The American Future: A History

by Simon Schama

In November 2008 the United States will elect a new President. But the imminent collapse of twenty years of Republican conservativism means the country is already conducting an intense self-examination about the trajectory of its history; how it came to find itself in multiple crises and how an America that began as 'the last, best hope of earth' came to be so suspected and vilified around much of the world.

The American Future: A History, written by an author who has spent half his life there, takes the long view of how the United States has come to this anguished moment of truth about its own identity as a nation and its place in the world.

In each of the chapters devoted to the most compelling issues facing Americans now - the projection of power ("American war") ; race, immigration and the problematic promise of e pluribus unum ("American skin"); the intensity of religious conviction in public life ("American fervour") ; the mystique of American land and its battles with the imperatives of profit ('American Plenty'- Schama traces the deep history of the present crisis.

Cumulatively the chapters build into a history of American exceptionalism - the 'American difference' that means so much to its people but which has led it into calamities as well as triumphs.

The American Future: A History argues that if you want to know what is truly at stake, you need to absorb these stories and understand this history - for understanding is the condition of hope.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Politics, American History, American, The United States Of America, Historical

392 pages, Hardcover

First published October 2, 2008

About the author

Sir Simon Michael Schama is an English historian and television presenter. He specialises in art history, Dutch history, Jewish history, and French history. He is a Professor of History and Art History at Columbia University.

Schama first came to public attention with his history of the French Revolution titled Citizens, published in 1989. He is also known for writing and hosting the 15-part BBC television documentary series A History of Britain (2000—2002), as well as other documentary series such as The American Future: A History (2008) and The Story of the Jews (2013).

Schama was knighted in the 2018 Queen's Birthday Honours List.

Reviews

[Trevor · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is such an interesting book. I’ve decided recently I need to learn a bit more about American history but know so little that I have been struggling with the who’s who and then what to make of various players. American history is much like America herself – a bit like Norman Bates in Psycho, pleasant when you first meet him, but he can be a bit, well, psycho too. America has the best of people and the worst of people. Often these are one and the same person. Jefferson, for example, is someone I really do need to find out more about, and not just his slaves, but also his relationship with Native Americans, and as for Andrew Jackson, what an evil bastard he was – imagine literally burning the treaties Washington had signed! There are times when I regret being an atheist and so can have no hope that pricks like him won’t get to suffer for the rest of eternity in hell fires.

I hadn’t realised that Schama had made a four part documentary in the lead up to the last US Presidential election. I would have liked to have seen it. However, from what I can gather this book seems quite different (if not the least for being much more comprehensive) in that it doesn’t even seem to follow the structure of the documentary. If you were to ask me what this was about I would have to say America and her relationship with the peoples of rest of the world (although, really, that is all those people who are not white, Anglo-Saxon and Protestant, whether they live in the rest of the world or next door). Schama captures the split personality (duel personality?) of the US people beautifully – a country that can proudly proclaim, ‘send me your poor and huddled masses’ and yet have pogroms against the Chinese, that can fight a civil war to free slaves, but follow up with the ethnic cleansing of Native Americans, that can declare it to be self-evident that all men are created equal while owning slaves.

The chapters in this book on the US involvement in the Philippines is extremely distressing and, worse still, terrifyingly reminiscent of US involvement in Iraq. The descriptions of the tortures meted out to the ‘niggers’ (that is, local Filipinos) – particularly the unspeakably barbaric ‘water cure’ – almost defies belief. But again, I must read more Mark Twain – his attack on American Imperialism due to these atrocities and perversions of the American dream places him even further up my list of American heroes.

Perhaps the most interesting story in this book was that of the American military family, the Meigs. I had heard the story of how Arlington Cemetery came to be (built on the home of Robert E Lee). It is hard to think of a more direct statement of loathing than to turn someone’s home into a cemetery – how better to say, ‘this thou have wrought’ than to bury the soldiers killed in the Civil War right up to the windows of the general fighting that war. All of the Meigs discussed in this book, and their long involvement in American wars, were fascinating, but I think Monty Meigs remains one of the most fascinating of all – in fact, both of the Monty Meigs (Civil War and Vietnam War) are incredibly interesting men.

