The American Future LP
A History
By Simon Schama
(HarperLuxe, Paperback, Large Print, 9780061669071, 704pp.)
Publication Date: June 2009
Other Editions of This Title: Google eBook, Hardcover, Paperback
Categories: United States - General
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The acclaimed historian and award-winning author offers an essential, historical, outsider's perspective on the crucial 2008 presidential election and its importance for reclaiming America's original ideal.
It's not business as usual. Cultural hostilities have divided America in two irreconcilable blocs more completely than at any time since the Civil War. In November 2008, the American people elected a new president, feeling more anxious about the future of the nation than at any time since Watergate. Our omnipotent military, the cornucopia of material comforts available, the security of borders, and the global economy all seem to be in question.
In The American Future, historian Simon Schama takes a long look at the multiple crises besetting the United States and asks: How do these problems look in the mirror of time? In four crucial debates (wars, religion, race and immigration, and the relationship between natural resources and prosperity), Schama looks back to see more clearly into the future. Full of lost insights, The American Future showcases Schama's acclaimed gift for storytelling, ensuring these voices will be heard again.
Simon Schama is University Professor of Art History and History at Columbia University in New York. His award-winning books include The American Future: A History; Rough Crossings; The Power of Art; The Embarrassment of Riches: An Interpretation of Dutch Culture in the Golden Age; Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution; Dead Certainties (Unwarranted Speculations); Landscape and Memory; Rembrandt's Eyes; and the History of Britain trilogy. He has written and presented forty television documentary films for the BBC, PBS, and The History Channel—including the Emmy-winning Power of Art—on subjects that range from John Donne to Tolstoy.
“With eloquence, wit, passion and irony, The American Future traces the history of an idea: that of our national destiny. . . . Schama’s is a book of beautiful writing, peppered with wisecracks, slashed with rapier thrusts.”
-Philadelphia Inquirer
“It is a tribute to Mr. Schama’s talent that he is able to make this work sound exciting, even inspiring. . . . The American Future is a success because Mr. Schama knows how to entwine past and present into a meaningful, continuous whole.”
-New York Times
“His historical narrative is excellent. . . . [Schama] writes beautifully about Americans of the past.”
-Miami Herald
“I hope Obama will have this book on his bedside table. A more inspiring evocation of the spirit of liberal America—past, present and future—does not exist.”
-Niall Ferguson
“As a literary endeavor, The American Future does live up to the author’s lofty standards. Schama is, among other things, a nimble biographer...[and] a writer of gorgeous prose.”
-Washington Post
“Schama is a genius of storytelling. . . . A historian who radiates such anticipated pleasure is a rare thing. We are lucky to have him.”
-The Times (London)
“A lively meditation on American history . . . Schama’s wide-ranging narratives wander between contemporary reportage . . . and fluent, richly literate history.”
-Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“His specialty is finding interesting midlevel characters from the buried mounds of history and telling their stories. In the first great chunk of the book, he tells the stories of the Meigses...gripping portraits...Simon Schama the outstanding historian still survives.”
-David Brooks, New York Times Book Review
“Schama is a masterful stylist and storyteller.”
-Boston Globe
“It has its own particular charm . . . a fabulous jumble-sale, full of old treasures and recent acquisitions. Anyone interested in America will find in it something to their fancy.”
-The Economist
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