Seizing Destiny

Editorial Reviews. From Publishers Weekly. In an admirable and important addition to his Seizing Destiny - Kindle edition by Richard Kluger. Download it once.
Table of contents

• Seizing Destiny
• The Relentless Expansion of American Territory
• SEIZING DESTINY by Richard Kluger | Kirkus Reviews

It is also often too dense to be of much interest for the average reader of American history. However, it is a clearly written, even passionate, condemnation of the ruthless rapacity that helped make the United States a continental nation and a global superpower. Seizing Destiny ends shortly after Roosevelt's acquisition of the Panama Canal. Kluger's last few pages attempt a brief analysis of the impact that such great territorial expansion has had on American history.

He comes to the easy conclusion that the poverty and inequality of modern America is the result of the arrogance and entitlement of centuries of easy conquest. A relentless editor and a chapter that tied this long and sordid story to the great themes of American history—like he accomplished in his books on civil rights and the tobacco industry—would have made this very good book even better.

Austin State UniversityJeff Bremer If you would like to authenticate using a different subscribed institution that supports Shibboleth authentication or have your own login and password to Project MUSE, click 'Authenticate'. View freely available titles: Book titles OR Journal titles.

Project MUSE promotes the creation and dissemination of essential humanities and social science resources through collaboration with libraries, publishers, and scholars worldwide. Forged from a partnership between a university press and a library, Project MUSE is a trusted part of the academic and scholarly community it serves. Built on the Johns Hopkins University Campus. This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. Without cookies your experience may not be seamless.

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Rent from DeepDyve Recommend. Project MUSE Mission Project MUSE promotes the creation and dissemination of essential humanities and social science resources through collaboration with libraries, publishers, and scholars worldwide. Contact Contact Us Help. There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Kindle Edition Verified Purchase. Kluger tells many good stories about westward expansion, from colonial beginnings to, say, the Panama Canal, and his accounts of diplomatic to-and-fro, whether about the Louisiana Purchase or the treaty ending the Mexican War, provide many lessons in statecraft. But there's little reach for historical objectivity, at least when he comes to the thoughts and actions of American politicians. Whereas a Napoleon or Tallyrand behaves the way rulers and their ministers "normally" do, a Jackson, Polk or Teddy Roosevelt is marked by some kind of original American sin.

So, evidently, is George W. Kluger never misses an opportunity to condemn him as a seizer of destiny--or rather a seizer of a destiny he's allegedly made up, since "destiny" as such doesn't exist. Still, if one can bracket such authorial embroidery, one can learn a great deal about certain chapters in American history from this fluidly written book. A word about the Kindle edition: It fails to search-and-find across chapters, or even within chapters.

The maps do not show. And there's no index. So if you own the hardcopy, you may want to keep it for the sake of the maps and index.

At times I did end up skipping over some of the more detailed accounts of the specific land parcels. I'm not American and my geography isn't the best so I could have done with clearer diagrams Kindle version.

The Relentless Expansion of American Territory

Don't be put off by the negative and tepid reviews; this is an exceptionally informative and entertaining book. I usually don't care for histories written by novelists the great Shelby Foote excepted ; however, this is a beautifully written account of our country's expansion. The author has the ability to encapsulate events and personalities concisely, deftly and elegantly. Best of all, his perspective is that of a disinterested party - not the chauvinistic pap that we all had to endure in public school text books.

This is not to say that he has written a preachy screed from the Howard Zinn school of victim-history.

His assessments are witty and yet balanced. There are no cartoonish heros or villains here, just complex people working for their own ends. Do yourself a favor and expand the "All editorial reviews".

You will find therein not only very favorable comments from Joseph Ellis, David Kennedy, Dan Carter and others, but also a brief snippet from the book. This book may let too much light in. I'm an historian of the early American era and I found Mr. Kluger's book to be an indispensable addition to my personal library. Concise, well-researched and well-written, the author explains the political and cultural forces at work behind the scenes with the various nations and native peoples that resulted in the United States expansion from 13 Atlantic seaboard colonies to a continental colossus.

That said, I can see why some of the other reviewers deride this book for its author's politically-liberal interpretation of events--Kluger IS guilty of emphasizing all the worst motives to US expansion. Still, I gave it 5 stars because he does such a great job of detailing the actual historical events, and dissecting the politics driving those events.

And while he's definitely guilty of violating the historian's first rule You can't judge people in the past by the standards of today , in his defense there is also a lot of truth in his accusations. Take the author's conclusions with a grain of salt, and this is a tremendously informative and enlightening book. After reading Seizing Destiny by Richard Kluger, I've revised my definition of Manifest Destiny and our nation's success in achieving it. Three cheers for Kluger for writing an interesting and educational story about the construction of our nation's borders.

Kluger assessed these milestone events with his own overview of each, plus a few others that don't necessarily roll off the tongue: There were some really good stories about the 18th century United States that you don't hear often, particularly three about how the earliest states - aside from the original thirteen colonies -.

There are also some good stories about the men who negotiated treaties for America. Over the years, I've walked into John Jay College on 10th Avenue and 58th Street and seen the big picture of the school's namesake in the lobby. Never had I realized his role in negotiating the Treaty of Paris that concluded the Revolutionary War.

Some other reviewers have discussed the author's penchant for making modern Americans feel guilty and remorseful for the faults of past generations. I also have no desire to feel guilty about the past misdeeds of our forefathers. Yet, the warnings helped prepare me for the way the author told his story, and thus, mitigated the impact of these admonitions.

For example, our nation's treatment toward Native Americans who weren't actually natives, but migrants from Asia was more of a knee-jerk reaction than anything else. Their history of picking allies rivals that of Cub fans: Their atrocities, and their wars, inspired our reaction. Spain didn't have more than a foot in the door in California and New Mexico, with little inclination to use the land. Mexico chose to do little with these lands as well, and they lost Texas through their own negligence.

Overall, his opinions are a small part of the book, which is a wonderful account of the expansion of America. It really is a top notch educational piece that was as fun to read as its author's views were to curse. See all 14 reviews. Most recent customer reviews. Published on June 21, Published on May 12, Published on February 17, Published on October 18, Published on February 20, Published on December 18, Published on November 19, Published on October 15, Customers who bought this item also bought.

Filibustering in Antebellum America. Race and Manifest Destiny: Origins of American Racial Anglo-Saxonism. Mexico views manifest destiny, An essay on the origins of the Mexican War. There's a problem loading this menu right now. Get fast, free shipping with Amazon Prime. Your recently viewed items and featured recommendations.