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What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America 1815-1848 Daniel Walker Howe (Oxford University Press, 2007 - ISBN 978-0-19-5-7894-7. 904 pages)
Review by
Jim Giardina
On January 8, 1815 American forces under the command of Andrew Jackson turned back an attempt by the British army to capture New Orleans. Unfortunately for the men involved, their sacrifices on that day were for naught for by the time battle was joined the War of 1 8 1 2 was already over as a peace had been signed between the U.S. and Great Britain some weeks earlier. That the Battle of New Orleans was strategically irrelevant did not stop it from becoming the stuff of legend and it quickly assumed its place in the pantheon of American folklore. The fight, seen as match-up between arrogant European professionals and a ragtag force of sharpshooting Kentucky militiamen, simply added to the growing sense of American exceptionalism. Upon closer examination however the myth proves to be more fancy than fact as Daniel Howe makes clear early in his superb new book, What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America 1815-1848, the latest addition to the multi-volume Oxford History of the United States and the 2008 winner of the Pulitzer Prize in history. In this telling, what Howe reveals is that it was technology in the form of artillery rather than the expertise of the Kentucky riflemen that gave Jackson his victory on that January day, and that the lesson to be taken is the role that technology, especially advances in communication, played in the development of the United States during the first half of the 19th century.
Compressing three decades into a single, albeit large, volume is a challenge and Howe has shown that he is more than up to the task. Combining synthesis with analysis, Howe's command of the scholarship and engaging prose have resulted in sweeping portrayal of a changing United States that is as entertaining as it is informative.
Transformation is the pivot on which the book turns and as Howe...