What do you think?
Rate this book
Freedom Just Around the Corner: A New American History: 1585-1828 – A Powerful Exploration of the Irrepressible Spirit and Unique National Character
A powerful reinterpretation of the founding of America by a Pulitzer Prize–winning historian.
The creation of the United States of America is the central event of the past four hundred years," states Walter McDougall in his preface to Freedom Just Around the Corner. With this statement begins McDougall's most ambitious, original, and uncompromising of histories. McDougall marshals the latest scholarship and writes in a style redolent with passion, pathos, and humour in pursuit of truths often obscured in books burdened with political slants.
With an insightful approach to the nearly 250 years spanning America's beginnings, McDougall offers his readers an understanding of the uniqueness of the "American character" and how this character has shaped the wide ranging course of historical events. McDougall explains that Americans have always been in a unique position of enjoying "more opportunity to pursue their ambitions䳨an any other people in history." Throughout Freedom Just Around the Corner the character of the American people shines, a character built out of a freedom to indulge in the whole panoply of human behaviour. The genius behind the success of the United States is founded on the complex, irrepressible American spirit.
A grand narrative rich with new details and insights about colonial and early national history, Freedom Just Around the Corner is the first instalment of a trilogy that will eventually bring the story of America up to the present day, a story epic, bemusing, and brooding.
The creation of the United States of America is the central event of the past four hundred years," states Walter McDougall in his preface to Freedom Just Around the Corner. With this statement begins McDougall's most ambitious, original, and uncompromising of histories. McDougall marshals the latest scholarship and writes in a style redolent with passion, pathos, and humour in pursuit of truths often obscured in books burdened with political slants.
With an insightful approach to the nearly 250 years spanning America's beginnings, McDougall offers his readers an understanding of the uniqueness of the "American character" and how this character has shaped the wide ranging course of historical events. McDougall explains that Americans have always been in a unique position of enjoying "more opportunity to pursue their ambitions䳨an any other people in history." Throughout Freedom Just Around the Corner the character of the American people shines, a character built out of a freedom to indulge in the whole panoply of human behaviour. The genius behind the success of the United States is founded on the complex, irrepressible American spirit.
A grand narrative rich with new details and insights about colonial and early national history, Freedom Just Around the Corner is the first instalment of a trilogy that will eventually bring the story of America up to the present day, a story epic, bemusing, and brooding.
656 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2004
About the author
Walter A. McDougall
18 books30 followersWalter A. McDougall is Professor of History and the Alloy-Ansin Professor of International Relations at the University of Pennsylvania.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 37 reviews
December 3, 2023
It’s a mammoth undertaking to put together the beginning history of the United States of America. Most historians start with the Revolutionary War or the French & Indian War. But Walter A. McDougall starts with the Tudors as a way of showing where that singular American trait, The Hustle began. He believes the creation of the American Republic has been the greatest central event of the past 400+ years. He does have a point. If you were ever bored by the standard reciting of the Founding Fathers, be prepared for a whole new view of American history.
But all the colonists who suffered perilous voyages and risked early death in America were either hustlers or hustled. That is, they knew the hardships beforehand and were courageous, desperate or faithful enough to face them or else they did not know what lay ahead but were taken in by the propaganda of sponsors.
Cast iron cannons. When Henry VIII seized a convent during the Reformation, he turned it into an armory. Here, a quiet revolution took place as the English stopped making the standard bronze cannons and started making cast iron cannons, simply because the local area was rich in phosphorous. Why is this seemingly trivial fact so important to the beginning of the United States of America? Because the new cannons had greater range and more velocity for the cannon balls. With this revised weapon, Henry VIII did away with the standard Mediterranean practice of rowing galleys and instead mounted cannons into his sailing ships. This gave the English a marked advantage in naval warfare. Fast forward a bit and one can understand why it was the English who mastered North America, when it should have been the Dutch, the Spanish, or the French. Hustle is everything. But if the parents (the English) deny the offspring (Americans) the same opportunity to hustle, beware the results.
Every political earthquake inflicts aftershocks that confirm its effects or hint at the fault lines that will trigger the next.
As Europeans flooded into the East Coast of North America, four groups became the most dominant. The English Puritans are most famous as we remember the Mayflower and Thanksgiving and their strict religious tenets. New England, which would lead the fight for American Independence, became the American masters of the sea and of industry. There was even a form of Home Depot-type retailing in the 1720s, thanks to the recognition that pioneers would need some basic tools before they set out for the frontier. John Adams was the best representative of the New England spirit, proud yet honest (and the Founding Father who did NOT own slaves). The second group was the Quakers, who dominated Pennsylvania. They were closer to the wild west (then considered to be Ohio) and were in continuous conflict with the indigenous natives. Although their religious tenets preached peace, the Penns became massive landowners and set the tone for the upcoming upheavals. A mixture of English middle class and Dutch pragmatism. Benjamin Franklin, though New England-born, would be the most famous of Pennsylvanians.
The third group was the Southern Cavaliers, very English and very Royalist. These were aristocrats who either fled to America and purchased large swaths of land or simply purchased the land without ever stepping foot in the new country. At first, they used indentured servants who had to work on the land for several years before they could be freed to become landowners themselves. When the American Cavaliers realized they could make even more money by importing slaves from Africa, their profits expanded rapidly. The most reluctant of the Americans to turn against their parent country, they eventually did so to keep their slower and easier lifestyle going. Thomas Jefferson was perhaps the most symbolic of this group.
