HIGHEST RECOMMENDATION. Yes...it's a very big book. And yes...it's well worth the time. That said, it's also an easy book to strongly recommend. The trend in the writing of American history for the past several decades has been producing (in the words of historian Jill Lepore) "longer and longer monographs on smaller and smaller subjects." Well and fine and of inestimable pleasure and value for an entire generation of readers originally schooled in the great, heroic, and overarching themes of American history. But there comes a time when changing focus is useful and enlightening. By definition perspective requires seeing specific objects in relation to a wider lanscape. Otherwise one can't see the forest for the trees. In regard to the American antebellum period the need for perspective and comprehension has been especially acute for several decades. Biographies, "small histories", and analytical studies to do with the early 19th century have steadily appeared and readers (academic and armchair) are the better for it. But the crazy-quilt story of the United States from Jefferson to Lincoln has proven very resistant to synthesis. So very much was happening so very, very fast. Daniel Walker Howe has given us the finest one volume history of the period that we're likely to get for a good long time. He narrates a huge story, introduces a large cast of characters, and traverses the continent. And he does so with the kind of writing that is a pleasure to read. No one who settles in to enjoy this rich and magisterial work (yes, those are the right words) will remember each character's name, every date, or specific geographic location...but the reader who takes the time will almost certainly come away with a much better understanding of a young country struggling to live up to its revolutionary ideals, make its republican government work, and simply cope with overwhelming, bewildering, and even dangerous change. Take the time, enjoy the stories, and see the forest for the trees. It's well worth it.

The Oxford History of the United States is by far the most respected multi-volume history of our nation. The series includes three Pulitzer Prize winners, a New York Times bestseller, and winners of the Bancroft and Parkman Prizes. Now, in What Hath God Wrought, historian Daniel Walker Howe illuminates the period from the battle of New Orleans to the end of the Mexican-American War, an era when the United States expanded to the Pacific and won control over the richest part of the North American continent.
Howe's panoramic narrative portrays revolutionary improvements in transportation and communications that accelerated the extension of the American empire. Railroads, canals, newspapers, and the telegraph dramatically lowered travel times and spurred the spread of information. These innovations prompted the emergence of mass political parties and stimulated America's economic development from an overwhelmingly rural country to a diversified economy in which commerce and industry took their place alongside agriculture. In his story, the author weaves together political and military events with social, economic, and cultural history. He examines the rise of Andrew Jackson and his Democratic party, but contends that John Quincy Adams and other Whigs--advocates of public education and economic integration, defenders of the rights of Indians, women, and African-Americans--were the true prophets of America's future. He reveals the power of religion to shape many aspects of American life during this period, including slavery and antislavery, women's rights and other reform movements, politics, education, and literature. Howe's story of American expansion culminates in the bitterly controversial but brilliantly executed war waged against Mexico to gain California and Texas for the United States.
By 1848 America had been transformed. What Hath God Wrought provides a monumental narrative of this formative period in United States history.


