The Epic of America

James Truslow Adams

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• eBook ISBN: 9781351304108
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: History

There is a tradition of one-volume narrative histories of the United States in which the political, military, diplomatic, social, and economic strands are skillfully interwoven. Rather than add to these volumes, The Epic of America paints a sweeping picture of the diverse past that has created America's national story. In this important narrative, James Truslow Adams reviews how the ordinary American has matured over time in outlook, character, and opinion.

Adams grew increasingly conscious of how different an American is now from the man or woman of any other advanced nation. He is equally interested in the whole of American history, how it began, and what it represented in the first half of the twentieth century. Adams traces the historical origins of the American concept of "bigger and better," attitudes toward business, the American Dream, and other characteristics generally considered "typically American."

Ever since America became an independent nation, each generation has seen an uprising of its citizens to save the American Dream from forces seeking to overwhelm and dispel it. Possibly the greatest of these struggles is still ahead not a struggle of revolutionists against established order, but of the ordinary person who seeks to hold fast to the rights of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." This classic book is valuable for a new age and as important for this new century as it was when originally written.

INDEX

ABBEY, EDWIN A., 326.

Abilene, Kansas, 288–291, 293, 295.

Abolitionists, 200, 203, 204, 247, 251–253, 257, 283.

Adams, Charles Francis, Minister to England, failed to understand or appreciate Lincoln, 265.

Adams, Charles Francis, president of Union Pacific Railroad, quoted on business leaders, 344.

Adams, Henry, 265, 324, 332.

Adams, John, 64, 84, 90–92, 220, 336; on “writs of assistance,” 79; defends British officer, 84; quoted, 132; becomes President, 133; his foreign policy, 133, 134; acts of his administration, 134; appoints “midnight judges,” 136.

Adams, John Quincy, on Missouri Compromise, 161; deals with international complications, 167; in election of 1824, 169, 170; chosen President, 170; as President, 170; defeated in 1828, 170, 171; a devoted patriot, 173; his Americanism, 174; foresaw the evils of too rapid growth, 194, 195; believed the incorporation within the Union of a foreign sovereign state to be unconstitutional, 237.

Adams, Samuel, 81–91.

Agrarianism. See Farmers.

Agriculture, prosperity of, during the Civil War, 274, 275. See also Farmers.

Alabama, cotton production of, 129; admitted as a State, 155; secession of, 257.

Alabama claims, arbitration of, 271.

Alamo, the, 209.

Alaska, acquired by United States, 361.

Alien and Sedition Acts, 134.

Allen, James Lane, 326.

Alta California, San Francisco journal, 232.

Altgeld, Governor, 320.

Amendments to the Constitution, the Fourteenth, 285, 286; the Fifteenth, 285; the Sixteenth, 365; the Seventeenth, 365; the Eighteenth, 393; the Nineteenth, 393.

America, secedes from Europe, 145; summary of the story of, 401, 402, 406; contributions of, 403–405; the land of contrasts, 412, 413.

American continent, in prehistoric times, limits of, 3; structure of, 3–5; scenery of, 5, 6; climate of, 5, 6; precious stones and metals of, 6; animals of, 6; inhabitants of, 6–9; Spanish explorations and settlements in, 11–21; early attempts of French to colonize, 18; early attempts of English to colonize, 18; the settlement of, 25–46.

American dream, 404, 405, 410–416.

American Fur Company, 210.

American Revolution, not to be confused with American Revolutionary War, 102, 105.

“American System,” Clay’s, 168, 169, 173, 180.

American traits, 183–188, 215–...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Introduction to the Transaction Edition
• Preface
• Prologue
• I The Men of Destiny
• II A Civilization Established
• III America Secedes from the Empire
• IV The Nation Finds Itself
• V America Secedes from the Old World
• VI The Sun Rises in the West
• VII The North Begins to Hustle
• VIII Manifest Destiny Lays a Golden Egg
• IX Brothers’ Blood
• X The End of the Frontier
• XI The Flag Outruns the Constitution
• XII The Age of the Dinosaurs
• XIII America Revisits the Old World
• Epilogue
• Index