The fourth and final group was the last to arrive. The Scots-Irish. Originally from Scotland, they emigrated to Ulster in Ireland in the hopes of escaping some of the draconian laws of the English. But the New World presented greater opportunities and it was this group which made up most of the indentured servants of the Southern economy. As they found freedom, they made a rapid play for the frontier in Kentucky and Tennessee. They would simply move further and further West, always hoping for a better piece of land. The embodiment of the Hustler, their best representative was Andrew Jackson, who ends this book but was the figure who overwhelmed the old Founding Father motif and established the idea of Americans constantly re-inventing themselves.
Americans were eager to advertise their destiny, but reluctant to grasp it because they were not as yet a nation. To put it another way, the Federalists were masterful at building a state, but only the Republicans would build a nation and reconcile it to the state.
I won’t go over everything in the book, but McDougall gives an enlightening view of the American Presidents up through John Quincy Adams. Jefferson does not come out ahead, for all his nation-building fame, which I enjoyed as he was never a favorite of mine (cowardly, chose incorrectly during the French Reign of Terror, sabotaged others, slaveowner). But a revelation for me was the portrait of George Washington. As an immigrant new to American schools and not really understanding the whole American Revolution thingy (in Oz, we just stuck with the British Crown without making a fuss), I was always bored by Washington and his godly status. But McDougall takes us much closer to the man who could have destroyed everything if he had taken one step more to the right or one step more to the left. Washington was a Southern Cavalier yet didn’t let passion dictate his innate gut feeling about the future of the fledgling republic. He won the Revolutionary War supposedly without being a very good general, but because he never had, for example, Bonaparte’s ego, Washington ensured the success of the new country. This section of the book really grabbed me and made me think a bit more highly of the Federalists.
The hypocrite ignores the reality. The cynic dismisses ideas as, at best, useful myths. The complacent just admits the gap and moves on. The moralist seeks to narrow it through religious uplift or social reform. But whichever mood may be prevalent, every era of American history is defined by disharmony.
I just loved reading this book. It presented McDougall’s ideas very clearly without veering to the left or the right. As the country evolves, McDougall adds a bolded section to the chapters to show the new states along with how each state was founded and by which group of people. The idea of The Hustle as the defining theme of American life is just so on the point as to be obvious as is the historical look at the reigning European powers before the discovery of the New World. The Dutch had an early foothold in the new country but were very satisfied with themselves and their banking empire. Exertion would be too much. The French were already well on the way to bankruptcy and the future rolling of heads. In essence, they ate themselves. The Spanish let riches make them lazy and toddled into poverty while eventually losing their empire. So, if you have any issues with Americans, just point the finger at THOSE DARN TUDORS.
America is not a lie; it is a disappointment. But it can be a disappointment only because it is also a hope.
Book Season = Winter (hierarchy of values)
But all the colonists who suffered perilous voyages and risked early death in America were either hustlers or hustled. That is, they knew the hardships beforehand and were courageous, desperate or faithful enough to face them or else they did not know what lay ahead but were taken in by the propaganda of sponsors.
Cast iron cannons. When Henry VIII seized a convent during the Reformation, he turned it into an armory. Here, a quiet revolution took place as the English stopped making the standard bronze cannons and started making cast iron cannons, simply because the local area was rich in phosphorous. Why is this seemingly trivial fact so important to the beginning of the United States of America? Because the new cannons had greater range and more velocity for the cannon balls. With this revised weapon, Henry VIII did away with the standard Mediterranean practice of rowing galleys and instead mounted cannons into his sailing ships. This gave the English a marked advantage in naval warfare. Fast forward a bit and one can understand why it was the English who mastered North America, when it should have been the Dutch, the Spanish, or the French. Hustle is everything. But if the parents (the English) deny the offspring (Americans) the same opportunity to hustle, beware the results.
Every political earthquake inflicts aftershocks that confirm its effects or hint at the fault lines that will trigger the next.
As Europeans flooded into the East Coast of North America, four groups became the most dominant. The English Puritans are most famous as we remember the Mayflower and Thanksgiving and their strict religious tenets. New England, which would lead the fight for American Independence, became the American masters of the sea and of industry. There was even a form of Home Depot-type retailing in the 1720s, thanks to the recognition that pioneers would need some basic tools before they set out for the frontier. John Adams was the best representative of the New England spirit, proud yet honest (and the Founding Father who did NOT own slaves). The second group was the Quakers, who dominated Pennsylvania. They were closer to the wild west (then considered to be Ohio) and were in continuous conflict with the indigenous natives. Although their religious tenets preached peace, the Penns became massive landowners and set the tone for the upcoming upheavals. A mixture of English middle class and Dutch pragmatism. Benjamin Franklin, though New England-born, would be the most famous of Pennsylvanians.
The third group was the Southern Cavaliers, very English and very Royalist. These were aristocrats who either fled to America and purchased large swaths of land or simply purchased the land without ever stepping foot in the new country. At first, they used indentured servants who had to work on the land for several years before they could be freed to become landowners themselves. When the American Cavaliers realized they could make even more money by importing slaves from Africa, their profits expanded rapidly. The most reluctant of the Americans to turn against their parent country, they eventually did so to keep their slower and easier lifestyle going. Thomas Jefferson was perhaps the most symbolic of this group.
