American Visions

The United States, 1800-1860

Edward L. Ayers (University of Richmond)

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English

Norton
15 October 2024

History

With so many of our histories falling into dour critique or blatant celebration, here is a welcome departure: a book that offers hope as well as honesty about the American past. The early decades of the nineteenth century saw the expansion of slavery, Native dispossession, and wars with Canada and Mexico. Mass immigration and powerful religious movements sent tremors through American society. But even as the powerful defended the status quo, others defied it: voices from the margins moved the center; eccentric visions altered the accepted wisdom, and acts of empathy questioned self-interest. Edward L. Ayers's rich history examines the visions that moved Frederick Douglass, Margaret Fuller, the Native American activist William Apess, and others to challenge entrenched practices and beliefs. So, Lydia Maria Child condemned the racism of her fellow northerners at great personal cost. Melville and Thoreau, Joseph Smith and Samuel Morse all charted new paths for America in the realms of art, nature, belief, and technology. It was Henry David Thoreau who, speaking of John Brown, challenged a hostile crowd ""Is it not possible that an individual may be right and a government wrong?""

Through decades of award-winning scholarship on the Civil War, Edward L. Ayers has himself ventured beyond the interpretative status quo to recover the range of possibilities embedded in the past as it was lived. Here he turns that distinctive historical sensibility to a period when bold visionaries and critics built vigorous traditions of dissent and innovation into the foundation of the nation. Those traditions remain alive for us today.

By: Edward L. Ayers (University of Richmond)
Imprint: Norton
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 211mm, Width: 140mm, Spine: 23mm
Weight: 305g
ISBN: 9781324086307
ISBN 10: 1324086300
Pages: 368
Publication Date: 15 October 2024
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Edward L. Ayers, a recipient of the National Humanities Medal, has won the Bancroft and Lincoln Prizes for his innovative histories of Civil War America. He is president emeritus of the University of Richmond, where he is executive director of New American History.

Reviews for American Visions: The United States, 1800-1860

"""An inspiring book…American Visions beautifully shows how remarkably resilient dreams of a better republic remained even in the darkest of times."" -- Christoph Irmscher - The Wall Street Journal ""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."" ""Edward Ayers is a rare and distinctively gifted American historian…American Visions does not wallow in our national sins even as it vividly reveals them; it does not celebrate except to help us see how so many different kinds of Americans had their"" -- David W. Blight, author of Frederick Douglass ""Within the pandora’s 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, American Visions reveals many alluring futures for our embattled republ"" -- Alan Taylor, author of American Republics ""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.’ …American Visions aligns well with this mission, and teachers looki"" -- Paula Tarnapol Whitacre - Washington Independent Review of Books"