The American Future: A History
by Simon Schama

In November 2008 the United States will elect a new President. But the imminent collapse of twenty years of Republican conservativism means the country is already conducting an intense self-examination about the trajectory of its history; how it came to find itself in multiple crises and how an America that began as ‘the last, best hope of earth’ came to be so suspected and vilified around much of the world.* The American Future: A History, written by an author who has spent half his life there, takes the long view of how the United States has come to this anguished moment of truth about its own identity as a nation and its place in the world. * In each of the chapters devoted to the most compelling issues facing Americans now – the projection of power (“American war”) ; race, immigration and the problematic promise of e pluribus unum (“American skin”); the intensity of religious conviction in public life (“American fervour”) ; the mystique of American land and its battles with the imperatives of profit ('American Plenty'- Schama traces the deep history of the present crisis. * Cumulatively the chapters build into a history of American exceptionalism – the ‘American difference’ that means so much to its people but which has led it into calamities as well as triumphs. * The American Future: A History argues that if you want to know what is truly at stake, you need to absorb these stories and understand this history – for understanding is the condition of hope.

Reviews

Schama has a masterly ability to conjure up character and vivify conflict.
Ben Rogers (Financial Times)

He remains a master storyteller, admirably and sceptically well read in current revisionist histories.
 (The Times)

Simon Schama is many things: widely ranging historian, art critic, public intellectual, television don… This ragged, brilliant, hopscotching volume of vaguely connected essays is largely about America’s myth of its own exceptionalism
 (The Guardian)

The master storyteller takes on the greatest story of our time, America … Britain’s foremost historian comes to a greater understanding of its present and future. Essential reading
Sebastian Shakespeare (Tatler)

Schama remains the subtlest of story-tellers… fans of Schama will wish the book were twice as long… What makes this book so bracing is the way Schama shows how unlike itself America has become
Tom Payne (Daily Telegraph)

A superb achievement…Schama has a gift for fluid prose that allows one to breeze through the book at a remarkable clip…engaging and informative
Civilian Reader (Civilian Reader)

Subtle and richly textured.
Peter Wilby (New Statesman)

The history book that gave me the most pleasure this year…this extraordinary essay also set the scene better than anything else published for Barack Obama’s election as president.
Christian Tyler (FT)