American Visions: The United States 1800-1860

A revealing history of the formative period when voices of dissent and innovation defied power and created visions of America still resonant today.



The early decades of the nineteenth century saw the expansion of slavery, Native dispossession, and wars with Canada and Mexico. Mass immigration and powerful religious movements sent tremors through American society. But even as the powerful defended the status quo, others defied it: voices from the margins moved the center; eccentric visions al...