American Visions: The United States, 1800-1860 [Paperback]

An inspiring book.& This nimble history surveys the visions that Americans fashioned for the nation taking shape before them in the lurching period of 1800 to 1860. Ayers&pays particular attention to lesser-known Black abolitionists and Native Americans. The result is a dynamic portrait of a country in transition. When Barack Obama awarded Ayers a National Humanities Medal in 2013, the president praised Ayers commitment to making our history as widely available and accessible as possible. & Ayers accurate, balanced, and compelling history proves that progress is possible and that patriotism can be rooted in the complicated truths about the past. A richly illustrative defense of the role of ideas in the crafting of Americas national character. Ayers skillfully handles the huge cast of characters, drawing intriguing parallels between them. Its an illuminating exploration of American political history. Edward Ayers is a rare and distinctively gifted American historian.& Within the Pandoras box of antebellum America, Edward L. Ayers finds hope from a dazzling array of eloquent prophets, secular and sacred. In vivid prose and with keen insight, Edward L. Ayers reveals a deeply contested but also very American way of envisioning possibility and promise. A page-turning tour de force by one of our most visionary historians. [A] triumphant scholarly synthesis that depicts a broad range of figuresauthors, reformers, pseudoscientists, mystics, showmen, and morewho made this period one of the most fascinating and important times in American history. In vivid prose, Ayers etches diverse Americans on the move and at odds in this energetic guide to artistic, literary, utopian, and pragmatic impulses in the United States across six critical decades. May this account of earlier Americans sense of possibility spur us to reimagine our own world. US