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Union: The Struggle to Forge the Story of United States Nationhood
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About This Book
By the bestselling author of American Nations, the story of how the myth of U.S. national unity was created and fought over in the nineteenth century--a myth that continues to affect us today Union tells the story of the struggle to create a national myth for the United States, one that could hold its rival regional cultures together and forge an American nationhood. On one hand, a small group of individuals--historians, political leaders, and novelists--fashioned and promoted the idea of America as nation that had a God-given mission to lead humanity toward freedom, equality, and self-government. But this emerging narrative was swiftly contested by another set of intellectuals and firebrands who argued that the United States was instead the homeland of the allegedly superior Anglo-Saxon race, upon whom divine and Darwinian favor shined. Colin Woodard tells the story of the genesis and epic confrontations between these visions of our nation's path and purpose through the lives of the key figures who created them, a cast of characters whose personal quirks and virtues, gifts and demons shaped the destiny of millions.
Reviews
"This choice of narrative structure makes for a fascinating journey through history."
"Union is detailed and unflashy, and it contains many valuable historical lessons modern readers will find useful."
"One glaring omission is the lack of at least one strong female presence; otherwise, the scholarship is sound."
"In any case, it is surpassing strange that he selects two Jacksonian Democrats (Bancroft and Simms) and three Progressive Democrats (Turner, Wilson and Dixon) as the voices of union when a substantial selection of Whigs, non-Progressives and even Federalists were available to explain American nationhood in very different terms than those of an 'ethnostate' ..."
"Woodard oversells his argument by treating pride in the nation's constitutional legacy as historically discrete from pride in America's cultural heritage, but he marshals a wealth of information into a fluid narrative that manages to make abstract intellectual concepts tangible."
"George Bancoft's portrait is only one of many utterly gripping depictions scattered throughout Union."
"Woodard is a gifted historiographer, and this excellent work will be appreciated by anyone interested in American history and how it came to be written."
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