The fourth and final group was the last to arrive. The Scots-Irish. Originally from Scotland, they emigrated to Ulster in Ireland in the hopes of escaping some of the draconian laws of the English. But the New World presented greater opportunities and it was this group which made up most of the indentured servants of the Southern economy. As they found freedom, they made a rapid play for the frontier in Kentucky and Tennessee. They would simply move further and further West, always hoping for a better piece of land. The embodiment of the Hustler, their best representative was Andrew Jackson, who ends this book but was the figure who overwhelmed the old Founding Father motif and established the idea of Americans constantly re-inventing themselves.
Americans were eager to advertise their destiny, but reluctant to grasp it because they were not as yet a nation. To put it another way, the Federalists were masterful at building a state, but only the Republicans would build a nation and reconcile it to the state.
I won’t go over everything in the book, but McDougall gives an enlightening view of the American Presidents up through John Quincy Adams. Jefferson does not come out ahead, for all his nation-building fame, which I enjoyed as he was never a favorite of mine (cowardly, chose incorrectly during the French Reign of Terror, sabotaged others, slaveowner). But a revelation for me was the portrait of George Washington. As an immigrant new to American schools and not really understanding the whole American Revolution thingy (in Oz, we just stuck with the British Crown without making a fuss), I was always bored by Washington and his godly status. But McDougall takes us much closer to the man who could have destroyed everything if he had taken one step more to the right or one step more to the left. Washington was a Southern Cavalier yet didn’t let passion dictate his innate gut feeling about the future of the fledgling republic. He won the Revolutionary War supposedly without being a very good general, but because he never had, for example, Bonaparte’s ego, Washington ensured the success of the new country. This section of the book really grabbed me and made me think a bit more highly of the Federalists.
The hypocrite ignores the reality. The cynic dismisses ideas as, at best, useful myths. The complacent just admits the gap and moves on. The moralist seeks to narrow it through religious uplift or social reform. But whichever mood may be prevalent, every era of American history is defined by disharmony.
I just loved reading this book. It presented McDougall’s ideas very clearly without veering to the left or the right. As the country evolves, McDougall adds a bolded section to the chapters to show the new states along with how each state was founded and by which group of people. The idea of The Hustle as the defining theme of American life is just so on the point as to be obvious as is the historical look at the reigning European powers before the discovery of the New World. The Dutch had an early foothold in the new country but were very satisfied with themselves and their banking empire. Exertion would be too much. The French were already well on the way to bankruptcy and the future rolling of heads. In essence, they ate themselves. The Spanish let riches make them lazy and toddled into poverty while eventually losing their empire. So, if you have any issues with Americans, just point the finger at THOSE DARN TUDORS.
America is not a lie; it is a disappointment. But it can be a disappointment only because it is also a hope.
Book Season = Winter (hierarchy of values)
March 20, 2008
A little iconoclastic, not entirely politically correct, but incredibly well-written and engaging and not at all afraid of criticizing America - not with direct moral condemnation, but with the heavy weight of the details of our common past. Sharp on our sharp practices - he finds America a nation of hustlers and hucksters. I would have a historian's disagreements hearing the Puritans described in this way (though he makes a good case), but it more than works for the early 19th c.. And he is unflinchingly accurate in his reminder of the constant crushing of the Indian and the slave - from his writing we understand why Americans did these things, but he provides no excuse to accompany the understanding.
Reading the end of this book is a romp. The last full chapter focused on getting to Jackson and his election in 1828. "Democracy triumphed, which is to say whatever triumphs in a democracy is by definition democratic." (496) "Washington, Franklin, Hamilton, Adams, and Jefferson had imagined the American experiment coming to all sorts of bad ends. They never imagined the Federal City overrun by frontiersmen who cared nothing for history and loved only cheap land and credit, whiskey, tobacco, guns, fast women, fast horses, and Jesus. Not necessarily in that order." (497) As the final sentence of the book notes, quoting a satirical frontier con-man, "It is good to be shifty in a new country." (513)
Throughout McDougall looks at American history from new angles, brings out new and familiar faces (his emphasis on small, 2-3 page, biography opens up the past wonderfully - I will use some of those biographies in my classes), and moves the narrative relentlessly forward. The movement does not come by assuming the future we already know, but by the force and pace of his narrative skill. If I sometimes disagree with him, it is always a wonderfully entertaining ride. Not many history books have made me laugh aloud this often. His next volume is out now - I will get it very soon.
Reading the end of this book is a romp. The last full chapter focused on getting to Jackson and his election in 1828. "Democracy triumphed, which is to say whatever triumphs in a democracy is by definition democratic." (496) "Washington, Franklin, Hamilton, Adams, and Jefferson had imagined the American experiment coming to all sorts of bad ends. They never imagined the Federal City overrun by frontiersmen who cared nothing for history and loved only cheap land and credit, whiskey, tobacco, guns, fast women, fast horses, and Jesus. Not necessarily in that order." (497) As the final sentence of the book notes, quoting a satirical frontier con-man, "It is good to be shifty in a new country." (513)
Throughout McDougall looks at American history from new angles, brings out new and familiar faces (his emphasis on small, 2-3 page, biography opens up the past wonderfully - I will use some of those biographies in my classes), and moves the narrative relentlessly forward. The movement does not come by assuming the future we already know, but by the force and pace of his narrative skill. If I sometimes disagree with him, it is always a wonderfully entertaining ride. Not many history books have made me laugh aloud this often. His next volume is out now - I will get it very soon.