I think this was precisely the sort of history of America I needed to read. It is a quirky history written by an outsider looking in. America remains a paradox to me – for what other country can inspire quite so much hope and at the same time quite so much fear and despair? The chapter on Carter, Reagan and the energy crisis and the all too obvious fact that Americans simply don’t want to hear we have reached peak oil or that it may be time to think about tomorrow, was particularly depressing. The ‘spoilt brat’ side of the American psyche worries me very much – but it is important to remember that it is not just Americans who buy SUVs. It beggars belief that anyone could think it a good idea to drive around in a lounge room when there is any chance at all that those warning about global warming might just be right (even if the chance they are right was the most remote chance imaginable – if only it was). The idea that the world would move to heavier cars so as to burn our future faster just about proves we are a species that deserves to perish.

This is a wonderful book, and one that should do much to remind you of the great evil that racism is in all its guises. Well worth the read.

[Kara Babcock · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wouldn’t necessarily describe myself as anti-American, but I will cop to having anti-American sentiments. I have plenty of American friends, but I chose to move to England before the United States—and, to be perfectly honest, I don’t think I could ever bring myself to live in the United States. There are just some ideas so apparently entrenched in American society that seem so backward to me. And I know my American friends understand—a lot of it seems backward to them too!

It’s something of a trend these days to discuss the “hijacking” of American politics. Corporations have hijacked politics; ultra right-wing evangelicals have hijacked politics; Tea Party patriots have hijacked politics … at this rate, if Bigfoot hasn’t hijacked politics by December, I will be disappointed. There is, of course, a great deal of truth in some of these perspectives, and these discourses are valuable. At the same time, one should not neglect the fact that the United States has always been in a state of uneasy tension between religious freedoms and religious establishment, between liberal and conservative, between society and business. So much of the hijacking happening today is not so much an aberration as it is the latest recurrence in a long line of such events, as Simon Schama attempts to demonstrate in The American Future: A History.

Here are some things I learned from The American Future: A History. Some of them are obvious, yes, and probably don’t require a book to become evident. But it’s always good to be reminded.

There were no “good old days”. Well, maybe if you were a rich, white, European male. But if you’re a rich, white male today, wake up and stop complaining: your days are still pretty good. The idea that the United States of the past was somehow a golden land of opportunity and prosperity, and that it has since declined into its present state, is a myth. Imperialism, racism, and colonialism have always been a part of the United States of America. The religious persecution that so many of the original colonists fled in coming to the shores of the New World eventually caught up with them, and Catholics, Jews, and the apostate Protestant sect of the week were routinely barred from livelihoods and politics. Let’s not even get started about slavery.

Despite the bad, we too often forget about the good. In our rush to cringe at the past, sometimes it’s easy to overlook the people who stood up against tyranny and oppression. I’m not talking about George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and other revolutionaries or Founding Fathers. I’m talking about the people who, quietly or not, worked tirelessly on behalf of the disenfranchised, the minorities, every group who did not get a voice in the system. From Return Jonathan Meigs to Fred Bee, there were numerous good people who deserved to be remembered for trying to stop oppression and atrocities, even if they were ultimately unsuccessful.

Hero worship is for losers. The way—or at least this is how it seems from my perspective as an outsider—Americans are taught to venerate the Founding Fathers and other such historical figures without much time spent on more critical perspectives really concerns me. I understand that it’s a big deal that these people helped liberate the colonies from British rule. But they weren’t gods; they were ordinary, flawed individuals. Jefferson had some good ideas. He also owned slaves. And, while his attitude towards the indigenous peoples of the Americas was not as antagonistic as Andrew Jackson’s, it still rested upon the principles of Eurocentric, cultural assimilation. And from what I read about the various textbook guidelines being pushed in certain states, I doubt these views are being explored. And it’s a shame, because if there’s one thing studying any history, from the United States or elsewhere, can teach us, it’s …

We can do so, so much better. We’ve got a long way to go. In the two centuries since gaining independence, the United States has changed greatly—but in some ways, it and the rest of the world continues to repeat the same old mistakes. Claiming we are superior to the people of the eighteenth or nineteenth centuries, that we’ve learned our lessons, is misguided at best and woefully delusional at worst. It will be interesting to see what historians two hundred years hence write about our intolerance and indiscretions.

