A Nation Forged by Crisis

Starred review from August 27, 2018
Sexton, a historian of American politics, organizes his astute history around “the greatest periods of crisis in each century of its existence,” which he describes metaphorically as “violent earthquakes that forever altered the nation’s political landscape.” First, Sexton emphasizes the skill with which the founding generation allowed the newly independent U.S. to engage economically with European nations while remaining aloof from their political machinations. He then moves on to explore the international context that informed the sharpening tensions over slavery in the mid-19th century, particularly the rise of a British ideology of free trade and the influx of Irish immigrants into the cities of the northern U.S. After arguing that Union victory and the abolition of slavery allowed the U.S. to profit from an increasingly globalized economy, Sexton offers a lengthy and detailed discussion of the nation’s turn away from the isolationism of the 1920s to internationalism in the 1940s, along with the belief that, as an economic dynamo that had avoided both communism and fascism, the country was “exceptional.” Claiming that, in the current unsettled times, Americans should “revisit previous moments of crisis,” Sexton’s book offers an insightful roadmap of how the country got here.

October 15, 2018

Sexton (history, Univ. of Missouri; Debtor Diplomacy) has written a wide-ranging U.S. history by examining the greatest crises in each century of its existence--the American Revolution, the Civil War, and the Great Depression--within the international and national contexts that fueled these events. The author argues that the nation is a product of international forces, including the cyclical booms and busts of the global economy, international migration, and disruptions in relations among countries. Sexton puts to rest the nationalist myth of American exceptionalism, the idea that American history has uniquely been shaped by its institutions and ideology and shows how, even when trying to withdraw from the international order, the country has been inextricably bound within it. The author does not shy away from drawing conclusions about our current politics and the global situation we now occupy, providing much food for thought while pointing readers toward areas for further reading and consideration. VERDICT Those interested in American and international history and politics will find this a worthwhile introduction to the nation's past.--Chad E. Statler, Westlake Porter P.L., Westlake, OH

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