num_pages: 778
description: The Oxford History of the United States is by far the most respected multi-volume history of our nation. The series includes three Pulitzer Prize winners, two New York Times bestsellers, and winners of the Bancroft and Parkman Prizes. Now, in the newest volume in the series, one of America's most esteemed historians, Gordon S. Wood, offers a brilliant account of the early American Republic, ranging from 1789 and the beginning of the national government to the end of the War of 1812. As Wood reveals, the period was marked by tumultuous change in all aspects of American life--in politics, society, economy, and culture. The men who founded the new government had high hopes for the future, but few of their hopes and dreams worked out quite as they expected. They hated political parties but parties nonetheless emerged. Some wanted the United States to become a great fiscal-military state like those of Britain and France; others wanted the country to remain a rural agricultural state very different from the European states. Instead, by 1815 the United States became something neither group anticipated. Many leaders expected American culture to flourish and surpass that of Europe; instead it became popularized and vulgarized. The leaders also hope to see the end of slavery; instead, despite the release of many slaves and the end of slavery in the North, slavery was stronger in 1815 than it had been in 1789. Many wanted to avoid entanglements with Europe, but instead the country became involved in Europe's wars and ended up waging another war with the former mother country. Still, with a new generation emerging by 1815, most Americans were confident and optimistic about the future of their country.  Named a New York Times Notable Book, Empire of Liberty offers a marvelous account of this pivotal era when America took its first unsteady steps as a new and rapidly expanding nation.
language: English
title: Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789-1815
titlecomplete: Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789-1815
characters: Aaron Burr, Alexander Hamilton, Benjamin Rush, Thomas Jefferson, John Jay, James Madison, George Washington, Fisher Ames, John Adams, John Marshall, James Monroe, Albert Gallatin
genres: 19th Century, History, 18th Century, Politics, American History, American Revolution, Historical, American, Nonfiction, United States
ratings_count: 5151
series: The Oxford History of the United States
awards: awardedAt: 1262332800000
name: Pulitzer Prize
category: History, awardedAt: 1293868800000
name: Audie Award
category: History, awardedAt: 1230796800000
name: PROSE Award
category: U.S. History and Biography/Autobiography, awardedAt: 1230796800000
name: New-York Historical Society American History Book Prize
publisher: Oxford University Press