Reviews
"What Hath God Wrought is a feat worth applauding no matter what omissions will occur to every specialist in any facet of early national America." --Scott E. Casper, Reviews in American History, "In the latest installment in the Oxford History of the United States series, historian Howe...stylishly narrates a crucial period in U.S. history--a time of territorial growth, religious revival, booming industrialization, a recalibrating of American democracy and the rise of nationalistsentiment.... Supported by engaging prose, Howe's achievement will surely be seen as one of the most outstanding syntheses of U.S. history published this decade."--Publishers Weekly starred review, "In the latest installment in the Oxford History of the United States series, historian Howe...stylishly narrates a crucial period in U.S. history--a time of territorial growth, religious revival, booming industrialization, a recalibrating of American democracy and the rise of nationalistsentiment.... Supported by engaging prose, Howe's achievement will surely be seen as one of the most outstanding syntheses of U.S history published this decade." --Publishers Weekly starred review, "Daniel Walker Howe has produced a hefty and invaluable volume on a slice of history about which the average American knows very little... He has written a marvelous book that lay readers, professional historians, hard-pressed teachers, and willing students can all read with profit andpleasure... Breadth and scope alone make this a work of great value... What Hath God Wrought immediately becomes the book to read on the period. It is unfailingly informative, interesting, and enlightening. Reviewer's cliches such as 'masterful synthesis' and 'monumental achievement' are too oftentrotted out, but Howe's work deserves these encomiums and more. Like all great works of history, this book makes readers think more deeply about their own values as well as their views of both past and present." --The Georgia Historical Quarterly, "The period between the end of the War of 1812 and the end of the Mexican-American War in 1848 is one of the most important in American history and, these days, one of the most neglected...Yet as Daniel Walker Howe makes plain in this exemplary addition to the Oxford History of the UnitedStates, this was the time when the United States was transformed by a series of revolutions...Howe brings an impressive array of strengths to the daunting task of encapsulating these busy, complicated three-plus decades within a single (admittedly, very long) volume...he grasps the meaning as wellas the details of developments and events. He has a fine eye for telling detail...he is a genuine rarity...extraordinary." --Washington Post Book World, "One of the best lessons offered by Howe's book comes in his refusal to view the period of 1815 to 1848 in anything other than its own terms. He never reduces the early part of the book to an analysis of how developments succeeded or failed the hopes of the 'founders.' Nor does he ever treatpolitical and social developments as though they launched the United States on a high road to the Civil War.... Precisely because of this clear-eyed vision of the antebellum period, Civil War historians will want to take a fresh look back at Howe's picture of the United States in a constant state ofchange." --Sarah J. Purcell, Civil War Book Review, "Howe has written a stunning synthesis of work in economic, political, demographic, social and cultural history, and he gives a fascinating, richly detailed portrait of the U.S. as its very boundaries so dramatically and often violently shifted...it is a rare thing to encounter a book somagisterial and judicious and also so compelling; it is a great achievement and deserves many readers beyond the academy." --Chicago Tribune, "What Daniel Walker Howe hath wrought is a wonderfully mind-opening interpretation of America on the cusp of modernity and might."--George F. Will, National Review Online "What Hath God Wrought is the dazzling culmination of the author's lifetime of distinguished scholarship.... The sustained quality of Howe's prose makes it even harder to put down a volume whose sheer weight makes it hard to pick up.... What Hath God Wrought lays powerful claim to being the best work ever written on this period of the American past."--Richard Carwardine, The Journal of Southern History "Howe knows his era as well as any historian living, and he generously instructs his readers with detailed expertise and crisp generalizations."--John Lauritz Larson, The Journal of American History "What Hath God Wrought is a feat worth applauding no matter what omissions will occur to every specialist in any facet of early national America."--Scott E. Casper, Reviews in American History "Howe is a skillful storyteller who knows how to choose relevant anecdotes and revealing quotations. Both general readers and professional historians can benefit from the book. It can be read with pleasure from cover to cover."--Thomas Tandy Lewis, Magill's Literary Annual "One of the best lessons offered by Howe's book comes in his refusal to view the period of 1815 to 1848 in anything other than its own terms. He never reduces the early part of the book to an analysis of how developments succeeded or failed the hopes of the 'founders.' Nor does he ever treat political and social developments as though they launched the United States on a high road to the Civil War.... Precisely because of this clear-eyed vision of the antebellum period, Civil War historians will want to take a fresh look back at howe's picture of the United States in a constant state of change."--Sarah J. Purcell, Civil War Book Review "I like to have a heavy tome to calm me down at the end of the day. This is almost as big as a pathology book, but really well written."