"One of the best lessons offered by Howe's book comes in his refusal to view the period of 1815 to 1848 in anything other than its own terms. He never reduces the early part of the book to an analysis of how developments succeeded or failed the hopes of the 'founders.' Nor does he ever treat political and social developments as though they launched the United States on a high road to the Civil War.... Precisely because of this clear-eyed vision of the antebellum period, Civil War historians will want to take a fresh look back at howe's picture of the United States in a constant state of change."--Sarah J. Purcell, Civil War Book Review
"I like to have a heavy tome to calm me down at the end of the day. This is almost as big as a pathology book, but really well written."--Robin Cook
"A comprehensive, richly detailed, and elegantly written account of the republic between the War of 1812 and the American victory in Mexico a generation later...a masterpiece."--The Atlantic
"The period between the end of the War of 1812 and the end of the Mexican-American War in 1848 is one of the most important in American history and, these days, one of the most neglected...Yet as Daniel Walker Howe makes plain in this exemplary addition to the Oxford History of the United States, this was the time when the United States was transformed by a series of revolutions...Howe brings an impressive array of strengths to the daunting task of encapsulating these busy, complicated three-plus decades within a single (admittedly, very long) volume...he grasps the meaning as well as the details of developments and events. He has a fine eye for telling detail...he is a genuine rarity...extraordinary."--Washington Post Book World
"Howe has written a stunning synthesis of work in economic, political, demographic, social and cultural history, and he gives a fascinating, richly detailed portrait of the U.S. as its very boundaries so dramatically and often violently shifted...it is a rare thing to encounter a book so magisterial and judicious and also so compelling; it is a great achievement and deserves many readers beyond the academy."--Chicago Tribune
"A sweeping, sparkling, sophisticated synthesis."--The Baltimore Sun
"In the latest installment in the Oxford History of the United States series, historian Howe...stylishly narrates a crucial period in U.S. history--a time of territorial growth, religious revival, booming industrialization, a recalibrating of American democracy and the rise of nationalist sentiment.... Supported by engaging prose, Howe's achievement will surely be seen as one of the most outstanding syntheses of U.S. history published this decade."--Publishers Weekly starred review
"What Hath God Wrought is both a capacious narrative of a tumultuous era in American history and a heroic attempt at synthesizing a century and a half of historical writing about Jacksonian democracy, antebellum reform, and American expansion."--The New Yorker
"In his magisterial new history of the antebellum United States, What Hath God Wrought, Daniel Walker Howe shows that religious divisions and the rise of evangelical Protestantism were defining characteristics of the party system built by the Whigs and the Jacksonian Democrats."--E.J. Dionne, Jr., The Washington Post
"This authoritative addition to Oxford's "History of the United States" series is a product of synthesis and astute analysis...A worthy addition to public and academic institutions; beginning scholars will appreciate the maps and the extensive bibliographic essay, fleshed out by the journal citations in the footnotes. Highly recommended."--Frederick J. Augustyn Jr., Library of Congress, Library Journal
"This extraordinary contribution to the Oxford History of the United States series is a great accomplishment by one of the United States' most distinguished historians. In a book that every student of American history and politics should read, Howe synthesizes a broad range of historical scholarship to produce an overview of this crucial era that is lucid, sensible, entertaining, and revealing. It is, in short, everything a work of historical scholarship should be."--Foreign Affairs
"The book is a sweeping and monumental achievement that no student of American history should let go unread. Attentive to historiography yet writing accessible and engaging prose, Howe has produced the perfect introduction or reintroduction to an enormously important period in American national development."--American Heritage
"Howe takes us through one of the most eventful stretches of American history with such mastery that his book reads like a breathless traveler's tale."--First Things
"The range of American history between 1815 and 1848 does not conjure up any clear narrative to the casual reader, which is precisely why Daniel Walker Howe's What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America 1815-1848 promises to make a splash. An expert in the field, Mr. Howe has skillfully framed a story, between the War of 1812 and the Mexican-American War, that becomes eloquent once you think about it. Lauded by other historians as an important yet accessible landmark, Mr. Howe's study promises odd new angles on America in an election year."--The New York Sun
"Howe takes us through one of the most eventful stretches of American history with such mastery that his book reads like a breathless traveler's tale. From the close of the War of 1812 to the close of the Mexican War in 1848, he marks the determined march of a people across a continent to found a sea-to-sea empire and, in clear, vivid prose, conveys to us how awed he is by it-and how troubled."--Books and Culture
"The best book on Jackson today."--Gordon Wood, Salt Lake Deseret Morning News
"Howe's arguments-America really is an "exceptional" nation, for example-are submerged in his masterly narrative. Even at more than 800 pages, this book is somehow still a marvel of compression, with vast amounts of scholarship integrated into a vivid history that shows Americans their nation in all its greatness, and its occasional squalor."--Wilson Quarterly
"What Hath God Wrought is probably the most culturally sensitive political history as well as the best politically informed social history ever written for this transformative period in American history. Its learning is vast, its judgments discerning, and its depiction of both triumphs and weaknesses of American civilization exceedingly well balanced. It is a splendid addition to a splendid series."--Mark A. Noll, University of Notre Dame
"The decades covered by this book wrought a profound transformation in American life. Expansion through annexation, purchase, and conquest doubled the size of the United States. A revolution in communications and transportation tied these vast expanses together and gave the economy a powerful impulse. The Second Great Awakening in American Protestantism generated a host of reform movements that reshaped the political landscape. Daniel Walker Howe has chronicled these progressive but unsettling changes in an exciting narrative that offers important new insights on these crucial decades."--James M. McPherson, author of Battle Cry of Freedom
"The product of a lifetime of learning, this spirited book will captivate general readers and spark controversy among historians. Challenging standard accounts, Howe argues that many of those maligned as elitists championed the rights of women, African Americans, and Indians and that the animating principle of Andrew Jackson's mythic Democratic party was the extension of white-male supremacy across the continent. Both a panoramic overview and a vivid, nuanced account of particular individuals and incidents in domains stretching from religious practices and political shenanigans to social reform and technological innovation, What Hath God Wrought reflects Howe's mastery of the sources and his deep engagement with rival interpretations of these pivotal years."--James T. Kloppenberg, Harvard University
"Where public memory-and high-school history teachers-have failed, UCLA history professor Daniel Walker Howe succeeds with What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815-1848."--Willamette Week
"A compelling new interpretation of the historical foundations of modern America in the decades before 1850."--Kathryn Kish Sklar, author of The Emergence of Women's Rights within the Antislavery Movement



Daniel Walker Howe is Rhodes Professor of American History Emeritus, Oxford University and Professor of History Emeritus, University of California, Los Angeles. He is the author of The Political Culture of the American Whigs and Making the American Self: Jonathan Edwards to Abraham Lincoln. He lives in Los Angeles.

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Distributor: Oxford University Press USA
Publication Date: 10-29-2007
Pages: 928
Measurements: 6.200in X 9.300in X 2.200in X 3.194lb