Sum of Our Dreams - A History of America

In The Sum of Our Dreams, Louis P. Masur offers a sweeping yet compact history of America from its beginnings to the current moment. For general readers seeking an accessible, single-volume account, one that challenges but does not overwhelm, and which distills and connects the major events and figures in the country's past in a single narrative, here is that book. Evoking Barack Obama's belief that America remains the "sum of its dreams," Masur locates the origin of those dreams-of freedom, equality, and opportunity-and traces their progress chronologically, illuminating the nation's struggle over time to articulate and fulfill their promise. Moving from the Colonial Era, to the Revolutionary Period, the Early Republic, and through the Civil War, Masur turns his attention to Reconstruction, the Gilded Age, the Progressive Age, World War One, the Great Depression, World War Two, the Cold War, Civil Rights, Vietnam, and Watergate, and then laying out clearly and concisely what underlies the divisiveness that has characterized American civic life over the last forty years-and now more than ever. Above all, however, Masur lets the story of American tell itself. Inspired by James Baldwin's observation that "American history is longer, larger, more beautiful and more terrible than anything anyone has ever said about it," he expands our notion of that history while identifying its individual threads. The Sum of Our Dreams will be the new go-to single volume for anyone wanting a foundational understanding of the nation's past, and its present.

Product details

• Authors: Louis Masur, Louis (Distinguished Professor of American Masur, Louis (Distinguished Professor of American Studies and History Masur, Louis P. Masur
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 30.09.2020
• EAN: 9780190692575
• ISBN: 978-0-19-069257-5
• No. of pages: 368
• Dimensions: 165 mm x 245 mm x 28 mm
• Subjects: Non-fiction book > History > Miscellaneous; Vietnam, First World War, HISTORY / United States / 19th Century, HISTORY / United States / Revolutionary Period (1775-1800), Second World War, Later 20th century c 1950 to c 1999, United States of America, USA, c 1910 to c 1919, History of the Americas, Civil rights & citizenship, Modern warfare, c 1940 to c 1949, Military history: post-WW2 conflicts, Specific wars and campaigns, The Cold War, Civics and citizenship, Vietnam War, c 1860 to c 1869, Cold wars and proxy conflicts, Civil wars, American Civil War