What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815-1848 (Oxford History of the United States) | 
| Author: Daniel Walker Howe
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Category: Book
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Avg. Customer Rating:  23 reviews
Sales Rank: 2053
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 928
Shipping Weight (lbs): 3.2
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.7 x 2.3
ISBN: 0195078942
Dewey Decimal Number: 973.5
EAN: 9780195078947
ASIN: 0195078942
Publication Date: October 29, 2007
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Product Description
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.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 18 more reviews...
 Essential American History July 21, 2008
This is a book every American lover of history should read and own. The detail of research is both exhaustive and often entertaining. Whether its military, religious, political or cultural, Daniel Howe covers it in telling detail. Enjoy this as a good, long read, or simply explore the chapters or areas of interest you are investigating. A wonderful reference for social studies teachers who seek the facts and issues that crafted American sentiment and history in the 19th century.
 An enjoyable history, but viewed through a modern moral lense ... July 4, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I enjoyed this book. Like the others in the Oxford series, it's an "easy read", written in plain English devoid of technical or academic jargon.
And one learns a lot from it. In particular, two areas of coverage stand out. (1) Before reading the book, i had believed that the USA's victory over Mexico in the 1847 war was an easy one, a foregone conclusion. I had no idea what a tremendous achievement the conquest of Mexico was from a military-logistical point of view. (2) The coverage of the myriad religious waves and revivals that swept the country, and how they impacted critical issues like US territorial expansion and the slavery question, is outstanding.
But, there is one aspect of the book i found somewhat irksome: The author's insistence on applying contemporary moral standards to judge historical figures. Just about every dominant personality from the time period is appraised on whether, from our modern point of view, they were "correct" about race and gender issues.
Thus, great Presidents like Andrew Jackson and James Polk are repeatedly raked over the coals for being "white supremacists" who expanded slavery, and exterminated native-Americans, and started an unjust war with Mexico to deprive Latinos of their territory, as if these are the sum-total of their Presidential tenures. I have trouble with this, because would we, and i mean collectively everyone in modern-day USA and Mexico, really be better off if Texas and California were still a part of Mexico? If the USA was confined to the land east of the Mississippi plus the Louisiana Purchase? I don't think so. It would just mean those areas would be third-world territory, instead of thriving parts of the USA.
And, while the issues of slavery and conflict with native-Americans were surely dominant ones during the time period being analyzed, and thus deserve the significant amount of attention the author devotes to them, the issue of women's rights was not. Yet, gender issues are frequently raised and magnified out of all proportion to their importance to the people then living. In fact, the last chapter of the books is devoted to the women's rights conventions convened by Lucretia Mott, E.C. Stanton, and others, as if these were major, important events at the times they were held. Too much "looking backward" for me tastes.
That said, i still heartily recommend the book. These criticisms are of relatively minor import compared to the wealth of historical knowledge one will gain from reading it.
 Too many politically correct detours June 18, 2008
3 out of 6 found this review helpful
It is best to compare this book to "Market Revolution" by Charles Sellers. Both cover the same period of American history although Sellers' book was published 16 years prior, in 1991. Even in structure, both are similar yet the most surprising resemblance is in academic attitude while following academic fashion. They cover much the same information.
"Market Revolution" is affected with lingering Marxism, a fashion just about on its way out in 1990. Howe's 2007 book is, thankfully, largely free of Marxism analytics, but substitutes a more evolved political correctness and even delves into Bush Derangement Syndrome.
Of the two, Howe is easier and more enjoyable to read, partially because the author takes a more human interest approach. Like Sellers, too many pages are devoted to obscure social and political pioneers decades before they made a general impact on society. Much like public school textbooks, they highlight the politically correct minorities at the expense of the real forces moving society. Both look backward from contemporary liberalism's political correctness and too often judge men and their times not with an appreciation (or understanding) of people dealing with the world as they found it but judge them against what the current academics WISH the world would someday aspire.