August 17, 2009
Highly readable.
Did Thomas Jefferson run over his dog? I think the nicest thing he could bring himself to say about Jefferson was that he did actually found the University of Virginia.
Did Thomas Jefferson run over his dog? I think the nicest thing he could bring himself to say about Jefferson was that he did actually found the University of Virginia.
October 4, 2010
McDougall is very good at showing both sides of prominent figures from every part of the political spectrum. He shows their flaws but without ever neglecting to show their strengths and achievements. I thought he was pretty evenhanded with this. And, as another reviewer points out, he discusses the treatment of Native Americans and African Americans honestly while still trying to show what reasoning was behind it. Not excuses but explanations. An overall good survey.
July 9, 2008
Reread - May-July 2011 Still incredibly interesting, informative, and thought provoking. I hadn't noticed previously how McDougall briefly addresses the semi-fabricated English Whig history of democracy and common law that many of the founding fathers were taught. Reading the Cleon Skousen, Tea Party stuff I have recently shows the continuing influence of mediocre quality history. Most of the politicians and parties were for strict constitutional reading when out of power, but felt free to act how they thought best when in power. Goodreads friends, seriously try at least parts of this book. Modern politics often sells a founding "myth" rather than history.
4-27-09 The perspective is original and engaging, but doesn't come off as pushing an agenda. The facts and characters are presented informatively and intriguingly. I really like this author/historian. The more full review starts at the 4-27 note.
2-2-09
I'm still working on this. I generally read 5-10 pgs a day, sometimes less, occasionally more. It's AWESOME! The description I just read last week of 4 distinct groups of people in the colonial US, and each with their own particular concept of "freedom," really sets the stage for the conflict over the Articles of Confederation, Constitution, and eventually the Civil War. It's so much more nuanced than just the "Northerners" and "Southerners" that you get in school. I'm anxious to read his account of the War of Independence and the creation of the Constitution. Seriously, this author just brings large concepts and movements into comprehensibility so well.
4-27-09
Done! I honestly think many, many people should read this book. McDougall's framing idea of Americans being "hustlers" in both the positive and negative sense is extremely illuminating, even if it will give some a little heartburn when applied to beloved figures. The "creative corruption" that accompanies just about every aspect of progress in America is another interesting concept. He doesn't defend it morally, but proposes that many political, social, and mechanical innovations that benefit society as a whole would have been delayed or drastically altered without the "grease" of corrupt side money being made by the principal characters. Sort of an argument that the means justified the end for the historical figures while we are left to decide if we think the ends justified the means.
I already mentioned the 4 concepts of freedom which are fascinating. The framing of the constitution was eye-opening. It literally was ratified by the bare minimum of states and a single vote when a North Carolinan representative didn't return to the convention for reasons still unknown today. The author also convincingly argues the widespread existence of an unconscious "American civil religion" where the fact/myth/idea of America is the object of worship. The concept totally makes sense to me after attending my county Republican Party convention last weekend. God and country, and not necessarily in that order.
I'm already forgetting a lot from both this book and the 2nd volume, but McDougall's description of the 2nd great awakening (Joseph Smith decides to pray in the midst of the upheaval) that ends the book was really thought provoking as well.
To my friends: Get the book. Read it. As a whole or in pieces (such as the 3-6 page descriptions of the origins of every state after the 13 colonies), you will learn things you didn't know and be introduced to a perspective that will challenge your thinking.
4-27-09 The perspective is original and engaging, but doesn't come off as pushing an agenda. The facts and characters are presented informatively and intriguingly. I really like this author/historian. The more full review starts at the 4-27 note.
2-2-09
I'm still working on this. I generally read 5-10 pgs a day, sometimes less, occasionally more. It's AWESOME! The description I just read last week of 4 distinct groups of people in the colonial US, and each with their own particular concept of "freedom," really sets the stage for the conflict over the Articles of Confederation, Constitution, and eventually the Civil War. It's so much more nuanced than just the "Northerners" and "Southerners" that you get in school. I'm anxious to read his account of the War of Independence and the creation of the Constitution. Seriously, this author just brings large concepts and movements into comprehensibility so well.
4-27-09
Done! I honestly think many, many people should read this book. McDougall's framing idea of Americans being "hustlers" in both the positive and negative sense is extremely illuminating, even if it will give some a little heartburn when applied to beloved figures. The "creative corruption" that accompanies just about every aspect of progress in America is another interesting concept. He doesn't defend it morally, but proposes that many political, social, and mechanical innovations that benefit society as a whole would have been delayed or drastically altered without the "grease" of corrupt side money being made by the principal characters. Sort of an argument that the means justified the end for the historical figures while we are left to decide if we think the ends justified the means.
I already mentioned the 4 concepts of freedom which are fascinating. The framing of the constitution was eye-opening. It literally was ratified by the bare minimum of states and a single vote when a North Carolinan representative didn't return to the convention for reasons still unknown today. The author also convincingly argues the widespread existence of an unconscious "American civil religion" where the fact/myth/idea of America is the object of worship. The concept totally makes sense to me after attending my county Republican Party convention last weekend. God and country, and not necessarily in that order.
I'm already forgetting a lot from both this book and the 2nd volume, but McDougall's description of the 2nd great awakening (Joseph Smith decides to pray in the midst of the upheaval) that ends the book was really thought provoking as well.