But I’m still an optimist. Even if I would let myself, I can’t bring myself to yield to despair and the cynical proposition that we have finally achieved that crucial intersection of environmental irresponsibility, cultural apathy, and anxious nationalism that will somehow doom us all. History shows that humans are really, really good at screwing things up. We’re also really, really good at surviving our mistakes, in one form or another.

And armed with the knowledge of—and more importantly, the discussion sparked by—history, we can do better. Schama’s history, like a lot of popular history books, tends to focus on episodic accounts of individuals’ contributions. It’s easier that way; we like narratives and we like protagonists. And while that doesn’t always provide an holistic view of the era, it does recreate one salient feature: individuals can make a difference. I’m trying not to get too trite and inspirational here, and I’m not going to wax poetically about how one person can change the entire world. Chances are, most of us are going to go on to lead fairly unremarkable lives and fade away without too many people remember us. (Though we individuals output more information about ourselves than the entirety of the nineteenth century put out, so much of it these days is digital and therefore ephemeral.) But just because we skim along the surface instead of swimming in the deep doesn’t mean we are unimportant, or that our actions have no effect on this world around us.

The American Future: A History left me with very mixed emotions. On one hand, I had been treated to a greatest hits playlist of some of the United States’ most insular and bonehead moves. On the other hand, as you can tell from the above paragraph, Schama manages to convey that contagious optimism emblematic of the 2008 American presidential election. Schama starts by setting himself a goal of exploring where the United Sates might by going by looking to its past. In this, I think he is successful. That being said, I can’t give this book high marks in every category. Schama is very good at belabouring his points and overstaying his welcome. We spend so much time on certain episodes, such as Montgomery Meigs. I enjoyed it, but it was also a little exhausting. Schama’s use of detail is both a blessing and a curse.

As a Canadian whose grasp of American history is probably rudimentary at best, I certainly found this book informative. It was also helpful in a more general sense, for it illuminates the sources of certain cultural habits Americans often express that can puzzle the rest of the world. We learn about manifest destiny in school, but we don’t necessarily understand its origins—now I kind of do. I recommend this book for non-Americans who are trying to understand why some Americans think and act the way they do. American friends, we know not all of you are crazy, and we’re trying very, very hard to put up with those of you who are. But some of us are running out of patience, and it’s time you step up, mmkay? Because the American future is coming, and I want it to be a good one.

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Schama deftly plumbs the depths of America's internal contradictions, concluding that our hope, greatness, and indeed exceptionalism therein lie. All American high school students should read Schama's section on religious toleration and the founding fathers. Schama takes on and soundly thrashes the current evangelical assertion that the United States was established as 'a Christian nation (he even produces an early treaty, ratified by Congress, that states bluntly "as the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion"). And anyone of German or Irish heritage who agrees with Lou Dobbs on immigration issues needs to read Schama's section on immigration titled 'What is American?'. Even the anti-slave abolitionists such as Beecher and Morse, it would appear, were not above burning a convent or two to keep the credulous and filthy potato-eating papist hordes from violating the Protestant City on the hill. Left unchecked, what did you get? "A whiskey-soaked, priest-governed, black-hating, socially delinquent city swarm, numerous enough to impose their will at the polls. Good-bye liberty; farewell America."

