List $62.95

Written by Paul Johnson - Audio book narrated by Nadia May - Unabridged Nonfiction - 9 CASSETTES - 13.5 hours

Publisher, Blackstone Audio (1998)

PART 2 of 3

Johnson’s history is a reinterpretation of American history from the first settlements to the Clinton administration. It covers every aspect of U.S. history. The story is told in terms of the men and women who shaped and led the nation and the ordinary people who collectively created its unique character. Wherever possible, letters, diaries, and recorded conversations are used. Johnson’s history presents John Winthrop, Roger Williams, Anne Hutchinson, Cotton Mather, Franklin, Tom Paine, Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Hamilton and Madison from a fresh perspective. It emphasizes the role of religion in American history and how early America was linked to England’s history and culture and includes incisive portraits of Andrew Jackson, Chief Justice Marshall, Clay, Lincoln, and Jefferson Davis. Johnson shows how Grover Cleveland and Teddy Roosevelt ushered in the age of big business and industry and how Woodrow Wilson revolutionized the government’s role.

This is an in-depth portrait of a great people from their fragile origins through their struggles for independence and nationhood; their heroic efforts and sacrifices to deal with the "organic sin" of slavery and the preservation of the Union; to their explosive economic growth and emergence as a world power and its sole superpower. Johnson sees Americans as a problem-solving people and the story of America as “essentially one of difficulties being overcome by intelligence and skill, by faith and strength of purpose, by courage and persistence... Looking back on its past, and forward to its future, the auguries are that it will not disappoint humanity.”