To my friends: Get the book. Read it. As a whole or in pieces (such as the 3-6 page descriptions of the origins of every state after the 13 colonies), you will learn things you didn't know and be introduced to a perspective that will challenge your thinking.
August 22, 2007
In his foreword, McDougall is candid about his own doubts about whether America needs yet another multi-volume set of tomes chronicling its history. As the existnece of this book indicates, McDougall answered his own doubts.
The book is built around the central thesis that "America is a nation of hustlers". McDougall's central insight proves to be fresh and interesting enough to carry subject matter that has (as the author admits) been covered many times before.
His sythesis of recent scholarship in the field of American History is top notch, and the notes alone make the book worth the cover price. Interested readers will find hundreds of jumping off points for further exploration in the field of merican history.
McDougall is cognizant of the diversity of "histories" which have multiplied in recent years. He includes citations to and summaries of gender and ethnic histories that demonstrate his familiarity with recent scholarship.
At the same time, he drops footnotes lauding Huntington (a historian favored by conservatives) and certainly doesn't shy away from the "great man" school of scholarship.
I especially enjoyed the treatment of the links between intellectual history in Britain in the pre-revolutinary era with the developments in America leading up to the revolution.
On the whole, this is a balanced, nuanced reading of American history and I anticipate the next chapter(this is projected to be a three volume set).
The book is built around the central thesis that "America is a nation of hustlers". McDougall's central insight proves to be fresh and interesting enough to carry subject matter that has (as the author admits) been covered many times before.
His sythesis of recent scholarship in the field of American History is top notch, and the notes alone make the book worth the cover price. Interested readers will find hundreds of jumping off points for further exploration in the field of merican history.
McDougall is cognizant of the diversity of "histories" which have multiplied in recent years. He includes citations to and summaries of gender and ethnic histories that demonstrate his familiarity with recent scholarship.
At the same time, he drops footnotes lauding Huntington (a historian favored by conservatives) and certainly doesn't shy away from the "great man" school of scholarship.
I especially enjoyed the treatment of the links between intellectual history in Britain in the pre-revolutinary era with the developments in America leading up to the revolution.
On the whole, this is a balanced, nuanced reading of American history and I anticipate the next chapter(this is projected to be a three volume set).
October 21, 2012
There are ways to do books on the early years of American history & then there are ways not to. Walter A. McDougall's "Freedom Just Around the Corner: A New American History: 1585-1828" is not the way to do history. The book itself while being well intentioned tries to tell history from a slightly unbiased & view of the people & also attempts to summarize the important points since most people (he assumes) will already know it. The chapters themselves are at times laborious & also uneven with topics all over the place as well as the chronology. The only thing that's a little different about the book is that once he reaches the Washington administration & the entrance of new states beyond the original 13 there is a bit of history about each new state & it's entrance to the union. Beyond that skip this new version of history since the average reader will probably not learn anything new.
June 16, 2023
This is an old fashioned version of US history, but a very useful one. McDougall is described in various reviews as a "conservative" historian, but that can be misleading in the current context. He's an ivy league professor, not some fire-breathing MAGA poster. This book, published in 2004, is a pleasant reminder that once upon a time the United States had a unified sense of reality that people civilly disagreed on interpreting. It now sometimes seems as if we live in different worlds. Though, as McDougall ably documents, it's not the first time.
Because I've been reading so much US history lately, I can point to a few weaknesses in the narrative. He has very little interest in Native Americans. He's sympathetic when they come up, and he's very clear on how poorly we treated them, but he outright says their cause was hopeless from the beginning of European colonization. He's much more focused on the fights between Europeans over North America. This approach is, to say the least, unfashionable nowadays, but I also believe it's wrong. Especially in a book purporting to cover 1585-1828. By the 19th century I believe his judgement of indigenous hopelessness is indisputable. But by 1828 that era was only just getting started. There were three whole centuries when the natives were an indispensable economic part of the European attack on the Americas. Without Indigenous fur trapping, English colonization would have been much slower, and there may not have been a French venture at all.
The narrative has many, many strengths however. You might expect a conservative historian to present some rosy picture of the American Revolution. It's honestly one of the most bruising and critical I've ever read. There seems to be a single founding father he has unbroken respect for, and it isn't George Washington. US independence in McDougall's telling was a clown car that would not have arrived anywhere without the French. His detailed recounting of 1776-1789 honestly reads like dark comedy. Sort of an "HBO's Veep" for the founding fathers. I think he goes a bit far with this honestly. There's a pretty clear libertarian agenda present.
One of the book's two main preoccupations is the idea that the US was built and founded by "hustlers" folks who were constantly on the look-out for the main chance. It's an attractive, iconoclastic seeming approach. It's got elements of truth in it. But I think it's also kind of bullshit. Yes, hustling and free enterprise are a key part of US history and American culture, but its one that has been ridiculously over-emphasized in recent decades. The dueling cultures that founded this country, centered in Boston and Virginia, were certainly suffused with bold chancers. But they were both shored up by governing institutions with powers and approaches that most politicians of today, Republican and Democrat, would have seen as practically totalitarian. I'm not just talking about Southern Slavers, I'm talking about the very worldly success oriented Christian fanatics in the north as well. The "City State of Boston" a 2019 book by Mark Peterson, ably documents how invested the rapacious capitalists of Massachusetts were in government and what it could do for them and their community. The hustlers couldn't function without a supportive and well supported government. Ironically McDougall illustrates this as well.