And the reparations-minded folk stuck in the 60s should read about the anti-Chinese pogrom in LA in 1871, long before there was a Watts or a South-Central to go berserk over Rodney King's misfortune. ALL who think that throughout it's history the USA has been pro-Europe with regard to immigration will learn something here; the venom with which most European immigrants were greeted is mostly lost in current debates about race, ethnicity, and toleration in the "melting pot".

Despite all of the dissonance of racism and intolerance covered in his American story, though, Simon manages to drive home a clear and resonant note of hope that the American progressive experiment remains very much alive (and even, dare I say, progressive) in 2008. "The glory of American life is its complexity," concludes Schama, "and from the richness of that complexity come, always, rejuvenating alternatives." Amen, brother!

[Alan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Schama writes as if he invented English. This is history as it once was. Popular, interesting and well written. It looks to the past to explain and illuminate the present. Taking the 2008 election as turning point, Schama tells that story from the perspective of how the past influences the present. He commingles race, immigration, war and the economy as they played out in 2008 and traces those threads back into the past showing that they are not new and fit into a particular historical patterns. Using key individuals from the past to tell his story of the American present Schama not only writes one of the more interesting non-fiction books but one that illuminates the current political debate by showing whence it came.

My favorite part of the book was his exegesis of Montgomery Meiggs, Quartermaster of the US Army, key engineer of Washington's water supply and construction of the Capital building and the man most responsible for the placement of Arlington National Cemetery on the ancestral lands of Robert E. Lee's family.

[Patricia Monger · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was written in the midst of the 2008 presidential election, so when you read the preface you think, "Hoo-eee! Was he ever wrong in being so optimistic!". But I am a fan of Schama's work, so I kept on. It's worth it. I suggest you skip the preface, start at Chapter 1, and then return to the preface at the end of the book. By then, you'll be able to see that the USA has a habit of going off the rails: it's not Trump, it's the people themselves. But by the same token, because of that, you may end up thinking that even if there's no reason to be optimistic, despair may be an overreaction too.

[Meggie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pretty good overview of the US political history! At times I felt the argument got a wee bit lost - but on the whole I enjoyed it. I reckon I will be reading more Schama in the future

[Joann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Masterfully Schama juxtaposes the election of 2008 with historical events of America. The book is captivating, accessible, and one that everyone interested in history should read.

[Rob · Rating 4 out of 5]

In 2008, America stood on the cusp of a change which even just a few years earlier would have been unthinkable. Barack Obama, a black American, had a realistic chance of being elected President of the United States. His vision of change was providing an inspiring alternative both to a discredited Republican regime and Hillary Clinton's Democratic Party machine. Establishment politics had failed - the long years of easy credit and economic boom had come crashing to an end, whilst American troops struggled to make an impact against nebulous foes in Iraq and Afghanistan. If ever there was a potential political watershed, this was it.

Simon Schama's TV series and book were an attempt to take a long perspective on America's most pressing issues, mixing historical aperçus with contemporary analysis to brilliant effect.

When West Point Academy for officers was founded, the study of French was compulsory for the practical reason that many of the textbooks were written in French. But the principles of mathematics and engineering that were instilled allowed the Army to play a major role in the Civil Engineering of the new nation. They helped create, for instance, the levées that protected New Orleans until contemporary negligence contributed to their breach in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Switch to the retired General who, when asked if the Army could have done more to fix the infrastructure of Iraq, said that that is not what the Army is for.The Union's success in the American Civil War was largely due to the success of West Point graduate Montgomery Meigs' clear-headed and incorruptible approach to logistical management. Switch to Iraq, where "Construction companies awarded no-bid contracts had bungled the job after pocketing front-loaded operational budgets". No explicit contrast is made - none is needed.

For a country founded on immigration, America's attitude to new immigrants has often been ambiguous. Discrimination against Chinese workers in the West is contrasted with American migrants to Mexico in what is now Texas. The first part of the American history is the search for land, as settlers pushed further and further west, and the American army made gains to the South. Treaties with American Indian tribes are torn up with impunity by Andrew Jackson, the hero of the Mexican war. Rewind to Schama's meeting earlier in the book with Generals Freddy Valenzuela and Ricardo Sanchez, all-American heroes in a Hispanic military café in San Antonio, Texas.

