The American Revelation: Ten Ideals That Shaped Our Country from the Puritans to the Cold War

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Macmillan, 2005 - 253 pages
Neil Baldwin, one of the most exciting intellectual historians, has written extensively about the great thinkers and innovators who have shaped our unique American identity. In THE AMERICAN REVELATION, he turns his energies to the unfolding story of how the American spirit developed over 400 years.

This inspiring examination of the ideals that have grown to inform our national identity and of the figures who set the course for our evolving self image covers:

City on a Hill--John Winthrop--1630
Common Sense--Thomas Paine--1776
E pluribus unum--Pierre-Eugene Du Simitiere--1776
Self Reliance--Ralph Waldo Emerson--1841
Manifest Destiny--John L. O'Sullivan--1845
Progress and Poverty--Henry George--1879
The Sphere of Action--Jane Addams--1902
The Melting Pot--Israel Zangwill--1908
The Negro in Our History--Carter Woodson--1922
The Marshall Plan--George C. Marshall--1947

Neil Baldwin writes of figures both familiar and forgotten in this work of popular history that seeks to illuminate and enliven the current debate about American's role in the world. Meticulously researched and entertainingly written, THE AMERICAN REVELATION will make all U.S. readers, regardless of their politics, be proud of our country's intellectual heritage and high-minded values and will reassert those ideals to the rest of the world.

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Contents

Introduction
1
1 CITY ON A HILL
7
2 COMMON SENSE
23
3 E PLURIBUS UNUM
43
4 SELFRELIANCE
61
5 MANIFEST DESTINY
79
6 PROGRESS AND POVERTY
99
7 THE SPHERE OF ACTION
121
9 THE NEGRO IN OUR HISTORY
163
10 THE MARSHALL PLAN
183
A Sense of History
205
Acknowledgments
207
Notes
209
Bibliography
235
Illustration Acknowledgments and Permissions
255
Copyright

8 THE MELTINGPOT
143

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About the author (2005)

NEIL BALDWIN was the executive director of the National Book Foundation sponsor of the National Book Awards for fifteen years. He is the author of ten previous books, including Henry Ford and the Jews: The Mass Production of Hate, Edison: Inventing the Century, and Man Ray: American Artist, as well as poetry, criticism, and history.

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