A Nation Without Borders by Steven Hahn

I finished this book a couple of weeks ago so I'm working from memory...  I'm glad I read the book as it provided a broad overview of my current area of study: The 19th century in the United States.

The book promised an unconventional perspective, and that's what it delivered.  It did provide a much-needed emphasis on the international aspect of our nation's westward expansion, with much detail on its involvement with Mexico, Great Britain, France, Spain, much of the Caribbean, the Philippines, China, Japan and many more.  This counter balanced most of the contemporary history that typically treats the U.S. as a unilateral phenomenon fulfilling its "manifest destiny".

I struggled, however, with the unconventional perspective as it relates to economic expansion, the industrial revolution and America's growing financial prosperity.  Not only did Hahn not detail these issues - rather assuming that the reader knows all of its detail - but he assumed that all such financial success was inherently evil.  True, the "robber barons" of the day often used illicit means for extraordinary gains.  But the country's overall wealth rose vastly during this time period as well.  The mass of immigration from Europe demonstrates the financial opportunities afforded within our borders that were not available elsewhere.

Hahn almost lost me be by devoting perhaps 20% of the book to social and political causes - all important aspects of the 19th century - that fought their way against the financial victors.  But to devote so much space without a parallel overview of those same economic gains did not provide a balanced view of America in the latter 1800s.