America, Empire of Liberty
A New History
$57.10
- Paperback
704 pages
- Release Date
10 March 2010
Summary
Thomas Jefferson envisioned the United States as a great ‘empire of liberty.’ In the first new one-volume history in two decades, David Reynolds takes Jefferson’s phrase as a key to the saga of America—helping unlock both its grandeur and its paradoxes. He examines how the anti-empire of 1776 became the greatest superpower the world has seen, how the country that offered liberty and opportunity on a scale unmatched in Europe nevertheless founded its prosperity on the labor of black slaves and the dispossession of the Native Americans. He explains how these tensions between empire and liberty have often been resolved by faith—both the evangelical Protestantism that has energized U.S. politics since the foundation of the nation and the larger faith in American righteousness that has impelled the country’s expansion. Reynolds’ account is driven by a compelling argument which illuminates our contemporary world.
Book Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780141033679 |
|---|---|
| ISBN-10: | 0141033673 |
| Author: | David Reynolds |
| Publisher: | Penguin Books Ltd |
| Imprint: | Penguin Books Ltd |
| Format: | Paperback |
| Number of Pages: | 704 |
| Release Date: | 10 March 2010 |
| Weight: | 503g |
| Dimensions: | 30mm x 127mm x 197mm |
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David Reynolds
David Reynolds is a Professor of International History at Cambridge University, and a Fellow of Christ’s College. He was awarded the Wolfson Prize for History, 2004, and elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 2005. He has written and presented several history films for the BBC - among them the 2008 series Summits. His books include several on modern America and its relations with Europe. His fascination with the country dates back to a year living there as a student, culminating in an epic ten-week, 10,000 mile bus journey in the summer of 1974 which ended outside the White House on the morning Richard Nixon resigned. David has been a regular visitor to the United States ever since and has held visiting university appointments at Harvard, Nebraska and Oklahoma. America, Empire of Liberty, his book linked to the BBC Radio 4 series, was published by Penguin in 2009.
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