For the American history is a complex history, ebbing and flowing from highest ideals to naked greed and corruption. What Schama manages to do is to select examples that not only encapsulate how America came to be what it is today, but also to underline its complexity. He moves easily back and forward through the history of the Meigs family and the history of the nation, but eschews easy answers. As the past four years have shown, the problems that contemporary America faces are too deep-seated simply to be solved by well-crafted words, but this book is a fine attempt to shed some understanding on its most intractable issues.

Taken from my blog http://roderick-random.blogspot.com/2...

[Brad · Rating 4 out of 5]

The premise of this book concerns the idea that we can only comprehend the American future by understanding the American past. To accomplish this, Schama deals with four different aspects of American uniqueness that, contemporary Americans ignorant of history might seemingly ignore. And to clarify the points he wants to make he weaves an absolutely beautiful narrative, capturing wonderful American figures long since lost in history’s deep annals.

First, Schama deals with war. Given the fact that America is bogged down in 2 wars, one the result of falsification and disastrous imperialism, the other – in my opinion – an initially noble battle quickly losing that credibility, Schama illustrates important points in history that address judgments of right and sufficient reasons for war. Here we are introduced to the delightful Montgomery Meigs, Quartermaster General in the Civil War, and his long family lineage – from his Great-grandfather, the wonderfully named, for wonderful reasons, Return Jonathan, to his Great-great-great nephew, the current retired General Meigs. Their story is incredible. Further, he introduces to the origins of West Point and the Hamiltonian/Jeffersonian world views that preceded it. We are introduced to disastrous mistakes made in the Philippines.

Schama addresses the unique American balance between religion and tolerance in a current age where religious fundamentalism seems to have boomed to unprecedented levels. And yet, here again, we see the origins of American fervor; from the country’s first settlers to the Second Great Awakening. The arguments of Jefferson and Madison are especially refreshing here, as is the discussion on slavery.

The immigration debate comes into full view as Schama dissects our culturally inclusive history; indeed the section dealing with the Chinese immigrants who constructed the trans-continental railroad sound exactly like they came off current right wing talk radio. And the concluding section on America’s vast and precious natural resources is a must read for we Westerners who – again, at least in my opinions of Utahans specifically – have long since lost our respect for water.

Schama has a tendency to get pretentious, even out pretentiousing someone as pretentious as me. This gets old. But the book – concluding with Obama’s recent inauguration breathed new welcome life towards my confidence in the 44th president, who has not yet lived up to my high, progressive standards. Reading Schama, I’m all the more willing to give him the benefit of the doubt because the one thing that I do know about Obama: he knows history. And that, really, is fundamental for our future.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are geniuses among us. No, probably not that guy next to you on the train. They're difficult to spot, unless they reveal themselves in some way. Fortunately, some of them do so by writing books. Simon Schama is definitely one of them. Schama's latest, "American Future," is based on a BBC-TV documentary series he hosted during last year's presidential campaign. I'm not sure which came first, book or TV series. It doesn't matter. The book is good -- genius good.

This is not to say Schama is easy going. You need to make time for his work. Having virtually done my brain in while reading his entire "History of Britain" series, his French Revolution opus, "Citizens," or his more recent "The Power of Art," I know he is not for everyone. He is masterful at translating small details into larger truths. You'll find yourself reading paragraphs over and over, until finally you realize "Oh, that's what he means!" But it's all worth it.

Part of Schama's peculiar genius is for those little-known stories from the attic of history. Forgotten people -- ever hear of Return Jonathan Meigs? (yes, that's his real name) -- who helped create the United States we know today. Not surprisingly, Schama often uses historical reality to unravel common modern assumptions about the nature of government and its role.

"American Future" weaves these tales into a stop-and-start narrative of the 2008 presidential campaign. His insights cast new light on where this country has been and where it might be headed. In general, Schama feels pretty darn good about the American future. And I'm happy to take his word for it. After all, he's the genius.