My favorite thing about this book is the way that it is rigorously focused on the local facts of colonial and US expansion. Before independence, the narrative is a carefully weaved together set of different stories. Pennsylvania was settled this way, the Carolinas that way, etc. etc. Other historians may have taken this approach, but it's the first time I've seen it. What I do think is unique to McDougall, and makes me want to seek out the next book in this sadly unfinished series, is the way he approaches regionalism AFTER independence. With the 14th through 20-0dd states that joined the US, he breaks out of the main narrative, and provides capsule histories of what was going on there, and how they joined the union. In most narratives Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska and the others mostly just come up as fodder for North-South disputes. McDougall provides more detail on what was actually going on in each region. Really unique and useful. The stories do seem superficially similar. Some group of hustlers moves to the territory, and figures out how to game the system to form a state and win. But these are all, fundamentally, stories of the establishments of governments as well. McDougall may not want to focus on the stories of these governments, but none of these hustlers would have been able to do a thing without them.
The other, conservative-coded, but much more useful focus of the narrative is on US religion. Christianity seems to be fading away in the United States currently, but it is absolutely impossible to understand our history without a focus on the currents of religion that interweaved with events, from our founding and up to the present day. Our East Coast cities are littered with monuments to long forgotten preachers and theologians. McDougall gives them their due, and I think that's a much more worthwhile endeavor than his cute but tired "hustler" focus.
Because I've been reading so much US history lately, I can point to a few weaknesses in the narrative. He has very little interest in Native Americans. He's sympathetic when they come up, and he's very clear on how poorly we treated them, but he outright says their cause was hopeless from the beginning of European colonization. He's much more focused on the fights between Europeans over North America. This approach is, to say the least, unfashionable nowadays, but I also believe it's wrong. Especially in a book purporting to cover 1585-1828. By the 19th century I believe his judgement of indigenous hopelessness is indisputable. But by 1828 that era was only just getting started. There were three whole centuries when the natives were an indispensable economic part of the European attack on the Americas. Without Indigenous fur trapping, English colonization would have been much slower, and there may not have been a French venture at all.
The narrative has many, many strengths however. You might expect a conservative historian to present some rosy picture of the American Revolution. It's honestly one of the most bruising and critical I've ever read. There seems to be a single founding father he has unbroken respect for, and it isn't George Washington. US independence in McDougall's telling was a clown car that would not have arrived anywhere without the French. His detailed recounting of 1776-1789 honestly reads like dark comedy. Sort of an "HBO's Veep" for the founding fathers. I think he goes a bit far with this honestly. There's a pretty clear libertarian agenda present.
One of the book's two main preoccupations is the idea that the US was built and founded by "hustlers" folks who were constantly on the look-out for the main chance. It's an attractive, iconoclastic seeming approach. It's got elements of truth in it. But I think it's also kind of bullshit. Yes, hustling and free enterprise are a key part of US history and American culture, but its one that has been ridiculously over-emphasized in recent decades. The dueling cultures that founded this country, centered in Boston and Virginia, were certainly suffused with bold chancers. But they were both shored up by governing institutions with powers and approaches that most politicians of today, Republican and Democrat, would have seen as practically totalitarian. I'm not just talking about Southern Slavers, I'm talking about the very worldly success oriented Christian fanatics in the north as well. The "City State of Boston" a 2019 book by Mark Peterson, ably documents how invested the rapacious capitalists of Massachusetts were in government and what it could do for them and their community. The hustlers couldn't function without a supportive and well supported government. Ironically McDougall illustrates this as well.
My favorite thing about this book is the way that it is rigorously focused on the local facts of colonial and US expansion. Before independence, the narrative is a carefully weaved together set of different stories. Pennsylvania was settled this way, the Carolinas that way, etc. etc. Other historians may have taken this approach, but it's the first time I've seen it. What I do think is unique to McDougall, and makes me want to seek out the next book in this sadly unfinished series, is the way he approaches regionalism AFTER independence. With the 14th through 20-0dd states that joined the US, he breaks out of the main narrative, and provides capsule histories of what was going on there, and how they joined the union. In most narratives Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska and the others mostly just come up as fodder for North-South disputes. McDougall provides more detail on what was actually going on in each region. Really unique and useful. The stories do seem superficially similar. Some group of hustlers moves to the territory, and figures out how to game the system to form a state and win. But these are all, fundamentally, stories of the establishments of governments as well. McDougall may not want to focus on the stories of these governments, but none of these hustlers would have been able to do a thing without them.
The other, conservative-coded, but much more useful focus of the narrative is on US religion. Christianity seems to be fading away in the United States currently, but it is absolutely impossible to understand our history without a focus on the currents of religion that interweaved with events, from our founding and up to the present day. Our East Coast cities are littered with monuments to long forgotten preachers and theologians. McDougall gives them their due, and I think that's a much more worthwhile endeavor than his cute but tired "hustler" focus.
July 4, 2007
Ok, so it's a return to exceptionalism, even if that exceptionalism is that we're a bunch of exceptional cons and pirates. Still, I find it refreshing and compelling.
