Fighting for America

Jeremy Black is Professor of History at the University of Exeter. He is author of more than 100 books including War and Technology (IUP, 2013). Black received the Samuel Eliot Morison Prize from the Society for Military History in 2008.

"This fascinating book describes the 300-plus year history of North America, from the landing of the first Spanish explorers until 1871, when American businessmen and politicians finally succeeded in stretching the national border from the Atlantic to the Pacific with the completion of the transcontinental railroad."—Military Heritage"A refreshing take on Manifest Destiny. . . . American (and Canadian) readers will learn a lot of new things and be led into new ways of viewing old ones. An important contribution."—Walter Nugent, author of Into the West: The Story of Its People

• Preface and AcknowledgmentsList of AbbreviationsIntroduction1. Sixteenth-Century Background2. Creating New Frontiers, 1600-743. Britain, France and the Natives, 1674-17154. Multiple Currents, 1715-535. War for Dominance, 1754-646. Britain Triumphant to America Independent, 1765-767. Britain Defeated, 1775-838. Flexing Muscles, 1783-18119. Florida, But Not Canada: From the War of 1812 to the Monroe Doctrine, 1812-182310. Expansionism and its Problems, 1823-4311. From the Oregon Question to the Gadsden Purchase, 1844-5312. A Great Power in the Making? America, 1853-6113. America Divided, 1861-6314. Winning the War, 1863-515. Settling the North American Question, 1865-7116. Postscript, 1871-2010ConclusionsNotesIndex