The American Future (52 page)

Weber, David J., ed.
Foreigners in their Native Land: Historical Roots of the Mexican Americans
. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, 2003.

Wheelan, Joseph.
Invading Mexico: America's Continental Dream and the Mexican War, 1846–1848
. Carroll & Graf, New York, 2007.

Zeh, Frederick.
An Immigrant Soldier in the Mexican War.
Trans. William J. Orr. Texas A & M University Press, College Station, 1997.

Zolberg, Aristide.
A Nation By Design: Immigration Policy in the Fashioning of America
Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass., and London, 2006.

Part Four: American Plenty

Brands, H. W.
Andrew Jackson: His Life and Times
. Doubleday, New York, 2005.

Dunar, Andrew J., and McBride, Dennis.
Building Hoover Dam: An Oral History of the Great Depression
. Twayne, New York, 1993.

Egan, Timothy.
The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl.
Houghton Mifflin, Boston, Mass., 2006.

Hine, Robert V., and John Mack Faragher.
The American West: A New Interpretive History
. Yale University Press, New Haven, Conn., 2000.

Lamarr, Howard, ed.
The New Encyclopedia of the American West
. Yale University Press, New Haven, Conn., and London, 1998.

McLoughlin, William.
After the Trail of Tears: The Cherokees' Struggle
for Sovereignty, 1839–1880.
University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, N.C., 1993.

McLoughlin, William.
Cherokee Renascence in the New Republic
. Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J., 1986.

Perdue, Theda, ed.
Cherokee Editor: The Writings of Elias Boudinot
. Tennessee University Press, Knoxville, 1983.

Powell, John Wesley.
The Exploration of the Colorado River and Its Canyons
. 1875, reprint Dover, Mineola, N.Y., 1961.

Powell, John Wesley.
Report on the Lands of the Arid Region of the United States
. 1878, reprint Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1983.

Reisner, Marc.
Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water
. Pimlico, London, 2001.

Smythe, William E.
The Conquest of Arid America
. Harper, New York and London, 1900.

Stegner, Wallace Earle.
Beyond the Hundredth Meridian: John Wesley Powell and the Second Opening of the West
. Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1954.

Worster, Donald.
A River Running West: The Life of John Wesley Powell.
Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2001.

Worster, Donald.
Dust Bowl: The Southern Plains in the 1930s
. Oxford University Press, New York and Oxford, 2004.

This project has been a trip, through American space as well as time, and it has been informed by the willingness of many Americans; some in the thick of political life, some on the outside of it, to talk to me about their own perceptions of the historical moment in the life of their country. Without their engagement the book would have been an altogether poorer offering. An exhaustive list would fill the phone book of a small town, but I want in particular to thank the family of the late Staff Sergeant Kyu-Chay; Cadets Larry and Amber Choate of the United States Military Academy at West Point; Mark Anthony Green of Morehouse College; Katrina and Fred Gross; Vergie Hamer; Richard “Babe” Henry; Pastor Johnny Hunt; Dana Cochrane and Lou Stoker; Retired Generals Montgomery C. Meigs, Fernando Valenzuela, and Ricardo Sanchez; David Plylar; Ruth Malhotra; Jack and Jim McConnell; Charles McLaurin, Pat Mulroy of the South Nevada Water Authority; Representative Rick Noriega; Epifanio Salazar; Reverend Raphael Warnock of Ebenezer Baptist Church, Atlanta; Reverend Jim White.

Two good friends, Andrew Arends and Alice Sherwood, have been exceptionally generous with time given to close readings of the manuscript that have made the book so much better than it would have been without the gift of their critical sympathy for the work.

The inexorable nature of the election calendar meant that bringing both a writing and television project to fruition was always going to be a tall order. So I am even more grateful than usual to my literary agent and friend, Michael Sissons, for his unswerving belief that the work could get done and his sympathetic excitement on reading the manuscript as it went along. I am grateful too for enthusiasm shown by Caroline Michel of PFD for the book and for her kindness in reading
sections of it as it progressed. My publisher, Will Sulkin of the Bodley Head Press, has been heroic in his willingness to adjust the usual timetable of production so that films and chapters could somehow get done in tandem, and I am deeply appreciative of his excitement about the project throughout the extended period of its conception and execution. I must also thank many others at the Bodley Head for their forbearance and friendly efficiency in accommodating themselves to a challenging schedule, in particular, Lizzie Dipple, Tessa Harvey, David Milner, Drummond Moir, and Laura Hassan. Gail Rebuck already knows how much I appreciate her acts of faith in this writer. My thanks also to Juliet Brightmore for her invaluable help with the illustrations. In the United States, I am once again grateful to my editor at Ecco Books, Dan Halpern, for his warmhearted sympathy for the project and his encouraging belief that it would have something fresh to say about the connections between past and present. Ginny Smith has been the kindest of abettors in seeing the book through to publication. My agent, Michael Carlisle, has been the usual tower of strength when the author seemed to totter. At BBC America, Melissa Green and Amy Mulcaire have done wonders to get the television series to a wide audience.

