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America, Empire of Liberty: A New History of the United States Hardcover – Big Book, October 13, 2009

by David Reynolds (Author)
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 147 ratings
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It was Thomas Jefferson who envisioned the United States as a great “empire of liberty.” This paradoxical phrase may be the key to the American saga: How could the anti-empire of 1776 became the world's greatest superpower? And how did the country that offered unmatched liberty nevertheless found its prosperity on slavery and the dispossession of Native Americans?

In this new single-volume history spanning the entire course of US history—from 1776 through the election of Barack Obama—prize-winning historian David Reynolds explains how tensions between empire and liberty have often been resolved by faith—both the evangelical Protestantism that has energized American politics for centuries and the larger faith in American righteousness that has driven the country's expansion.

Written with verve and insight, Empire of Liberty brilliantly depicts America in all of its many contradictions.

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Previous page
  1. Print length
    592 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Basic Books
  4. Publication date
    October 13, 2009
  5. Grade level
    11 and up
  6. Reading age
    13 years and up
  7. Dimensions
    6.5 x 2 x 9.5 inches
  8. ISBN-10
    046501500X
  9. ISBN-13
    978-0465015009
  10. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In an animated overview up to the present time, Cambridge historian Reynolds (In Command of History) captures the sprawling chronicle of a nation forged from the fires of revolution, populated by immigrants and constantly evolving politically and culturally. Reynolds constructs his story around the richly, sometimes fatally ambiguous themes of empire, liberty and faith in the nation's development. The American colonists who overthrew an imperial government themselves created an empire based on manifest destiny and removal of Native Americans to reservations. As for liberty, Reynolds reminds us that it was built on the backs of black slaves, but white Americans were free from the intrusion of the federal government in their personal lives until the New Deal, which dramatically changed the nature of American liberty. The development of religious denominations in America contributed moral fervor to many progressive causes, such as temperance, and animated America in the cold war and George W. Bush's war on terror. Reynolds draws on letters and other documents from ordinary Americans to show the uneasy relationship among empire, liberty and faith. Most readers will find Reynolds's epic overview provocative and enjoyable. 3 maps. (Nov.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

Publishers Weekly
“In an animated overview up to the present time, Cambridge historian Reynolds (In Command of History) captures the sprawling chronicle of a nation forged from the fires of revolution, populated by immigrants and constantly evolving politically and culturally… Most readers will find Reynolds’s epic overview provocative and enjoyable.”

American History Magazine
“Dazzlingly sweeping yet stippled with detail, this one-volume narrative runs from 1776 to Obama’s election, serving up fresh insights along the way.”

Kirkus
“Concise and still-inclusive…teeming…an evenhanded distillation of America's story from a singular outside observer.”

The National Interest
“Let us not mince words…this is the best one-volume history of the United States ever written…At least on the face of it, no single mind can master this mountain of material, avoid the almost-inevitable factual blunders, negotiate the long-standing scholarly controversies, and control the narrative in clear and at-times-lyrical prose. But that is precisely what Reynolds has done…[A] remarkable tour of the American past.”

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Basic Books; 1st edition (October 13, 2009)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 592 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 046501500X
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0465015009
  • Reading age ‏ : ‎ 13 years and up
  • Grade level ‏ : ‎ 11 and up
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.9 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.5 x 2 x 9.5 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 147 ratings