One completely gratuitous passage of BDS arises in the telling of Scott's invasion of Mexico City. In one battle, Scott hears intelligence that a certain foundry is melting down church bells to make cannon. The general sends a detachment to take the foundry and it turns into one of the bloodiest engagements of the campaign only for the Americans to discover that the cannon casting is not taking place. The author then makes a cute remark about Scott not finding weapons of mass destruction.
Still, I read the book through without too much pain and found myself learning much, in spite of the avoidable detours when the author wasted paper and my time to little effect. I don't know of a better introduction to the period although I hope there is one. Still, it leaves one wondering what happened to American academia, especially in California - Sellers was professor at UC Berkeley, Howe at UCLA.
Thanks again to my daughter-in-law Larisa for a well-chosen Christmas gift.
A marvelous historical account June 1, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This has to be one of the best histories published in a decade. The Oxford Series is through, well written, and very readable. Certainly they have made the period from 1813 to 1848 come alive in a tale that flows like a good novel. Somewhere between the War for Independence and the Civil War lies a significant period, this one, of which few students are well informed. This volume belongs on the shelf of every student of American History and every citizen who would be informed of the growth and development of the United States.
Very well-balanced, fully detailed antebellum history May 31, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
This is a history of the United States from the end of the War of 1812 to the end of the Mexican War. It is very long; it over 900 pages. It is thus not for the casual reader or those with short attention spans.
For those with the patience to appreciate it and savor it, however, this is a magnificent book. To begin, Howe's scholarship is beyond reproach. He knows his stuff, backwards and forwards, and it shows on every page. His peculiar slant is to have no peculiar slant. He covers political, social, economic, religious, intellectual, technological and military history. He really tries to cover everything, and does a magnificent job. I would say he has a bit of an anti-Jackson, pro-Whig bias, but it is slight; he really is an objective scholar.
I thought, at first, that the book was going to stink, because it has many clear signs of being written in the 21st century, by an academic, and thus being subject to all of the fads of political correctness and so forth. I found, however, that this helped the book, rather than hurt it. Academic history for the last generation has focused on the non-mainstream stories, the women, the poor, the common person, rather than the rich and the powerful Howe takes all of this new learning and incorporates it into the overall story. I was particularly impressed by his close and respectful attention to the history of American religion. Frankly, I expect a professor to be anti-religion and to sneer at the bohunks who believe in such things. Howe does not take that tone at all. Rather, his approach is to view 19th century American religion, like an anthropologist coming to a foreign nation. Which is to say, he does not assume that you know anything about it, and he explains in great detail where the different Protestant movements came from, what issues they disagreed, the contributions they made to different aspects of American life and so forth. Very informative, and not biased one way or the other.
As befits an early 21st century academic, Howe has ambivalent feelings about his subject. This shows up in the title. He is quoting Samuel Morse, who quoted the Bible in his first telegraph message. At first, I thought that Howe was mocking the quotation, and making fun of the idea that America had been produced by God. But, as I went on, I realized that Howe is not that heavy handed in his bias, and that the story he is telling is far more subtle. If there is one thing about early American that really bothers Howe, it is not so much slavery, which bothers him, of course, but is not central to his story. Rather, what bothers him is the self-assertive violence of Jackson, the conquest of the Old Southwest by Jackson and then the conquest of the north of Mexico by Polk. These actions, of course, are the ultimate violation of poltical correctness; political leaders who believe so much in America that they are willing to conquer and subjucate anyone standing in their way.
Howe tells the story well, including those who opposed Jackson and Polk at the time. Oddly, though, he seems to have some glimmerings, if not of sympathy, of at least understanding for Jackson and Polk. He actually ends up suggesting that, while this conquests were evil, perhaps they served God's purposes by making America ultimately a larger, stronger nation better able to fight the totalitiarian horrors of the 20th century. In short, when he looks at American history, he sees events that are great, terrible, inspiring and baffling, all at the same time. In the end, his title actually seems to have some reverence in it, not of the full-bodied patriotic sort, but more one of awe at the power and incomprehensibility of God and his creation. Not at all a sentiment I would expect a tenured professor to have. Bravo. A marvelous job.
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