August 22, 2021
This is a wonderful look at the early years of the American experience. Mr. McDougall has no political or racial ax to grind; he focuses mainly on the qualities and aspirations of the various groups and particular individuals who populated what is now the United States, and how their reasons for coming here, together with the vast and rich continent they found and the freedom they found to develop it for their own purposes, shaped the nation which resulted. The book is rich with personal stories of many individuals, some of them household names and others lesser-known but worthy of notice for their contributions. McDougall also intersperses short summaries, at the appropriate time in the book, of how each state grew from its earliest settlements to the point at which it was approved for statehood.
All in all, it's a great piece of work. I'm looking forward to reading the second volume, covering 1829-1877, of what is intended ultimately to be a three volume set.
All in all, it's a great piece of work. I'm looking forward to reading the second volume, covering 1829-1877, of what is intended ultimately to be a three volume set.
July 29, 2017
In American history books, one usually has to watch out for hidden bias. Certain hot topics tend to be either ignored or overemphasized in many accounts. These include topics like slavery, religion, the faults of the founding fathers, and events that may 'diminish the greatness of America'. McDougall acknowledges all of these dynamics and their importance, but doesn't drone on with agenda on any of them. This is probably the best American history for adult readers out there to be written in the last couple of decades. I adored history in high school and college, but still found there was so much about my county I didn't know. As a build up to my DC vacation, this read was an awesome choice.
October 5, 2023
A work that covers just the period from Raleigh's establishment of the Roanoke Colony to the beginning of Andrew Jackson's presidency (plus toughing a little earlier than 1585 and later than 1828). The author presents facts that are not taught in k-12 classes. Perhaps it because they would take up too much time but quite possibly because they are facts several want to forget or put in the back of their minds. McDougall bursts several myths about the characters that 'created' the United States. I would like to see this as a required supplement to US History and Civics classes.
March 8, 2020
History of the settling of various groups around the American Atlantic coast in the 1600s. Separately discussed Virginia, Maryland and New England in the first half of the book. Later discussed the newer colonies foundings in chronological order. Discussed the development of the House of Burgesses, Lord Baltimore's attempt to develop a Catholic, then a tolerant government in Maryland, and the Puritans' theocracy. Pointed to the details of each
July 4, 2018
By Far the best single volume of US History I have ever read! McDougall's analysis is clear, original and best of all, underpinned with wry humor and a keen understanding of human nature. I've read it three times and still find new stuff! Wonderful.
January 18, 2018
This is basically part1 to The Tragedy of U.S. Foreign Policy. My fav view of american history.
November 12, 2019
AWESOME BOOK.
June 30, 2022
An eminently readable introduction to a vast topic .
wish-list
May 30, 2023Pfwuck, can’t take away errant ticks on the bookshelves
July 20, 2025
i enjoyed approximately 10 pages of the entire volume
a revelation that a strong vocabulary does not necessarily warrant enjoyable storytelling
a revelation that a strong vocabulary does not necessarily warrant enjoyable storytelling
February 20, 2017
Best history books are written by people from other countries. Otherwise one is too influenced by the government and/or pop versions of history presented in history class and pop culture.
It takes focused cynicism to dismiss all that one is taught about a subject, then learn and present it anew. This book was both dry, informative and witty. Will have to read it a few more times later. Notes section takes up a quarter of the book.
Things I learned in this book:
* Success of Anglo-Saxons in Americas is largely due to coincidence and luck. French could've run this continent.
* American revolution was mostly a British loss.
* A Polish engineer gets a lot of credit for American military victories.
* Religion was always at the core of American values. The only reason it wasn't written into the constitution is because there wasn't one religion everyone could get behind
* Staggering amount of corruption in early American politics
* Walter, like his other FPRI fellows is a collector of fancy words. There was a word I had to look up on every single Kindle page. This book would be inaccessible without a thesaurus. Lots of 16th century slang. "Irascible belligerents" ftw.
* American colonies started out with near-zero taxation and unpoliced trade. This might explain the modern aversion to taxation. Tea party revolt was a lot more nuanced than taxation-without-representation. Was partially a result of the colonies growing too fast to have proportional representation in British government...eg they were ontrack to become bigger and more powerful than mother country
* American religion (mostly via revivals) was as dynamic and possibly more innovative than finance, technology, government sectors
It takes focused cynicism to dismiss all that one is taught about a subject, then learn and present it anew. This book was both dry, informative and witty. Will have to read it a few more times later. Notes section takes up a quarter of the book.
Things I learned in this book:
* Success of Anglo-Saxons in Americas is largely due to coincidence and luck. French could've run this continent.
* American revolution was mostly a British loss.
* A Polish engineer gets a lot of credit for American military victories.
* Religion was always at the core of American values. The only reason it wasn't written into the constitution is because there wasn't one religion everyone could get behind
* Staggering amount of corruption in early American politics
* Walter, like his other FPRI fellows is a collector of fancy words. There was a word I had to look up on every single Kindle page. This book would be inaccessible without a thesaurus. Lots of 16th century slang. "Irascible belligerents" ftw.
