Adam Burns - Böcker

This four-volume collection brings together a diverse array of primary sources that help contextualise the impacts of American imperialism across the long nineteenth century. These fascinating volumes chart the motivations for, and reactions to, the growth of the United States from the American Revolution to the end of the First World War. Accompanied by extensive editorial commentary, the collection provides a valuable resource for those seeking to explore the causes, course, and consequences of US imperialism from 1775 to 1919.

This volume navigates the course of US imperialism between two major wars – the Mexican-American War (1846–1848) and the Spanish-American War (1898) – both of which saw significant US territorial expansion. However, these conflicts alone do not tell the whole story. Alongside the territorial acquisitions that followed the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848) this volume’s sections also explore the so-called “winning of the West,” the controversial Alaska Purchase of 1867, early US intrigue in the Caribbean, and the nation’s expansion into the Pacific in the years leading up to the formal annexation of the Hawaiian Islands in 1898. This volume shows clearly that US expansion and imperialism took on a wide variety of guises in the second half of the nineteenth century, making even formal territorial expansion very difficult to characterise. The varied first-hand perspectives provided here also make it clear that the nature and purpose of “American imperialism” was always very much in the eye of the beholder.

The United States, 1865–1920: Reuniting a Nation explores how the U.S. attempted to heal Civil War-era divisions, as well as maintain and strengthen its unity as new rifts developed in the conflict’s aftermath.Taking a broadly thematic approach to the period, Adam Burns examines the development of the United States from political, social, and foreign relations perspectives. Concise and accessible, the volume uses a variety of primary source documents to help stimulate discussion and encourage the use of historical evidence as support for different interpretations of the era.By exploring controversies over issues such as citizenship, ethnicity, regionalism, and economic disparity, all of which resonate strongly in the nation’s political discourse today, the book will be an important staple for undergraduate students of American History and the period that followed the Civil War, as well as general enthusiasts.

The United States, 1865–1920: Reuniting a Nation explores how the U.S. attempted to heal Civil War-era divisions, as well as maintain and strengthen its unity as new rifts developed in the conflict’s aftermath.Taking a broadly thematic approach to the period, Adam Burns examines the development of the United States from political, social, and foreign relations perspectives. Concise and accessible, the volume uses a variety of primary source documents to help stimulate discussion and encourage the use of historical evidence as support for different interpretations of the era.By exploring controversies over issues such as citizenship, ethnicity, regionalism, and economic disparity, all of which resonate strongly in the nation’s political discourse today, the book will be an important staple for undergraduate students of American History and the period that followed the Civil War, as well as general enthusiasts.

Explores the relationship between US presidents, sport and athleticism in the twentieth and twenty-first centuriesOffers an up-to-date overview of the developing and symbiotic relationship between the nation's Commander in Chief and some of the nation's most popular pastimesTraces the connection of sports and the presidency from Theodore Roosevelt to Donald TrumpAnalyses the relationship between the presidency, sports, and individual athletes, including themes such as fandom, advocacy of sports, and active participationIncludes exciting new research from emerging scholars, alongside analysis from more established voices in the fieldThis book presents an overview of the symbiotic relationship between US presidents and some of the nation's most popular pastimes. Starting with Theodore Roosevelt's significant role in linking the presidency with advocacy of and active participation in sports, this book traces how occupants of the White House continued to develop these connections in various guises across the following century for both pleasure and political purposes.Split into three thematic sections, the book approaches the topic from different but related angles to create a multidimensional portrait of the evolving relationship among the US presidency, sports and individual athletes, from the dawn of the twentieth century through to the Trump administration.

Donald Trump's love of golf adds him to a long line of presidents who have a close association with sports. Indeed, golf might just be the leading presidential pastime, ever since William Howard Taft was photographed strutting the links against the advice of his predecessor Theodore Roosevelt. And it was Roosevelt, more than any president, who set the standard for linking the nation's top job to its favourite physical pastimes. Starting with Roosevelt's significant role in linking the presidency with fandom, advocacy of, and active participation in sports, this volume traces how occupants of the White House continued to develop these connections in various guises across the following century. Though historians have certainly not ignored such associations, the variety of case studies represented here provides a wider and more multidisciplinary selection of standpoints from which to assess the interactions between sports and the presidency than ever before.

Provides a critical re-evaluation of US territorial expansionism and imperialism from 1783 to the presentThe United States has been described by many of its foreign and domestic critics as an “empire”. Providing a wide-ranging analysis of the United States as a territorial, imperial power from its foundation to the present day, this book explores the United States’ acquisition or long-term occupation of territories through a chronological perspective.  It begins by exploring early continental expansion, such as the purchase of the Louisiana Territory from Napoleon Bonaparte in 1803, and traces US imperialism through to the controversial ongoing presence of US forces at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. The book provides fresh insights into the history of US territorial expansion and imperialism, bringing together more well-known instances (such as the purchase of Alaska) with those less-frequently discussed (such as the acquisition of the Guano Islands after 1856). The volume considers key historical debates, controversies and turning points, providing a historiographically-grounded re-evaluation of US expansion from 1783 to the present day.Key FeaturesProvides case studies of different examples of US territorial expansion/imperialism, and adds much-needed context to ongoing debates over US imperialism for students of both History and PoliticsAnalyses many of the better known instances of US imperialism (for example, Cuba and the Philippines), while also considering often-overlooked examples such as the US Virgin Islands, American Samoa and GuamExplores American imperialism from a “territorial acquisition/long-term occupation” viewpoint which differentiates it from many other books that instead focus on informal and economic imperialismDiscusses the presence of the US in key places such as Guantanamo Bay, the Panama Canal Zone and the Arctic