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The Broken Heart of America: St. Louis and the Violent History of the United States
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About This Book
A searing portrait of the racial dynamics that lie inescapably at the heart of our nation, told through the turbulent history of the city of St. Louis.From Lewis and Clark's 1804 expedition to the 2014 uprising in Ferguson, American history has been made in St. Louis. And as Walter Johnson shows in this searing book, the city exemplifies how imperialism, racism, and capitalism have persistently entwined to corrupt the nation's past. St. Louis was a staging post for Indian removal and imperial expansion, and its wealth grew on the backs of its poor black residents, from slavery through redlining and urban renewal. But it was once also America's most radical city, home to anti-capitalist immigrants, the Civil War's first general emancipation, and the nation's first general strike -- a legacy of resistance that endures. A blistering history of a city's rise and decline, The Broken Heart of America will forever change how we think about the United States.
Reviews
"Overheated and overstated though it sometimes is, Johnson's narrative is also comprehensive and convincing in its particulars ..."
"But the story he's telling has so many elements that it makes sense he would immerse himself in the intricacies of tax increment financing and municipal bond debt."
"A well-rendered, incisive exploration of 'a history of serial dispossession and imperial violence.'"
"Johnson is as insistently moralizing in his way as previous generations of romantic, heroic historians of the West were in theirs."
"At once gentle and dystopian, Johnson's history of an American city issues an important warning to not ignore the rotten spots in the country's foundation."
"This exhaustive and politically minded history...makes a persuasive case that 'St."
"Louis for lessons on how to rise above our country's reactionary and racist heritage."
"a striking illustration of the connections of militarism and racism."
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