Alex Cummings and Ester Murdukhayeva of Columbia University were exceptionally helpful in providing some initial research on the religion and immigration portions of the book. Alan Brinkley, the provost of Columbia University, was kind enough to give his university professor the leave needed to complete the project, and in a more general sense I am grateful to many of my colleagues and friends in the History Department of Columbia for their collegial help and wisdom over the past few years, especially those in American history who have been hospitable to an intruder in their discipline, particularly Elizabeth Blackmar, Eric Foner, and Kenneth Jackson.

At the BBC, Glenwyn Benson, Roly Keating, George Entwistle, and Eamon Hardy have been enthusiastic supporters of the project since its inception, and Eamon has been an exceptionally constructive critic of early cuts of the films. My television agent, Rosemary Scoular, has been a tower of strength as well as a dear friend in getting me through the rougher patches of creating this work in two different media, and without her steady support the entire enterprise might not have come to fruition. I have been lucky to have worked with a gifted and supportive
team at Oxford Films and Television, including two exceptionally talented directors in Sam Hobkinson and Ricardo Pollack. So much thanks are also due to Hilary Grove, Susannah Price, Matt Hill, Dirk Nel, Paul Nathan, Merce Williams, Glynis Robertson, and my irrepressible buddy and partner in crime behind the eyepiece, Neil Harvey.

In my office at Columbia University, Julina Rundberg has kept the ship afloat with efficient aplomb, even when asked to work beyond the call of duty—and has kept it from being swamped. Even more than usual, I am grateful for the forbearance of my family—Ginny, Gabriel, and Chloe—during the long and uneven seasons of the author's work on this book and television series. They know it could never have been begun, much less completed, without their tolerant affection. I am also grateful to Mike Pyle for his own contribution to the sum of energy and enthusiasm for the daunting project.

I owe more than even I can put into words to my dear pal and colleague Nick Kent, of Oxford Films, whose thought that I might want to tackle a big American television project happily coincided with my own less-well-shaped notion along the same lines, and who never flinched as my much more idiosyncratic idea of linking the past with the contemporary took shape. Nick has been the necessary partner and collaborator through this whole work: intellectually ebullient, creatively sympathetic, and a human cooling cloth on the often fevered brow of the writer-presenter, both when things went wrong and when things went right. Charlotte Sacher has also been the heart and soul of
The American Future
: a prodigious and brilliant researcher; a collaborator and good friend on location; a discriminating critic of both film and written prose. The finished product in both forms owes her an immeasurable debt, though she is not to be held responsible for any of its inevitable shortcomings. To both Nick and Charlotte—equally indispensable partners in this adventure into the past and future—this book is lovingly dedicated.

August 2008

© Eve Arnold/Magnum Photos: 5 bottom. Courtesy of the Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, Calif.: 10 top right. Courtesy of the Trustees of the Boston Public Library/Rare Books: 6. © Corbis: 2 bottom left, 3 top, 4 top and bottom right, 5 top, 7 bottom left, 8 center and bottom, 9 top right and bottom, 10 top left, 11 top, 12 top, 13 top, 14 top right, 15, 16 top left. From the collections of the Henry Ford, Dearborn, Mich.: 11 bottom. © Getty Images: 2 bottom right (Time & Life Pictures/National Archives), 4 left (Time & Life Pictures), 7 bottom right (Time & Life Pictures/Library of Congress), 9 center, 12 bottom (Time & Life Pictures/National Archives), 14 top left, 16 bottom (Ethan Miller). Jarena Lee,
Religious Experience and Journal of Mrs. Jarena Lee
(frontispiece from 1849 edition), courtesy of the Library Company of Philadelphia, Penn.: 7 top right. Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.: 1, 3 center and bottom, 16 top right. Musée Franco-Américain, Blérancourt/Bridgeman Art Library: 14 bottom right. National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C./photo Scala, Florence: 2 top left and right. Natural History Museum, London: 13 bottom. Oberlin College Archives, Oberlin, Ohio: 7 top left. Private Collection/Bridgeman Art Library: 14 bottom left. Sweetwater County Historical Museum, Wyo.: 10 bottom. Susie King Taylor,
Reminiscences of My Life in Camp
, 1902: 8 top.