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David Reynolds

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Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
147 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Madison
5.0 out of 5 stars Great History Book
Reviewed in the United States on February 20, 2012
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This book is a great history book - I'm currently using it for my Post-Civil war history class. It provides useful insight on history in a more thematic manner by telling history as a story through different viewpoints, opposed to going era by era and detailing all of the events.
3 people found this helpful
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Lucas
4.0 out of 5 stars Nothing new, but still good
Reviewed in the United States on January 8, 2010
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Those who are well read students in the history of the Republic won't find much new in this single volume overview, but it serves its purpose as such: a single volume for readers needing a refresher on the nation's history; and younger people who would be better served by a readable, near-comprehensive narrative history than some of the history books written now focusing more on social analysis, etc. than the story.
11 people found this helpful
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C. A. Maniscalco
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on August 5, 2017
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Great!
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Freeplanet
4.0 out of 5 stars Biased in favor of landed white guys
Reviewed in the United States on November 21, 2009
An exaggerated title no doubt, but reading the first reviewer, a necessary counterpoint, since he gives the impression that it's Howard Zinn redux. Up to the election of Kennedy, I thought it was relatively fair to left and right perspectives, but thereafter, the writer's conservative biases became more pronounced. The sixties assassinations of King and RFK were blamed on lone nuts (maybe they were, but it gave no hint that there may have been a conspiracy). There's nothing about the illegal bombing of Cambodia; nothing about Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, torture. Evidently Nixon ran against no one in 1972--the word 'McGovern' never comes up. The Pentagon Papers case is missing, along with the break-in of Ellsberg's shrink, and all the other dirty tricks. The 2000 election says nothing about the deliberate suppression of the black vote in Florida. There's nothing about whether our govt. had advance knowledge of 9/11, let alone whether it was an inside job. The counterculture is encapsulated within a brief description of the suppression of the Yippies at the 1968 Democratic convention (as a bunch of lewd, spoiled crazies). The discussion of Tonkin Gulf gives no hint that it was manufactured by the Johnson Administration as a pretext for bombing North Vietnam. Despite these omissions, I enjoyed the book and the author does an admirable job in making his point that America's history is indeed the story of the rocky expansion of liberty when viewed through a 400 year lens.
7 people found this helpful
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JOHN GODFREY
4.0 out of 5 stars Voices from the past. This is vol 2 of a three volumes set from the BBC.
Reviewed in the United States on November 19, 2010
This volume, the middle one on what you might say is perhaps the most important time in our history. It is the formative years from the Civil War to World War II. By this time our security from outside aggression had been assured. Our cohesiveness as one nation had not yet really happened. We were still many different people & the Civil War, ironically gave us that sense of nationhood, of oneness. The end of that war announced the emergence of a new power in the world, as yet on the horizon. By the end of World War II it was evident that the 20th century was truly America's Century. One decade into the 21st we have fallen a bit from that perch. The elimination of slavery, a new type of bondage for many blacks, the industrial revolution with the accompanying urbanization & waves of immigrants flooding into the United States is all covered. The defeat of the Spanish in the Spanish-American War at the end of the 19th century, resulted in America becoming major imperialist style power. A new class of wealthy Americans arose as we culturally & economically overwhelmed the world preeminent power, the British, whose empire,by the end of World War I was in full decline. This is outlined thru the thoughts of people who live in those time. Enjoyable listening.
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R. Spottiswood
3.0 out of 5 stars Two-thirds decent history, one-third only the Presidents
Reviewed in the United States on October 2, 2010
The chief selling point of this book is that it is a one volume history of the United States using three themes, empire, liberty and faith. Except it doesn't. The true themes of this book are the levels of rights and powers between the State Governments, the Federal Government, and the Supreme Court. Faith is a topic discussed in its own sections of a chapter. 'Empire' and 'liberty' are terms frequently invoked at the beginning and end of chapters, but rarely are they put in context.

The book is divided into three sections. The first starts in the distant past with the arrival of prehistoric humans, and winds down to the beginning of the Civil War. The second continues with the Civil War through to the end of World War II. These sections are an interesting but conventional and conservative overview of US history. To anyone familiar with American history, there should be few surprises here, except some of the author's conservative spin on events. For instance, he takes a consistently negative and 'interfering' view of the decisions of the Supreme Court.

The third section of the book is set from after World War II right up to the Obama Presidency. I found this section the most memorable but also the most frustrating. Apart from a chapter on the civil rights movement of the Sixties and a section on the Information Revolution, this section is a series of shallow biographies of the US presidential administrations. It covers what they intended to do, and what standard histories say they achieved. American events not involving the Presidents are not covered. Apart from Watergate, scandals are only mentioned, not truly covered. This section is also where the author's viewpoint goes from just conservative to aggressively imperial. He lightly covers criticism of the checks and balances governing system with claims that the Constitution is too antiquated for the twentieth century. Then, at the end of the chapter on Nixon (of all Presidents), he literally insults the American people as a whole for not granting the Presidency unlimited power with which to rule their (government's) global empire.

What good points, then, does this book have? The author does a very good job of showing how the American system evolved from strong states' rights and weak central government, to a powerful central government and a citizenry with strong individual rights (when that central government is willing to enforce those rights). Also, despite what he directly states, he does a good job showing how the Supreme Court has been responsible for establishing and defending those individual rights. The author is also a good writer. The quality of the writing made the book enjoyable, or at least readable, no matter how much I disagreed with the author's viewpoint. Finally, while the author deals only briefly with the Founding Fathers' separation of Church and State, he uses some brilliant quotes to make the truth of that separation crystal clear.

