Gems of American History

The Lecturer's Art

Walter McDougall

• Publisher: Encounter Books
• Year: 2025
• eBook ISBN: 9781641774345
• Edition: 0
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: History

The American story is one of great physical, intellectual, and spiritual adventure. Gems of American History explores how this extraordinary republic came to be—and what is required to preserve its legacy of liberty.

In this collection of twelve essays, the renowned historian Walter McDougall examines some of the most pivotal events and figures of the American saga to date. He revisits the "Machiavellian moment" that ignited the awakening of republican thought across the Atlantic. He reflects on the forg­ing of America's civic identity from its earliest seeds in the colonial era. His profiles of William Penn, Benjamin Franklin, and the philanthropist and tycoon Stephen Girard reveal the profound role Philadelphia played in shaping the nation. He recounts the story of the Wright brothers' romance with flight and how it captures America's indefatigable spirit.

McDougall also warns that, for more than a century, leaders following in the footsteps of Woodrow Wilson have steered the United States down a path of foreign policy ruin that undermines our national interests and threatens our national character.

Leavened with a lifelong scholar's wisdom and insight, Gems of American History assem­bles the wide-ranging sources of American principles and traditions, many of which have been lost to ideological amnesia, in a way that helps explain who we are and where we are going.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Preface
• 1. America’s Machiavellian Moment: Origins of the Atlantic Republican Tradition
• 2. Benjamin Franklin and the Crisis of the British Empire
• 3. William Penn, Benjamin Franklin, and the American Founding: The Philadelphia Factor
• 4. The Amazing Career of Stephen Girard, Philadelphia Tycoon and Philanthropist
• 5. The Grand Strategic Consequences of the Allegedly Foolish War of 1812
• 6. Meditations on a High Holy Day: The Fourth of July
• 7. The Madness of Saint Woodrow: Or, What If the United States Had Stayed Out of the Great War?
• 8. The Ecstasy and the Agony of Our Romance with Flight: A Meditation on the Centennial of the Wright Brothers’ Triumph
• 9. No Discharge From That War: The Vietnamization of America
• 10. Can the United States Do Grand Strategy?
• 11. The Constitutional History of U.S. Foreign Policy, Part I: The First American Century as Promised Land
• 12. The Constitutional History of U.S. Foreign Policy, Part II: The Second American Century as Crusader State
• Acknowledgments
• Notes
• Index