American Visions is an inspiring book, promoting a sturdy sense of patriotism—one that, aware of the nation’s failings, remembers its “highest ideals of equality and mutual respect.” . . . American Visions beautifully shows how remarkably resilient dreams of a better republic remained even in the darkest of times. . . . The big-tent approach is also Mr. Ayers’s method. It is refreshing to encounter a book that gives equal billing to Stephen Foster’s “Oh! Susanna” and Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Scarlet Letter.” . . . . American Visions radiates nothing so clearly as the democratic spirit that drives Whitman’s poetry. Behind Mr. Ayers’s enthusiastic advocacy one glimpses, more strongly with each page, the outlines of that vast, truly equitable continent Whitman couldn’t stop dreaming about, a “land tolerating all, accepting all.”
Christoph Irmscher, Wall Street Journal
Reviews for:
American Visions
The United States, 1800-1860
When Barack Obama awarded Ayers a National Humanities Medal in 2013, the president praised Ayers’ “commitment to making our history as widely available and accessible as possible.” An early advocate of the digital humanities, Ayers made thousands of letters, maps, and other materials available online to accompany his “Valley of the Shadow” books. A more recent project, for which he is executive director, is New American History, which “explores America’s past, harnessing the power of digital media, curiosity, and inquiry.”
American Visions aligns well with this mission, and teachers looking for ways to help their students understand the relevance of history may be its ideal readers. The book is rosy-hued in parts, but Ayers offers in it a lens through which we as a nation can see where we’ve been and where we’re going.
Washington Independent Review of Books
This nimble survey surveys the ‘visions’ that Americans fashioned for the nation taking shape before them in the ‘lurching’ period of 1800 to 1860. These ideals were expressed through literature, visual art, popular songs, political slogans, religious doctrines, and folk heroes . . . . The result is a dynamic portrait of a country in transition.
The New Yorker
In his eighth book, historian Ayers eloquently explains how “key elements” of American life, politics, and culture “crystallized” between 1800 and 1860. He describes a complex time crowded with people, facts, and events and veering “in unexpected directions.” Ayers succeeds in providing both detail and the big picture. . . . Ayers frankly describes the marginalization of and great harm done to women, African Americans, Native Americans, and immigrants. He also chronicles how men and women fought against these problems, some making positive change in their lifetimes, while others laid the groundwork for future reforms. Ayers' accurate, balanced, and compelling history proves that progress is possible and that patriotism can be rooted in the complicated truths about the past.
—Booklist
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