'An original and outstanding new history of the New World... Magisterial' Spectator
'An extraordinarily ambitious book . . . America, America reads at times as the historical equivalent of the great epic novels of Gabriel Garcia Marquez' Irish Times
THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER, SHORTLISTED FOR THE CUNDILL HISTORY PRIZE
The first definitive history of the Western hemisphere, a sweeping five-century narrative of North and South America that redefines our understanding of both continents - perfect for readers of How the World Made the West.
The story of the United States' unique sense of itself was forged facing south - no less than Latin America's was indelibly stamped by the looming colossus to the north.
In this stunningly original reinterpretation of the New World, Professor Greg Grandin reveals how the Americas emerged from constant, turbulent engagement with each other, shedding new light on well-known historical figures like Bartolome de las Casas, Simon Bolivar and Woodrow Wilson, as well as lesser-known actors such as the Venezuelan Francisco de Miranda, who almost lost his head in the French Revolution and conspired with Alexander Hamilton to free America from Spain.
America, America traverses half a millennium, from the Spanish Conquest - the greatest mortality event in human history - through the eighteenth-century wars for independence and the Monroe Doctrine, to the coups and revolutions of the twentieth century. This monumental work of scholarship fundamentally changes our understanding of Spanish and English colonialism, slavery and racism, the rise of universal humanism, and the role of social democracy in staving off authoritarian impulses.
At once comprehensive and accessible, America, America shows how the United States and Latin America together shaped the laws, institutions, and ideals that govern the modern world. Drawing on a vast array of sources, and told with authority and flair, this is a genuinely new history of the New World.
'Compelling and written with zest...Don't be surprised if he wins another Pulitzer' Financial Times
'Dazzling. Mind-altering. World-changing. A once-in-a-generation contribution' NAOMI KLEIN
'Sweeping and provocative... groundbreaking' AMITAV GHOSH
'Will transform your understanding of the modern world' JONATHAN KENNEDY
'Masterful and erudite yet absolutely riveting' ADA FERRER
'A major and desperately needed synthesis of the Americas' NED BLACKHAWK
'An awe-inspiring masterpiece' SAMUEL MOYN
* Professor Greg Grandin won the Pulitzer Prize for Non-fiction in 2020 with his book The End of the Myth. America, America has been shortlisted for the Cundill History Prize and is a finalist for the Kirkus Prize.
Rezensionen / Stimmen
Compelling and written with zest...Don't be surprised if he wins another Pulitzer * Financial Times * An original and outstanding new history of the New World... What emerges is a vital portrait of a New World in which, despite numerous differences, the relationship between North and South has always been symbiotic... Magisterial. -- Andreas Campomar * Spectator * One of the best historians today at writing for both scholars and the general public. This is an extraordinarily ambitious book... America, America reads at times as the historical equivalent of the great epic novels of Gabriel Garcia Marquez. * Irish Times * Dazzling. Sweeping. Mind-altering. World-changing. This is a once-in-a-generation contribution destined to become our new reference for understanding the making of the modern world. With extraordinary depth, erudition and precision, Grandin avenges the dead and fights for the living. -- Naomi Klein, bestselling author of Doppelganger As a history of the rise and fall of US support for a rules-based international order, America, America is a must read for our challenging times * History Today * A fascinating, insightful book that will transform your understanding of Latin America's crucial role in the rise of the United States and the making of the modern world. -- Jonathan Kennedy, author of Pathogenesis In this sweeping and provocative work, Greg Grandin provides a groundbreaking reinterpretation of the intertwined histories of the two Americas, foregrounding Latin American resistance to the hegemony of the United States. This is a compelling new vision of the relationship between the two continents. -- Amitav Ghosh, author of the bestselling Ibis Trilogy and Smoke and Ashes In America, America, Greg Grandin advances an urgent vision of the relational history of the Western hemisphere. Adding to his already extraordinary corpus of works and reinterpreting five centuries in broad and beautiful strokes, it ends with a chilling conclusion about the diplomatic and moral failures of our current politics and its return to unilateralism and deliberate misunderstandings of the past. A major and desperately needed synthesis of the Americas and the making of modernity. -- Ned Blackhawk, author of National Book Award-winning The Rediscovery of America America, America is the best kind of book: masterful and erudite yet absolutely riveting. By considering the long, sweeping story of Latin America and the United States in the same frame, acclaimed historian Greg Grandin has given us a novel and necessary understanding of a deeply entwined history that is sure to surprise readers, not least because he shows convincingly and urgently how a different past-and with it a different, better present-might have been possible. -- Ada Ferrer, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Cuba: An American History Here is American history told as it never has been told before, full of staggering violence and loss, unforgettable villains and heroes, and the courageous endurance of the poor multitudes, so many sources of inspiration. Beautifully written, this brilliantly researched and reasoned book helps account for the sorry state of the present while offering historical lessons on how we might reach a better future." -- Francisco Goldman, author of Pulitzer Prize finalist Monkey Boy In his awe-inspiring masterpiece, Greg Grandin shows how hemispheric relationships have defined the history of the United States for five centuries. Latin Americans did more than decry our failures to live up to the new world's revolutionary ideals. As our country ascended to hegemon in the last century, our neighbors pushed-in part because of their unequal might and wealth-for the reimagination of how the globe itself ought to be governed. -- Samuel Moyn, author of Liberalism Against Itself Scintillating . . . It's a monumental new view of the New World. * Publishers Weekly (starred review) * A passionate plea for a re-evaluation of the place of Spanish America... written with great flair and imagination, scattered with scintillating turns of phrase...as Grandin brilliantly shows, the USA still has much to learn from its neighbours in the south. -- Anthony Pagden * Literary Review * This long-overdue volume by prizewinning scholar and Yale professor Grandin shows that Latin America's formation and founders are not only important but crucial to the understanding of America overall. Covering 500 years and events from conquests to wars to racism, America, America should be required reading in those history classes. * New York Times * Grandin makes a compelling case for the intricate connections tying the United States to its southern neighbors... in bright, fluid prose. * Foreign Affairs * A groundbreaking 500 year history that shows how the United States' identity and historical self-understanding are inseparable from those of Latin America. * The Nation * Brilliant and urgently needed... America, America pursues its course across the centuries with verve, superb pacing, and impressive delicacy of touch. * LA Review of Books * A sweeping, magisterial analysis of 300 years of conflicting geopolitical understandings of sovereignty that have defined Anglo-American and Spanish American relations . . . The relevance of this history cannot be overemphasized. * Science * It is... truly a daunting task to write a substantive history of half a millennium, but Grandin has undeniably risen to the challenge... Grandin is a master of the condensed narrative, able to convey an often complex picture in a few pithy sentences... The book is both as stimulating as it is provocative. * International Affairs * Grandin makes a persuasive case . . . If The End of the Myth helped make sense of the first Trump Administration, America, America sheds light on the expansionist ambitions Trump has voiced during his second term . . . Grandin suggests that historical struggles for social democracy across Latin America might serve as a model for a social-democratic movement of the future. * New Yorker *
Greg Grandin is the author of The End of the Myth, which won the Pulitzer Prize; The Empire of Necessity, which won both the Bancroft and Beveridge Prizes in American history; and Fordlandia, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer, the National Book Award, and the National Book Critics Circle Award; and a number of other widely acclaimed books. He is C. Van Woodward Professor of History at Yale University.