* American colonies started out with near-zero taxation and unpoliced trade. This might explain the modern aversion to taxation. Tea party revolt was a lot more nuanced than taxation-without-representation. Was partially a result of the colonies growing too fast to have proportional representation in British government...eg they were ontrack to become bigger and more powerful than mother country
* American religion (mostly via revivals) was as dynamic and possibly more innovative than finance, technology, government sectors
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 27, 2008
Conservative in temperament, Freedom Just Around the Corner produces a judiciously balanced history of America from its origins in English political and religious movements to the beginnings of the Age of Jackson (it is the first volume in a proposed three-volume series). In simplest terms, McDougall argues that America's essential character (as well as the driving force behind its eventual political, economic, and cultural success) is that of a hustling, or what might be called "creative corruption" (something akin to Plunkett's "honest graft"). In other words, America has succeeded because its political system has allowed a large number of people to pursue their own ends using whatever means they saw fit, so long as that hustling create some net benefit. This cynical (or perhaps realistic) portrayal of American history downplays both the political idealism trumpeted in more nationalistic histories and well the group power struggles highlighted by Howard Zinn and other historians on the left.
To focus on the book's main argument (a valuable one for a complete understanding of our history) ignores many of its other charms. McDougall is an engaging, and often very funny writer, and he leaves almost no major event undiscussed. I particularly appreciated his short profile of each state as it comes into the Union, providing interesting details that are often overlooked in a national history.
To focus on the book's main argument (a valuable one for a complete understanding of our history) ignores many of its other charms. McDougall is an engaging, and often very funny writer, and he leaves almost no major event undiscussed. I particularly appreciated his short profile of each state as it comes into the Union, providing interesting details that are often overlooked in a national history.
March 27, 2008
An entertaining read. He tries to cram too much in, and yet it does not live up to his claim that he will do an inclusive social history that gives proper weight to women and African-Americans, as well as other groups (though he does better than many surveys do).
His thesis is that Americans have always been hustlers in both the hard working and the pejorative sense. He's fairly persuasive on that count. He's all excited about the Freemasons (just that many many early big deal Americans were Freemasons, which became a kind of civic religion, or at least strongly influenced what our civic religion became) and I don't really know enough to know how to take that argument. It smacks a little of "National Treasure" but still might be on target.
His thesis is that Americans have always been hustlers in both the hard working and the pejorative sense. He's fairly persuasive on that count. He's all excited about the Freemasons (just that many many early big deal Americans were Freemasons, which became a kind of civic religion, or at least strongly influenced what our civic religion became) and I don't really know enough to know how to take that argument. It smacks a little of "National Treasure" but still might be on target.
September 9, 2007
This is an excellent history of the founding of a republic and an empire. The prose is propulsive, the biographical sketches are colorful and balanced, neither too reverent nor overly iconoclastic, and the choice of coverage is refreshing without being revisionist. For instance, his analysis of the dominance of freemasonry among our founding fathers is enlightening, and his lengthy discussion on the Erie Canal is surprisingly fascinating. Most importantly, his treatment of slavery throughout the book is focused, penetrating, and brave. He neither lionizes nor vilifies, and captures all the actors in their flawed humanity.
August 1, 2013
Think the US government today is full of scoundrel, hustlers and plutocrats (with a few men of character shouting into the wind)? This is not new. McDougal explores in great detail the period of colonial and early US history, giving great insight into the habits and characters of many man who have today turned into either paragons of virtue or the blackest rogues. The uncomfortable truth, of course, is that it's not that simple. For all the rancor in the capital today, there have been analogues in past eras. The US was and continues to be a 'nation of hustlers.'
January 27, 2009
I learned, with the help of McDougall's unique style of persuasion, how four different visions of freedom took root in America. How England managed to offend all four of those visions of freedom and thoroughly alienate their loyal subjects in the short space of ten years. How the uniquely american freedom produced a civic religion founded on the value of work, prosperity and the rule of law in age where such innovations were largely unheard of...Read the book. You will see it too.
Read
February 5, 2009It might be unfashionable these days to embrace "American exceptionalism." Yet that's exactly what McDougall, a history professor at the University of Pennsylvania and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Heavens and the Earth: A Political History of the Space Age, has done, to great acclaim. In revealing "who and why we are what we are," he has written an imaginative, evenhanded, and masterful history that shows the freedoms
November 27, 2012
If you want to understand why The United States is such a unique place, read this book. This professor of history explains (as stated on the jacket) that Americans have always been in a unique position of enjoying "more opportunity to pursue their ambitions...than any other people in history." The unique character of the American people is built out of a freedom to engage in the whole panoply of human behavior. In other words, they could hustle, to game the system.
June 29, 2008
Fast-paced and engaging (but occasionally glib) narrative of early America. Despite its central "hustler" hypothesis (which is a useful, if occasionally belabored, conceit), it reads more like a collection of essays - and with a style that would be more at home in Rolling Stone than a historical journal.
December 31, 2008
Quite possibly my favorite History book ever. The 2nd volume is now available as well and I can't wait to read it.
MacDougal approaches U.S. History with the view that events have been driven by profit and opportunity with a heavy dose of Free Masons shaping things along the way. He is able to keep the reader interested despite the broad array of topics covered.
MacDougal approaches U.S. History with the view that events have been driven by profit and opportunity with a heavy dose of Free Masons shaping things along the way. He is able to keep the reader interested despite the broad array of topics covered.
November 17, 2014
A history of America from the first English attempts to settle North America, around 1585, until July 4, 1828. No, the English were not the first here. Here is a story of amazing complexity: political, cultural, sociological, ethnical, religious, etc. Fascinating. No fairy tale here.
(Part 1 of 3; but, to date 3 has not been forthcoming.)
(Part 1 of 3; but, to date 3 has not been forthcoming.)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 37 reviews