20th century, this book has a strong contemporary flavor. Its themes are the effects of 19th century globalization, the concept of American exceptionalism, and why the USA was so poorly prepared to exercise world leadership after WWI. Rauchway's essential point is that much of what is thought of as American exceptionalism is the result of the unique ways in which 19th century globalization affected American society. American exceptionlism in this case means emphasis on a modest role for government, free market fundamentalism, avoidance of government responsibility for social welfare, and foreign policy based on unilaterialism. Geography and historical circumstances placed the USA in a privileged position. Separated by the Atlantic from the complex European state system, and with its international commerce protected by British hegemony, the USA was able to expand across North America with little threat from other major powers. During that expansion, the USA faced the resistance only of aboriginal peoples of largely neolithic technology. The USA never had to develop the military and state apparatus seen in powerful European states. Similarly, American expansion was fueled by European, largely British, capital flowing through private channels with the state playing only a minor role in fueling development. Rapid American development was also made possible by an influx of inexpensive labor from diverse immigrants. Rauchway argues that the multi-ethnic nature of the immigration prevented the emergence of a strong American socialist movement with the corollary that no American government felt it necessary to develop social welfare policies to buy social peace.

At the time of entry into WWI, the USA had a modest government by European standards and the prior American experience has equipped the elites and general public of the USA poorly to exercise the needed world leadership. The conclusion of American exceptionalism as a contingent result of specific historical circumstances rather than vague appeals to some American traditions is convincing. Rauchway's arguments are interesting and supported well by the evidence he presents. He may underplay a bit some other important features, such as the relative importance of states in our Federal system. I think also that the lack of an American aristocracy changed the dynamics of American middle classe response to industrialization with Progressive era politics that inhibited the emergence of distinct socialist-working class political movements.

Rauchway concludes with a brief and ironic section comparing our present situation and this earlier era of American life. Both are periods of globalization with considerable impact on American life. Both involve American hegemony. In the earlier period, however, globalization shaped America and brought about an America unprepared for world leadership. In our time, globalization is to a large extent the product of American policies since WWII. But, the policies that led to the present era of globalization were to a large extent the result of the repudiation of American exceptionalism. The return to American exceptionalism has not been particularly successful.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars excellent and very readable description of America's economic dependence on other nations, August 16, 2008

By 

Wes Howard-Brook (Issaquah, WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Blessed Among Nations: How the World Made America (Paperback)

I'm very surprised to find that this excellent book hasn't yet been reviewed. Rauchway writes in a very direct and readable style, presenting a wide array of data without numbing the reader's mind. He takes one through the development of the sense of "American exceptionalism" by showing how, all along, the US has been utterly dependent on foreign capital and the steady influx of foreign labor to develop the abundant resources lying at hand across the continent.

A very helpful contribution to debates about immigration, global economics, and America's role on the world stage.

5.0 out of 5 stars Now we see the patterns, October 22, 2010

By 

BP - See all my reviews

This review is from: Blessed Among Nations: How the World Made America (Paperback)

I am glad to read this book which shows me the deep patterns of collective behaviour here in the US. It is at least more knowledge, even though with our current Supreme Court's view of whose property really matters in this country, there is little we can do with this knowledge.

I am glad to know that the size of the "labor" pool, and corporate welfare have always been levers to turn on or off for profits, or for political control over the citizens by the most powerful. The ability to turn an immigration or capital markets spigot on to lower wages, or raise wages, or practice divide-and-rule is clearly not anomalous to our times in American history. What is new is the use of asset bubbles to break the population. At least within the 50 states. Its been freely practiced across the world by our "globalization" institutions for the last several decades.

This freedom of the wealthy powerful few over the majority hardly seems to be "self-determination" to me, and in the next round this Supreme Court will have some hell to pay about that after three decades of bogus talk about free markets, freedom, and self-determination. But, I am glad to read this historian's factset about how all this has evidently always worked. My grandfathers told me as much growing up with 150 years of family history to back it up, but no data tables in textbooks!

It is also very funny that the Jacksonian movement which represented the Western States' collective interests against Banks and Big Capital in the age of railroads and commodities mining is the exact opposite of the de facto "conservative" or Tea Party movements these states now support. These movements are funded by and shill for the very Big Banks and Big Capital that drained wealth from those territories and depleted their people just as they are doing to the Majority of Americans today (not out in the open but using legalized deceit hidden behind some halls of mirrors this time).

I like how the book closes comparing the USA to a child who thinks the rest of the world will take care of it through external manipulation of markets, rather than any serious soul searching and growing up to solve its own problems.

This book shows me a lot about 200 years of collective patterns that can be construed as the nation's collective Karma. As we learn from teachings about Karma, we have to eventually recognize these patterns in our habitual responses to the world around us if we will ever master ourselves and experience true freedom. The US clearly needs to recognize the patterns from the past that are habitual, reactive, or reactionary without any reflection when those patterns emerge as no longer serving us to be healthy, prosperous, and wise. Clearly, the patterns of the last 200 years have served too few in the long-run. These patterns hand too much power over too much to too few who will not use that power to benefit everyone equally. It makes sense, since these patterns were set in the age of Oligarchy and Plutocracy. We haven't yet as a nation learned how to do it another way. Now the video footage on foreign TV channels about what happened to Nevada or Arizona's economy is evidence this Karma is now Bad Karma!

Rauchtway's book helps me understand the origins clearly with lots of balanced evidence. Meanwhile, the rest of the world learns from their own and our mistakes, and 100M young Americans below 24 years of age sink into a Plutocracy, and failed democracy. It took 1500 years for democracy to re-emerge in the wreckage of the Roman Empire!