[Hugh Ashton · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like Simon Schama's work (OK, I'm biased, because we were at the same college), and I enjoyed reading this book. Written in 2008, after Obama was sweeping the nation and seemingly ushering in a new age in American political life, it now makes chilling reading.

The optimism inherent in Schama's tone of 2008 now appears to have been totally unjustified. The racism, prejudice and intolerance that Schama chronicles as a thread running through the whole of American history (and not a minor thread, either, but a major part of the fabric) have come to the fore, in the GOP's determined and unreasoning opposition to Obama and all that he has proposed, the Tea Party, and most recently, the Trump-eters - all of whom have had their counterparts in an almost unbroken line of American political thought.

He is at pains to point out many of the traits that make the USA great - this is not an anti-American book (unless pointing out the truth is anti-American), but...

Two topics he doesn't touch on are the almost sexual obsession with guns of many Americans, and the unique (in the Western democratic world) fear of and distrust of government as opposed to private enterprise. But for any American who wonders why the world does not universally love and trust America, or any non-American who has their doubts about "the land of the free", this history of hate and prejudice may be an eye-opener.

[Ken · Rating 5 out of 5]

Using the 2008 election as a backdrop, award-winning historian Simon Schama delves into our history to provide perspective on what it really means to be an American. War, race & immigration, religion, and prosperity are the four pillars that are the foundation of this book. Simon digs deep to unearth elements of American history that were absent from my public school upbringing. These bits of history are essential to his theme though and I was amazed that I knew little to none of it. Without a doubt, this was one of the most eye-opening history books I've read in ages.

A perfect companion piece to Schama's "The American Future" is the 4 episode BBC show he produced that captures the essence of the book. I've watched Schama's "History of Art" series and he brings the same passion to this series. Although he is foreign born he is an American at heart. His fascination with the living breathing democracy that brings out the worst/best in America is infectious. This is great stuff. An excellent read for anyone wanting to better understand that divisions and drive within this country are nothing new. We are truly destined to repeat history. This book proves it.

[Glorious · Rating 5 out of 5]

What I found interesting about this book was retelling of personal accounts from people from the inception of America.. to the early settlers.. to the civil war veterans.. to the Civil Rights Movement.. and to the people that voted for change in 2008.

The book takes individual stories from the past.. using the themes of immigration, war, religion, freedom and civil liberties.. and then uses present day stories to show the similarities and the differences.

Schama's ability to research and recall the stories of the past of people that i'd never even heard of. Granted, my knowledge of American history outwith the 20th century was rather limited in the first place. But with this book it made me want to read more about American History in greater detail. It's not just in the last fifty years where Americans have been giving their children questionable forenames. No, even in the 18th century Jonathan decided to honour his son with the name 'Return Jonathan Meigs'. Lovely. But, someone with a name like that was destined for greatness, weren't they?

[Maria · Rating 5 out of 5]

Schama was a BBC reporter covering the 2008 presidential race when he wrote this book. It's a history of how Americans talk about and view their future. Interwoven with his experiences in America is its history and culture.

Why I started this book: Richard recommended it to me, and the title looked interesting.

Why I finished it: I was worried about this book when I first started it, as it talked about the 2008 presidential campaign. But it turned out to be fascinating, and insightful. Schama took the current issues that politicians were arguing about in the present and detailed their historical past. And it was so interesting see our past reflected thru the eyes of an outsider; from American war (the projection of power), to American skin (race and immigration), American fervor (religion and separation of church and state), American plenty (conservation vs. business). GREAT BOOK! And since we didn't solve the push and pull of these compeating narratives in the past 8 years, this book is still timely in another election year.