--Robin Cook "A comprehensive, richly detailed, and elegantly written account of the republic between the War of 1812 and the American victory in Mexico a generation later...a masterpiece."--The Atlantic "How's Pulitzer Prize-winning addition to the mulitvolume Oxford History of the United States is excellent in many ways, not least in the full attention it gives to the religious dynamics of American history in this period.... a very satisfying read."--The Christian Century "Exemplary addition to the Oxford History of the United States... He is a genuine rarity...extraordinary."--Washington Post Book World "One of the most outstanding syntheses of U.S. history published this decade."--Publishers Weekley starred review "What Hath God Wrought is both a capacious narrative of a tumultuous era in American history and a heroic attempt at synthesizing a century and a half of historical writing about Jacksonian democracy, antebellum reform, and American expansion."--The New Yorker "This extraordinary contribution to the Oxford History of the United States series is a great accomplishment by one of the United States' most distinguished historians.... It is, in short, everything a work of historical scholarship should be."--Foreign Affairs "The book is a sweeping and monumental achievement that no student of American history should let go unread. Attentive to historiography yet writing accessible and engaging prose, Howe has produced the perfect introduction or reintroduction to an enormously important period in American national development."--American Heritage "The best book on Jackson today."--Gordon Wood, Salt Lake Deseret Morning News "Howe's book is the most comprehensive and persuasive modern account of America in what we might prefer hereafter to call the Age of Clay. It should be the standard work on the subject for many years to come."--American Nineteenth Century History, "A comprehensive, richly detailed, and elegantly written account of the republic between the War of 1812 and the American victory in Mexico a generation later...a masterpiece." --The Atlantic, "I like to have a heavy tome to calm me down at the end of the day. This is almost as big as a pathology book, but really well written." --Robin Cook, "What Hath God Wrought is the dazzling culmination of the author's lifetime of distinguished scholarship.... The sustained quality of Howe's prose makes it even harder to put down a volume whose sheer weight makes it hard to pick up.... What Hath God Wrought lays powerful claim to being the best work ever written on this period of the American past."--Richard Carwardine, The Journal of Southern History "Howe knows his era as well as any historian living, and he generously instructs his readers with detailed expertise and crisp generalizations."--John Lauritz Larson, The Journal of American History "What Hath God Wrought is a feat worth applauding no matter what omissions will occur to every specialist in any facet of early national America."--Scott E. Casper, Reviews in American History "Howe is a skillful storyteller who knows how to choose relevant anecdotes and revealing quotations. Both general readers and professional historians can benefit from the book. It can be read with pleasure from cover to cover."--Thomas Tandy Lewis, Magill's Literary Annual "One of the best lessons offered by Howe's book comes in his refusal to view the period of 1815 to 1848 in anything other than its own terms. He never reduces the early part of the book to an analysis of how developments succeeded or failed the hopes of the 'founders.' Nor does he ever treat political and social developments as though they launched the United States on a high road to the Civil War.... Precisely because of this clear-eyed vision of the antebellum period, Civil War historians will want to take a fresh look back at howe's picture of the United States in a constant state of change."--Sarah J. Purcell, Civil War Book Review "I like to have a heavy tome to calm me down at the end of the day. This is almost as big as a pathology book, but really well written."--Robin Cook "A comprehensive, richly detailed, and elegantly written account of the republic between the War of 1812 and the American victory in Mexico a generation later...a masterpiece."--The Atlantic "How's Pulitzer Prize-winning addition to the mulitvolume Oxford History of the United States is excellent in many ways, not least in the full attention it gives to the religious dynamics of American history in this period.... a very satisfying read."--The Christian Century "Exemplary addition to the Oxford History of the United States... He is a genuine rarity...extraordinary."--Washington Post Book World "One of the most outstanding syntheses of U.S. history published this decade."--Publishers Weekley starred review "What Hath God Wrought is both a capacious narrative of a tumultuous era in American history and a heroic attempt at synthesizing a century and a half of historical writing about Jacksonian democracy, antebellum reform, and American expansion."--The New Yorker "This extraordinary contribution to the Oxford History of the United States series is a great accomplishment by one of the United States' most distinguished historians.... It is, in short, everything a work of historical scholarship should be."--Foreign Affairs "The book is a sweeping and monumental achievement that no student of American history should let go unread. Attentive to historiography yet writing accessible and engaging prose, Howe has produced the perfect introduction or reintroduction to an enormously important period in American national development."--American Heritage "The best book on Jackson today."--Gordon Wood, Salt Lake Deseret Morning News "Howe's book is the most comprehensive and persuasive modern account of America in what we might prefer hereafter to call the Age of Clay. It should be the standard work on the subject for many years to come."--American Nineteenth Century History
