East Baton Rouge Parish Library

A nation rising, untold tales of flawed founders, fallen heroes, and forgotten fighters from America's hidden history, by Kenneth C. Davis

eng

Includes bibliographical references and index

collective biography

index present

non fiction

A nation rising

bibliography

456179729

by Kenneth C. Davis

untold tales of flawed founders, fallen heroes, and forgotten fighters from America's hidden history

In this follow-up to America's Hidden History, a best-selling author explores the gritty first half of the 19th century, one of the most tumultuous but overlooked periods in the nation's early history. In the dramatic period that spans roughly from 1800 through 1850, the United States emerged from its inauspicious beginning as a tiny newborn nation, struggling for survival and political cohesion on the Atlantic seaboard, to a near-empire that spanned the continent. It was a time in which the "dream of our founders" spread in ways that few men of that Revolutionary Generation could possibly have imagined. And it was an era that ultimately led to the great, tragic conflagration that followedthe American Civil War. The narratives that form A Nation Rising each exemplify the "hidden history" of America, exploring a vastly more complex path to nationhood than the tidily packaged national myth of a destiny made manifest by visionary political leaders and fearless pioneers.Instead, Davis (whose writing People magazine compared to "returning to the classroom of the best teacher you ever had") explores many historical episodes that reverberate to this day, including: Aaron Burr's 1807 trial, showcasing the political intrigue of the early Republic and becoming one of our nation's first media circuses ; an 1813 Indian uprising and an ensuing massacre that exposes the powerful conflicts at the heart of America's expansion ; a mutiny aboard the slave ship Creole and the ways in which the institution of slavery both destroyed lives and warped our nation's founding ; the "Dade Massacre" and the start of the second Seminole War, a long, deadly conflict between Indian tribes, their African American allies, and the emergent U.S. Army the bloody "Bible Riots" in Philadelphia, demonstrating how deadly anti-immigrant sentiment could be ; the story of Jessie Benton Fremont and Lt. John C. Fremont, a remarkable couple who together helped open the West, bring California into the Union, and gave literal shape to the nation today. The issues raised in these intertwined storiesambition, power, territorial expansion, slavery, intolerance, civil rights, freedom of the presscontinue to make headlines. The resulting book is not only riveting storytelling in its own right, but a stirring reminder of the ways in which our history continues to shape our present.

Burr's trial -- Weatherford's war -- Madison's mutiny -- Dade's promise -- Morse's code -- Jessie's journey