[Jami Fultz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Initially, I was skeptical ... what could a British historian tell Americans about their own history? But from the first provocative line - stating the day democracy returned to the U.S. was in January 2008 at Theodore Roosevelt High School in Des Moines, IA - I was hooked. I have been impressed with the thread he weaves through his narrative, tying seemingly disparate characters together. I had no idea how huge an impact the Miegs family has made on our nation ... as well as the son of a Korean immigrant dry cleaner who died in Afghanistan. Very insightful author.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great review of American history warts and all. It made me realize just how biased our school curriculum is. From destruction of native American societies, to slavery, to discrimination against all immigrants at one time or another, Schama puts it all in perspective and suggests what is yet to come based on what has already transpired. America's good qualities are not ignored, but one comes away feeling that we have room to improve.

[C. Adam Volle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't know enough about the discipline of historical research to declare one man the best historian of our time, but I'll fearlessly call Simon Schama the best writer in English of history in our time.

[Michael]

Stylish, superb writing...

[Brian Campbell · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked Schama's optimistic writing in the last three pages of the book. I guess the point of the book is that readers of each of the 4 themes of history described as the main content of the book may not see optimism jump out of the pages.
The first history topic examined was the military, primarily through the story of generations of Meigs family soldiers who fought in the American Revolution, American Civil War through the Iraq conflict as recently as 2008. It seemed that Schama's point here was that some civilian military leadership poorly uses the U.S. professional military, but there were few pages pointing that way. Most of this history was focused on military events with a clear description of the beginning of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point as focusing on civil engineering.
The next topic was religion in the U.S. Included amongst the most significant items (for me) in the writing is that religious freedom can be viewed equally valuable as democracy when viewing the fruits of the country's founding. There is clear writing about how religion in colonial and early post-colonial America led to the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The content does a good job describing various congregations. I didn't get the impression that any of the congregations were meant to be described as typical.
The third topic, titled "What Is An American", appeared to me to be an excellent description of Mexican Americans - not as immigrants, but as the residents of land annexed by the U.S. in the southwest and Pacific coast. Contributions by Chinese and violence against them was included.
The topic titled "American Plenty" told the history of water use for agricultural irrigation and residential use.
There is not room to present all 4 topics comprehensively and the stories included can seem disconnected. Maybe another point of the book is that Americans are so diverse that a comprehensive history would be too huge to digest. I do think the author intended for the reader to be optimistic about American diversity coming together to solve existential problems.

[Supinder · Rating 2 out of 5]

Schama has written a non-linear overview of American History touching upon the major events in the founding of the USA, the colonisation of the west, the US civil war, race relation, immigration of the European, and the historical treatment of non-European settlers (specifically the Chinese) and the Native Americans (specifically the Cherokee).  

Schama tells this overview by using the literary conceit of piggybacking on the fortunes of the Meigs family - a family who appear on the vanguard of the major historic events in early US history. 

Schama's style is lucid and yet irritating.  There are several exquisitely written passages regarding Black emancipation and treatment of the Chinese, but this is interspersed with idiosyncratic blocks of text that disrupt the chronology of the book.

Nevertheless, I learnt a lot through the book; I do wonder what Schama now thinks of the current state of US politics (RE: Trump) versus the tentative strains of optimism that the writer displays in the book's epilogue (which touches upon the beginning of Obama's presidency).

[Amy Griffiths · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent! It took me a few months to read as I took it in chunks and had breaks in between, although it is readable enough to hold up as a solo book too.
He makes some very interesting points regarding American politics throughout history and linking them to the Presidential election of 2008 and what the future may hold for America. Some of these were hard to read with hindsight, but often his hopefulness and picture of the character of America as a whole were inspiring.
Simon Schama’s voice is interesting, descriptive, analytic and reminds me of everything I love about history. He tells the stories of the people of America, both past and present, and links them in an insightful and clear way. The chapters are divided into 4 sections: American War, American Fervour, What is an American? and American Plenty. Through these Simon Schama covers the history of the States from the Revolution to the publication of this book in 2008, and uses the themes to highlight and examine various turning points and devleopments withing that time-frame.