Note: Entries in this index, carried over verbatim from the print edition of this title, are unlikely to correspond to the pagination of any given e-book reader. However, entries in this index, and other terms, may be easily located by using the search feature of your e-book reader.

 

Abbott, Edith, 91

Abbott, Grace, 291–93, 298;
The Immigrant and the Community
290–91, 293–95

Abernathy, Ralph, 139

Abizaid, General John, 111

Abraham Lincoln
, USS, 5

Abu Ghraib prison, Iraq, 57

Adams, Charles Brooks, 120

Adams, Henry, 120

Adams, President John, 43, 47, 49–50, 51, 53, 147, 166, 167, 168, 172, 174, 225, 243, 253, 325

Adams, President John Quincy, 253

Addams, Jane, 290, 291

Afghanistan, 5, 25, 27, 28, 29, 57, 60

African Americans: churches and religion, 139–40, 183–85, 186–95, 204–5, 206–7, 208–10, 211; education, 184, 203–4; and Reconstruction, 202–3; Franklin on, 240–41; singing, 130, 136–37, 138, 199–202;
see also
civil-rights movement; Hamer, Fannie Lou; Lee, Jarena; slaves/slavery

African Episcopal Methodists, 183, 187, 188, 189

Aguinaldo, Emilio, 118

Alabama, 139–40, 184, 194, 204–5

Alabama Publishing Company, 205

Alaman, Chuck (Khalil), 298, 299–300

Alamo, Texas, 251, 261

Albert, Prince Consort, 253

Alien Acts, 50, 52, 243

All-American Canal, 353–54

Allen, Ethan, Governor of Vermont, 236

Allen, Senator George, 6

Allen, Reverend Richard, 187, 188, 189, 190, 192–93, 204, 209

Allen, Robert, 87, 95

American, The
268

American Civil War, (1861–85) 22, 26, 29, 30–31, 84–85, 87, 110, 253; causes, 76–77; Confederate commanders, 70, 78–79, 93–94; Union commanders, 91–92; armies compared, 80–81, 85–87, 101; African American soldiers, 93; and the British, 90; casualties, 91, 97–99, 106, 114

American Constitution, 53, 161, 162, 184; First Amendment, 146, 147–48, 162–63, 164, 168, 175–76, 182, 183, 208; Fourteenth Amendment, 132, 202, 282; Fifteenth Amendment, 132, 133, 202

American Missionary Association, 201

American Revolutionary War/American War of Independence, (1775–83) 26–27, 35–36, 46, 48, 50, 52, 313; British methods, 62; and Crèvecoeur, 230–32, 235; and Newport, R.I., 161; slaves freed,
193, 235; and West Point, 39; peace treaty signed, 234; and Cherokee Indians, 318

Anderson, Robert, 76

André, Major, 26–27, 39

Anti-Imperialist League, 118, 121, 122

Anti-Slavery Association, 196

Antietam, battle of, (1862) 91, 123

Appalachians, the: coal mines, 212

Arizona, 259, 282, 339, 356

Arlington House, 32, 33, 78–79, 95, 106

Arlington National Cemetery, 29–30, 31, 106, 114, 123, 125, 131; Meigses's graves, 31–32, 106, 125; Veterans Day (2007), 25–26, 27, 28, 31

Army, U.S.: Corps of Engineers, 33, 34–35, 59, 60–61, 62, 63–64, 67, 75; torture of prisoners, 119–20, 122;
see also
Union army

Army of Cumberland, 87, 95–96

Arnold, Benedict, 35, 36, 39, 45, 52

Arthur, President Chester, 279

Atlanta, Georgia, 142, 211; Ebenezer Baptist Church, 206–7, 208–10

Atlantic City, New Jersey: 1964 Democratic Convention, 21, 130, 134, 136–38

Atlantic Monthly,
200, 286

Atta, Mohamed, 145

Aurelia
, MS, 130–31

Austin, Moses, 247–48

Austin, Stephen, 248

Awakenings
see
Great Awakenings

 

