Blessed Among Nations: How the World Made America
As historians reexamine the United States' involvement with the world over the long term, they are finding that globalization and its problems did not suddenly emerge after the end of the Cold War. International financial flows, immigration, and the disruptive effects of technological change have been part of the American experience from the earliest days. Blessed Among Nations is a welcome contribution to a growing literature that examines the history of the United States in the context of global economic development. Rauchway pulls a mass of interesting and complex information together into a solid, convincing, and clear narrative that will lead readers to a new appreciation of the depth of the United States' historical engagement with the global economy and to an understanding of the intimate consequences of this engagement for the country's political, social, and institutional development. At times Rauchway's account becomes too schematic and deterministic to be fully convincing, but when one is following evidence this compelling and ideas this sweeping, it is easy to get carried away.
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