[Hubert · Rating 5 out of 5]

First five-star book of the year. It takes a while to get through, but it's worth it. Schama uses various anecdotal episodes of stories and figures from American history; oftentimes the rarer characters (e.g. the Meigs military family, Montgomery gets the most word-space, being the quartermaster of the Union army during the Civil War, in charge of the complex task of provisions and equipment procurement).

The text as a whole is divided into four units plus an epilogue, broadly centered around the themes of military; religion; immigration; and expansionism (including the takeover of Native American land and Westward expansion) - then each segment is divided into smaller chapters. Sometimes the chapters toggle from one century to the next, with the American Presidential election of 2008 at top of mind (some chapters reference the Iowa caucuses, the outgoing failed administration of Bush 2, and the nascent financial crisis).

Schama tends to present a poeticized vision of American history rather than a purely linear trajectory, writing in a unique voice that makes the reader think through the bigger issues that the country has, and continues to, confront.

[Saul Shimmin · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is hard to assess what Schama wanted this book to be. Lacking a real theme to its exploration of American history, it meanders through present and past in an ode to Faulkner as Schama’s own memory and the individual lives of past men and women anchor the book’s subjects.

This book will disengage rather than enthuse newcomers to American history and is better read as a slightly different approach to the country’s past. All in all the book was close to a structure for a television show, dipping into subjects rather than offering a deep engagement with America. Schama’s exploration of characters both known and forgotten in American history is definitely the book’s highlight. His thoughts into Obama’s election in 2008 also makes the book a snapshot into America’s more recent past.

[Charles Engel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not the Author’s Best…

…but still very good. Schama is a master storyteller at heart and there is some great storytelling here. However, the book lacks the usual Schama discipline, as reflected in a choppy flow and seemingly disconnected narrative. It may not be fair, but the ending rings hollow given the unanticipated racial whiplash the US has experienced during the years since the book was published, particularly after the Obama presidency. One might argue that this whiplash reflects so many unresolved issues in the American psyche, issues to which we were blind when the book was completed. But arguably these issues might have been expected against the frequently ugly backdrop of American history.

[Al Wright · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of my favorite historians and writers. Schama paints pictures with his powerful prose without burying the lead. This book uses the occasion of the 2008 Presidential Election in the US as the starting point in exploring America's past. Schama brings the well known and not so well known historical figures to life while holding up a mirror to America as a nation and as a diverse population. My hope is that he could frame a new book or update this one starting from the 2016 presidential election where things in America took and incredibly wrong turn in to bizarro land. Or perhaps the historian that is Simon Schama could show us how the America of 2017 was destined to happen.

[Sarah · Rating 1 out of 5]

Abandoned on page 125 of 400. You know when writing something you’re told to tell them what you’re going to tell them, tell them and finally tell them what you told them. It can get a bit boring but it is generally good advice. The author skips stage 1 and I have no idea what his idea is. He jumps about between the past and the present and clearly has a plan but I don’t understand it. For example the book is structured in four parts but this is never explained. It might also help if I knew more about American History.

[Alison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed listening to this very interesting analysis of USA history. As with his history of Britain, Schama manages to tell the story of history’s losers without vilifying the winners. He shows how the American dream, sincerely believed and sought after, was never possible - not everyone can be a winner.
This was written in 2008 with much optimism around Obama’s nomination for the presidency- quite sad to know how much of that optimism hasn’t been sustained.

[Loki · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating, if less than entirely coherent, book. It's great when it sticks to history, less good when it mixes in a little journalism from the campaign trail (the optimism of its conclusion, for example, has not aged well). But the historical sections are very good indeed, although at times it relies too heavily on the Jeffersonian vs Hamiltonian thesis in places.

[Sean · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book to get an overview of the way America is America, not just a bigger Australia but an ongoing experiment in balancing the needs of the many people that inhabit her and desires

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Full of fascinating historical tidibits paired with travel across the United States. The book ends on the optimistic note of Obama's election as President, seems quaint these days.