America, América

Dazzling. Sweeping. Mind-altering. World-changing. This is a once-in-a-generation contribution destined to become our new reference for understanding the making of the modern world. With extraordinary depth, erudition and precision, Grandin avenges the dead and fights for the living. – Naomi Klein, bestselling author of Doppelganger A fascinating, insightful book that will transform your understanding of Latin America’s crucial role in the rise of the United States and the making of the modern world. – Jonathan Kennedy, author of Pathogenesis In this sweeping and provocative work, Greg Grandin provides a groundbreaking reinterpretation of the intertwined histories of the two Americas, foregrounding Latin American resistance to the hegemony of the United States. This is a compelling new vision of the relationship between the two continents. – Amitav Ghosh, author of the bestselling Ibis Trilogy and Smoke and Ashes In America, América, Greg Grandin advances an urgent vision of the relational history of the Western hemisphere. Adding to his already extraordinary corpus of works and reinterpreting five centuries in broad and beautiful strokes, it ends with a chilling conclusion about the diplomatic and moral failures of our current politics and its return to unilateralism and deliberate misunderstandings of the past. A major and desperately needed synthesis of the Americas and the making of modernity. – Ned Blackhawk, author of National Book Award-winning The Rediscovery of America America, América is the best kind of book: masterful and erudite yet absolutely riveting. By considering the long, sweeping story of Latin America and the United States in the same frame, acclaimed historian Greg Grandin has given us a novel and necessary understanding of a deeply entwined history that is sure to surprise readers, not least because he shows convincingly and urgently how a different past—and with it a different, better present—might have been possible. – Ada Ferrer, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Cuba: An American History Here is American history told as it never has been told before, full of staggering violence and loss, unforgettable villains and heroes, and the courageous endurance of the poor multitudes, so many sources of inspiration. Beautifully written, this brilliantly researched and reasoned book helps account for the sorry state of the present while offering historical lessons on how we might reach a better future.” – Francisco Goldman, author of Pulitzer Prize finalist Monkey Boy In his awe-inspiring masterpiece, Greg Grandin shows how hemispheric relationships have defined the history of the United States for five centuries. Latin Americans did more than decry our failures to live up to the new world’s revolutionary ideals. As our country ascended to hegemon in the last century, our neighbors pushed—in part because of their unequal might and wealth—for the reimagination of how the globe itself ought to be governed. – Samuel Moyn, author of Liberalism Against Itself Praise for Greg Grandin

‘A sweeping and beautifully written book that probes the American myth of boundless expansion and provides a compelling context for thinking about the current political moment.’ Pulitzer Prize committee on The End of the Myth

‘Greg Grandin’s deft penetration into the marrow of the slave industry is compelling, brilliant, and necessary’ Toni Morrison on The Empire of Necessity

‘Grandin writes with literary flair and a sharp eye for the absurdities of politics.’ Washington Post on Kissinger’s Shadow

– Praise for Greg Grandin

Greg Grandin is the author of The End of the Myth, which won the Pulitzer Prize; The Empire of Necessity, which won both the Bancroft and Beveridge Prizes in American history; and Fordlandia, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer, the National Book Award, and the National Book Critics Circle Award; and a number of other widely acclaimed books. He is C. Van Woodward Professor of History at Yale University.