Backus, Isaac, 171

Bahia Grande, 244

Baker, Lafayette, 104

Baltic
(steamer), 284

Baptists, 148–52, 169, 171, 173, 175, 184, 206–10, 308; African Americans, 193–94; poor whites, 211, 212, 213

Barlow, Joel, 37, 174, 178, 225

Bartholdi, Frédéric Auguste, 283

Barton, Clara, 98

Bartram, John, 312

Bartram, William (Billy), 312–16, 321, 325;
Travels
315

Beatles, the, 136, 138

Beauregard, Pierre, 33, 78, 79, 81, 84, 105

Beavers, Farley, 149, 151–52

Bee, Fred, 269, 270, 278, 279, 280–81

Beecher, Reverend Henry Ward, 202

Beecher, Lyman, 265

ben Israel, Menasseh, 160

Benjamin, Walter, 363

Bennett, Hugh, 349

Bennett, James Gordon, 258

Benton, Thomas Hart, 347

Beveridge, Senator Albert, 117

Biden, Senator Joseph R., 15

Birmingham, Alabama, 139, 204–5, 212

Black Panthers, 139

Bloom, Sol, 331

Boas, Franz 288–89;
The Mind of Primitive Man,
289

Boothe, Charles Octavius:
Cyclopedia of the Colored Baptists of Alabama,
194, 204, 205

Boston, Massachusetts, 43, 155, 265, 267;
Daily Advertiser,
267; Latin School, 307

Bourne, Randolph, 289

Boykin, General William, 145–46, 148

Braddock, General Edward, 42

Bradley, General Omar, 58, 110, 124

Brady, Mathew, 84, 108

Bragg, General Braxton, 32, 78, 96, 105

Breckinridge, Sophonisba, 291

Bremer, Paul, 58

Bristed, John, 233

Britain/British, 45, 47, 304–5; and the French, 42, 48, 49, 225, 227; war of 1812, 30, 36–37, 52, 61, 252; and Canada, 61, 227; antislavery, 253; and U.S. annexation of Texas, 253–35; and American Civil
War, 90; and religion, 146–47, 154, 156, 159;
see also
American Revolutionary War

Brooks, Benjamin, 281

Brown, Gordon, 220

Brown, John, 71, 196, 197

Brownsville, Texas, 244–45

Bryan, Andrew, 193, 209

Bryan, Jonathan, 193

Bryan, William Jennings, 118, 212

Buberl, Caspar: frieze, 114

Buchanan, President James, 68, 69, 70, 74, 76, 260

Buchanan, Pat, 240

Buckley, William, 308

Buffon, Georges Leclerc, comte de, 234

Bulfinch, Charles: Capitol, Washington, D.C., 67

Bull Run, battles of (1861, 1862), 32, 83, 84, 87, 98, 123

Burgh, James, 171

Burlingame Treaty (1868), 269, 281

Burns, Anthony, 196

Burnside, General Ambrose, 91; Meigs to, 89, 90

Bush, President George W., 4, 5, 6, 7, 13, 18, 111, 145, 208, 219, 220–21, 309, 310, 311, 360

Butler, Nicholas Murray, 289

Butrick, Reverend Daniel, 329

 

Calhoun, John C., 67, 253, 258

California, 249, 255, 256, 257, 259, 267, 311, 339, 343, 353, 356; gold mining, 270–71; Chinese immigrants, 271–72, 273, 274, 276-79, 280, 281–83

California Central Railroad, 273

Cambridge Opinion,
130, 134

Cameron, Simon, 80

Canada, 61, 227

Carmichael, Stokely, 139

Carnegie, Andrew, 115

Carr, Peter, 170

Carter, President Jimmy, 308–9, 310

Castries, Eugène-Gabriel de la Croix, duc de, 234

Catholics, Roman, 154, 167, 168, 175, 213, 236, 264–66

Central Pacific Railroad, 269, 272–75

Chamberlain, Joseph, 115, 121

Chaney, James, 133, 139

Chang, Jose, 282

Charles I, 35, 146, 157

Charles II, 157, 158, 159

Charleston, South Carolina, 33, 79; African Episcopal Methodist Church, 183; Bethel Church, 193; synagogue, 175

