Manifest Destiny: American Expansion and the Empire of Right (Critical Issue Book) [Paperback]

Anders Stephanson (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0809015846 | ISBN-13: 978-0809015849 | Publication Date: January 31, 1996

The Hill and Wang Critical Issues Series: concise, affordable works on pivotal topics in American history, society, and politics.

Stephanson explores the origins of Manifest Destiny--the American idea of providential and historical chosenness--and shows how and why it has been invoked over the past three hundred years. He traces the roots of Manifest Destiny from the British settlement of North America and the rise of Puritanism through Woodrow Wilson's efforts to "make the world safe for democracy" and Ronald Reagan's struggle against the "evil empire" of the Soviet Union. The result is a remarkable and necessary book about how faith in divinely ordained expansionism has marked the course of American history.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Stephanson (Kennan and the Art of Foreign Policy, Harvard Univ. Pr., 1989) turns his attention to an era not adequately covered in monographic form since Frederick Merk's Manifest Destiny and Mission in American History (1963). He traces the roots of manifest destiny from the British settlement of North America and the rise of Puritanism through Woodrow Wilson's efforts to "make the world safe for democracy" and Ronald Reagan's struggle against the "evil empire" of the Soviet Union. While earlier titles focus on the antebellum period of this misunderstood era of American history, Stephanson's work assumes a comprehensive perspective in a relatively slim volume. Unlike previous works, it emphasizes the role of Christianity as a principal ideological driving point. No footnotes are included, but there is a useful bibliographic essay. Overall, this is a good, innovative treatment of the topic. Highly recommended.?Daniel Liestman, Seattle Pacific Univ. Lib.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

In this concise essay, Stephanson explores the religious antecedents to America's quest to control a continent and then an empire. He interprets the two competing definitions of destiny that sprang from the Puritans' millenarian view toward the wilderness they settled (and natives they expelled). Here was the God-given chance to redeem the Christian world, and that sense of a special world-historical role and opportunity has never deserted the American national self-regard. But would that role be realized in an exemplary fashion, with America a model for liberty, or through expansionist means to create what Jefferson called "the empire of liberty" ? The antagonism bubbles in two periods Stephanson examines closely, the 1840s and 1890s. In those times, the journalists, intellectuals, and presidents he quotes wrestled with America's purpose in fighting each decade's war, which added territory and peoples that somehow had to be reconciled with the predestined future. A sophisticated analysis of American exceptionalism, for ruminators on the country's purpose in the world. Gilbert Taylor --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: Hill and Wang (January 31, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0809015846
• ISBN-13: 978-0809015849
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #120,429 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Global Conquest: the United States Role In Democratization of the World, January 31, 2010

By 

LaShanda C. West (Miami, Florida) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Manifest Destiny: American Expansion and the Empire of Right (Critical Issue Book) (Paperback)

Global Conquest: the United States Role In Democratization of the World

From territorial expansionism to international positioning, the United States was destined to be a mother country and catalyst of global affairs.

The United States began to receive acclaim as a higher authority after creating a government that is based on the principles that protects individual rights while promoting the system of federalism.

The U.S. moved from the principles of authority to an ideological enforcement after joining the allied powers in World War I and II.

Stephanson's "Manifest Destiny," illustrate the progressive role of the U.S. in its conquest of expansionism and democratization of the world.

10 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting but not a good bedtime story, January 17, 2000

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David Orr "civix" (Boston, United States (Example shows city and country)) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Manifest Destiny: American Expansion and the Empire of Right (Critical Issue Book) (Paperback)

The interesting point of the book is demonstrating how religious righteousness has manifested itself into the very core of American politics and self identity since its inception. An eye opener to see how racist our country has always been. However, the author's arrogance and pomposity makes for dense difficult reading and tends to distract from the message.

1 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Very unorganized and meandering, April 21, 2010

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Andrew J Han - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Manifest Destiny: American Expansion and the Empire of Right (Critical Issue Book) (Paperback)

Stephanson has some very very good points throughout this book. He shows examples of US manifest destiny and how it affected the rest of the world. HOWEVER, it is also a very very DRY and BORING book. To get to the important details one must literally sit down and read the book like a textbook. On top of that, he doesn't organize his thoughts well at all. The entire book is a summary of US history, not explicitly through the lens of manifest destiny, as the cover seems to imply. DO NOT BUY UNLESS YOU HAVE TO.