It is hard to summarise this book. Overall, it is highly readable and informative in surprising ways. The chapters up to World War II are a good overview of American historical trends. However, the author's viewpoint is conservative, and in the post-war chapters, the overview of events becomes too shallow and too focused on just the Presidency.
20 people found this helpful
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Christoffer Swanstrom
4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent one volume history of the United States
Reviewed in the United States on July 2, 2010
Contrary to some of the other reviews written here I found the book fairly balanced. Obviously, many interesting things are glossed over and others omitted, but that is to be expected from a single volume covering the whole history of the USA. Overall a very good read.
8 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Amazon Kunde
5.0 out of 5 stars This book is outstanding!
Reviewed in Germany on April 1, 2021
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I am doing research on the United states for about 40 years. But I never received a book like David Reynolds "America Empire of Liberty". Prof. Reynolds is an Englishman. He therefore has a view on his object which is distant, engaged and conducted with knowledge and sympathy. He tries to find for each epoch of American history the really valuable episodes. Those can consist small details or big histories, resulting out of personal achievements or being structural components. In any case Reynolds is able to convince the reader: That's it!
He informs us, what Thomas Jefferson "really did" with the so called "declaration of Independence". He establishes Lyndon B. Johnson as the brave and bolt father of the second reconstruction. He makes transparent the different faces of Liberty in different situations and demonstrated the paradoxes of Freedom. And he makes from the beginning on clear, that everything in the history of this great civilization has something to do with racism. One understands how the Constitution works and why the sovereignty of the states are responsible for the disruption of good political results. History for him is nothing that happens in a boring manner step by step. It consists of all the things which do matter! And it is written in a powerful language
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J. Reckitt
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent overview
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 16, 2012
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This is a great, well-balanced single-volume history of the US, explaining the factors behind the growth of this nation from day 1.

Rather than simply 'tell the story', (to his credit) Reynolds spices things up by including quotations from memoirs, autobiographies etc. of the figures discussed to give a more complete image of the political climate at any given time. The pace at which events are covered prevents you from getting bogged down in issues that don't interest you, but provide enough information for you to appreciate the relevance of these issues, and are frequently inspirations for further reading.

He also has a unique way of introducing important people or legal cases. Instead of giving a blow by blow account of Abraham Lincoln's life, for example, Reynolds mentions a few of the most well-known elements of his life before actually introducing him, inviting the reader to take an educated guess as to who is being described. Although not totally relevant to the success of the whole book, this was an element of the written style I loved tremendously.

I would thoroughly recommend this book to anyone interested in learning more about America, and I would urge anyone studying the Civil Rights in the USA unit for A level history to read this before sitting the exam: it's a great way of uncovering themes that the textbooks don't mention that are relevant to the subject area (eg. expansion of Federal Government power over time).

10/10. So good, I could read it twice.
5 people found this helpful
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Patrick D.
4.0 out of 5 stars very good overview...
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 10, 2024
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This book doesn't set out to be comprehensive but it very nearly is. It centres around three themes - Empire, Liberty and Faith. It's an inspired approach to a vast topic. Reflection confirms that these three themes are strands integral to the development of the USA. I would not have thought that before reading the book. It's filled in a great many gaps in my understanding of America, Americans, their government and its policies. I'm really glad I bought it.
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Malcolm Shearmur
5.0 out of 5 stars Superb: fast-paced, human and fresh
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 26, 2013
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From the arrival of the first people in the Americas via Alaska to the election of America's first black president in 2009, this book covers the whole spectrum of America's history. It is fast-paced yet human, featuring the voices of native Americans, slaves, soldiers and women as well as political leaders. And although most of us know something about the highlights of American history - declaration of independence, slavery, civil war, the wild west, gold rush, world wars and Cold War, civil rights movement, Vietnam and terrorism - Reynolds is never dull and always manages to make every episode exciting and fresh.

He also explores the paradoxes and tensions in American history, notably how a nation founded on anti-colonialism conquered the native people and built an empire, and how slavery and segregation could persist for so long in a country whose founding document declared that "all men are created equal." In spite of all this, the US is the greatest democracy in the world today and a beacon in the same way that Athens was to democrats in antiquity from the 5th century BCE onwards. As such, America's past, and its own understanding of that past, is relevant to all who care about democracy. This is a great overview of American history for the layman.
4 people found this helpful
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M. J. Hopkins
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent History
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 19, 2009
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Thus far this book seems to has been well received and justifiably so. I'll just highlight a couple of distinguishing features which make this a truly excellent book.

Firstly it's scale and pace. The narrative of the American story which David Reynolds unfolds manages to confidently weave the big political and economic events together with the human stories of presidents, slaves, industrialists, activists and labourers. With centuries to survey, not everything is explored with the same depth, but the tapestry which Reynolds weaves genuinely works - he draws together the connections between peoples, events and places and demonstrates their historical consequences.

Secondly it's not over-moralised. Reynolds fully recognises the tensions and complexities of the American story and it's great paradoxes between liberty, slavery and empire. Indeed the whole book is based around these (and other) tensions. The story unfolds as a tale of continuing triumphs and defeats and not as a great moral judgement of American virtue or vice. It is restrained, balanced but above all engaging, fresh, dynamic, readable and thoroughly recommended by this reviewer!
9 people found this helpful
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