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This brief history of America will span the earliest migrations to the present, reflecting Paul S. Boyer's interests in social, intellectual, and cultural history, including popular culture and religion. It will reflect his personal view of American history, in which a sense of paradox and irony loom large. While noting positive achievements-political, economic, social, and cultural-he will also discuss the United States's failures to live up to its oft-stated ideals; although America has figured in the world's imagination (and its own self-image) as a "land of opportunity" offering "liberty…mehr

Produktbeschreibung
This brief history of America will span the earliest migrations to the present, reflecting Paul S. Boyer's interests in social, intellectual, and cultural history, including popular culture and religion. It will reflect his personal view of American history, in which a sense of paradox and irony loom large. While noting positive achievements-political, economic, social, and cultural-he will also discuss the United States's failures to live up to its oft-stated
ideals; although America has figured in the world's imagination (and its own self-image) as a "land of opportunity" offering "liberty and justice for all," the reality has often fallen short.

For example, the establishment of the North American colonies had very different meanings for colonists from the British Isles and Europe, for Native peoples, and for enslaved Africans brought against their will. The late nineteenth century saw not only impressive industrial expansion and the creation of vast fortunes but also appalling conditions in urban-immigrant slums and a degraded, exploited labor force. The twentieth-century emergence of a suburban society of consumer abundance meant a
better life for many and laid the groundwork for impressive cultural creativity, yet left behind crime-ridden inner cities and spawned a stultifying mass culture. The immigrants who have renewed and revitalized the nation have also stirred hostility and resentment. While American popular culture has
demonstrated global appeal, the projection of U.S. military power abroad, from the Philippines early in the twentieth century to Iraq early in the twenty-first, has sometimes failed in its purpose and damaged the nation's international standing. Although this book will not be a muckraking exposé or anachronistic moral tract, neither will it be a celebratory panegyric or a bland recital of facts.

ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.
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Autorenporträt
Paul S. Boyer was Merle Curti Professor of History Emeritus and former director, Institute for Research in the Humanities, University of Wisconsin-Madison; editor in chief, Oxford Companion to United States History (2001); co-author, Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft (with Stephen Nissenbaum, 1974); author, By the Bomb's Early Light: American Thought and Culture at the Dawn of the Atomic Age (1985), et al.
Rezensionen

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung - Rezension
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung | Besprechung von 15.03.2013

Getrübtes Vermächtnis

Wenige Wochen vor seinem Tod im vergangenen Frühjahr schloss der Historiker Paul Boyer noch die Arbeit an seinem letzten Buch ab. Es führt in knapp hundertvierzig Seiten durch die amerikanische Geschichte von der vorkolonialen indianischen Vergangenheit bis zur Präsidentschaft von Barack Obama. Boyer hat über die Kolonialzeit genauso geforscht wie über die Kultur des frühen Atomzeitalters oder das Endzeitdenken in Amerika. Da sind die Erwartungen an eine Gesamtschau hoch. Dieser Einführungsband setzt auf lebendige Details und prägnante Zitate, aber auch auf manche allzu sehr dem Cliffhanger-Prinzip verpflichtete Überleitung. Zur Enttäuschung wird er wegen vieler Nachlässigkeiten, die ein renommierter Verlag wie Oxford hätte korrigieren müssen, um aus dem Buch des zuletzt schwer kranken Autors ein würdigeres Vermächtnis zu machen. So liest man von Angriffen der Alliierten im Zweiten Weltkrieg auf "Dresden an der Donau" oder stolpert über Wiederholungen in den beiden Schlusskapiteln. Und der Kontinentalkongress von Philadelphia soll die weltberühmten Worte "Streben nach Glück" in die Unabhängigkeitserklärung eingefügt haben? Thomas Jefferson hätte gestaunt. (Paul S. Boyer: "American History". A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press, New York 2012. XIX + 161 S., Abb., br., 9,99 [Euro].)

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