A History Of The United States

by Cecil Chesterton, D.W. Brogan (Editor)

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

400 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1919

About the author

Cecil Edward Chesterton (12 November 1879 – 6 December 1918) was an English journalist and political commentator.

Reviews

[Abby · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is interesting as it is written from a different perspective than quite possibly any other American history book I’ve read.
The author, not unlike his brother G.K.Chesterton, is a very eloquent person who avowedly was not intending to write a comprehensive history of the USA (and indeed the book isn’t exhaustive, but is rather a “short sketch” of the presidential history of these United States from its founding until The Great War when it was published). Not the sort of book one would expect a gentleman-soldier to write, especially a British one (but Cecil Chesterton differs from Churchill’s writing style in that he does not write with the explicit bias of British superiority, however there is definitely racist undertones throughout regarding black peoples and the last chapter of the book is EXTREMELY racist against Chinese peoples and Jews -granted anti-semitism was common at the time along with the anti-Asian policies but none of that makes it ok).
A point of contention with the publisher is that this re-print is missing the introduction, preface and index (plus some typos) as well as misleading potential readers by saying it’s a comprehensive history of the topic. Thankfully Project Gutenberg has the full version https://www.mirrorservice.org/sites/f... so one can read the missing parts and see that the author cites the general sources (speeches and writings of the men discussed) of his information as well as explaining a bit of how the book came to be.

[Rebekah · Rating 4 out of 5]

How can an author create an ensemble of their informed account of historical “facts” be quite so, moving? Maybe because the subject material is as poignant today as it was all those years ago. As much as the American constitution is a very contentious piece of legislation (which is at the crux of this book) I now better see that it needs to be in order to address and represent ALL of its peoples. And by extension, the “free” world. A deeply important and relevant book- well anthology really, with enough breadth and depth of information and representation to enlighten the modern *and* future reader.

[Cari · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting perspective of US History told from a British author's view. I liked that he started out talking about US history in the achievements of the Presidents. As he got closer to his own time, the book changed from a history to an essay with the events highly influenced by his prejudices. The book ends shortly after the Civil War. A good way to remember presidential achievements up until Lincoln. Then the author stops reporting history and starts to opine.

[Nathan Albright · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although I am more familiar with the writings and thinking of the author's brother, this particular book is a considerable achievement as a history of the United States from the point of view of a sympathetic English Catholic observer whose political worldview is close to that of Lincoln and Douglas and pitched at those populist commoners who would have voted for Jackson and who mistrust visionary reformers and drastic social change.  Finding a book like this written in the contemporary age would be extremely rare because the author is neither a lost cause revisionist nor someone who is enamored of the power of activists and governments to encourage and foster progressive ideals.  Quite frankly, this book would be considered in poor taste by contemporary standards, as the author forthrightly discusses his fears about the influence of leftist and cosmopolitan Jews in American society and states the belief that freed blacks were not fit for civil rights in the Reconstruction period.  These are not opinions that would be welcome in contemporary historiography, but by and large the author is quite insightful about the American political experience and this work is certainly one that is aimed at mainstream white audiences of the time, and perhaps to some extent even today.

In terms of its contents, this book is about 250 pages or so and is divided into eleven chapters that cover the period from the founding of the English colonies on the Atlantic Seaboard to the period after reconstruction with very short comments about World War I and a prescient discussion of Germany as an atheist and inhumane regime that appears to be a prophetic look at World War II and its horrors, which is all the more striking since the author himself died in World War I fighting for the British.  Beginning with a discussion of the colonies (1) and the struggle for independence (2), the author turns to the development of the U.S. Constitution and its appeal to the people (3) as well as the mantle of Washington that created a good deal of stability in the early republic (4).  After that the author explores the political power of the Virginia dynasty (5) as well as the age of Jackson (6), in which the author shows himself to be generally sympathetic to Jackson as a populist leader.  This leads to a discussion of the Mexican War (7) and its aftermath as well as the slavery question that roiled the United States during the 1850's (8).  A chapter is then take up with secession and the Civil War where the author shows himself sympathetic with Lincoln's more moderate tendencies (9), after which there is a distinctly negative view of Reconstruction (10) and a forthright discussion of the problems of immigration and industrialization (11), after which the book ends with an index.

This book is a singular effort, at least that I have seen, in that it is perhaps the first example I have seen of a serious history of the United States that is written from the populist perspective.  For all of the praise of Zinn's People's History of the United States, this book far better represents the hopes and fears as well as the struggles and achievements of American democracy during the period before World War I and especially in the 18th and 19th centuries.  To be sure, this book does not always speak positive things about such populist views, but it is an honest and sincere attempt on the part of a sympathetic outsider to examine America's politics and to reflect upon how it is that a nation can seek to preserve its liberty from corrupt and unaccountable elites that are always trying to gain power through one means or another.  If you want to understand the sort of mindset towards American history that would be held by a great many of those who are right of center but by no means extremist, this book provides an insightful look at a conservative populist account of America's early history, and it is an account worth reading and pondering over.

[christopher Bunce · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was pretty good...but it lacked sources; plus I wanted to know where the writer obtained his information.

This book needs to have sources...what kind of historical book doesn't have sources? Otherwise this book was well written- fun and short read.

[Matt Blum · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this quite interesting and easy to read.