Château d'Yquem
(steamer), 284

Chatthoochee River, 71, 72

Chattanooga 320; battle (1863), 95–96, 201

Cheney, Dick, 6, 7, 25–26, 31, 111, 309, 310

Cherokee Indians, 36, 37, 71, 96, 251, 312, 313–30, 333–35, 352

Cherokee Strip Run, Oklahoma (1893), 332–33, 335–36, 349

Chicago, 266; Columbian Exposition (1893), 114, 286, 331–32, 340; Hull House, Halsted St., 290, 291, 295

Chickamauga, battle of (1863), 95

Chickasaw Indians, 317, 323, 325

Chinese Exclusion Act (1882), 279, 282

Chinese immigrants: in California, 271–72, 273, 274, 276–79, 280, 281–83; miners, 268–70, 272, 280; railroad workers, 272, 273–75

Chippewa Indians, 34

Choctaw Indians, 251, 315, 317, 323, 325

cholera epidemics, 64, 192

Church, Frederic Edwin, 94

Cicero:
Pro Flacco,
16

Civil Rights Act (1964), 132, 133, 203

civil-rights movement, 21, 130, 132–34, 136–38, 139, 184, 204–5, 207, 214–15

Civil War,
see
American Civil War

Clarke, John, 156, 158

Clay, Henry, 326

Clay, General Lucius D., 58

Cleveland, President Grover, 115, 116, 283, 287–88, 330–31

Clinton, President Bill, 6, 7, 11, 142

Clinton, Senator Hillary, 9–11, 15, 16, 17, 18, 207, 208

Cobb, Henry, 331

Coburn, Tom, 166

Cody, Buffalo Bill, 331

Coke, Sir Edward, 153, 154

Cole, Thomas, 94

Collinson, Peter: Franklin to, 241

Colorado, 259, 279, 344–45, 346

Colorado River, 311, 337–39, 341, 353

Colt, Samuel: revolvers, 88

Columbia
(steamer), 183

Columbia University, 289–90

Columbus, Georgia, 71–72, 80

Comanche Indians, 249

Concord, battle of, (1775) 43

Condorcet, Nicolas de Caritat, marquis de, 224

Confederacy/Confederate army, 32–33, 70–71, 76–77, 78–79, 81, 83–84; uniforms, 80; lack of supplies, 85–86, 87; boy soldiers, 101; and Cherokees, 334; and death of John Meigs, 32, 104–5

Connecticut Magazine,
37

Constantine, Emperor, 154

Constitution, the
see
American Constitution

Corcoran, William Wilson, 94

Cornish tin miners, 274

Corps of Engineers,
see
Army, U.S.

Courrier de l'Europe
(ship), 234–35

Coxey, Jacob, 330

Coxey, Legal Tender, 330

Craig, Brother, 150

Cravath, Erastus, 202

Creek Indians, 71, 251, 315, 317, 321, 323, 324, 325

Crévecoeur, America-Francès,
see
Otto, America-Francès

Crèvecoeur, Guillaume-Alexandre (Ally), 228, 231–32, 233

Crèvecoeur, J. Hector St. John de, 224–28, 229–32, 233–38;
Letters from an American Farmer,
222–24, 228–29, 232–33, 237, 238–39, 243, 294

Crèvecoeur, Mehitable Tippet, 224, 228, 229, 230, 231, 233, 234, 235

Crèvecoeur, Philippe-Louis, 228, 231, 234, 235–36, 237

Crocker, Charles, 273, 275, 278–79

Crocker, Edwin Bryant, 273

Crockett, David, 326

Cromwell, Oliver, 157, 159, 160, 195, 360

Cuba, 116, 117, 120

Custer, General George, 103

Custis, George Washington Parke, 32

Czech immigrants, 287, 294

 

Danbury, Connecticut, 36, 175

Darwin, Charles, 115, 211

Davies & Davis, Messrs. (publishers), 232

Davis, Jefferson, 32, 40, 65, 68, 77, 79, 93, 97, 105, 106, 210, 211

Davis, Lanny, 11–12;
Scandal: How Gotcha Politics Is Destroying America,
11

Davis, Varina, 105

Dearborn, Henry, 316, 319, 320

Dearborn, Michigan: Ford Motor Co., 295; English School, 295–97; Muslims, 298–300

Declaration of Independence, American, 52, 73, 139, 165, 166, 183

Democratic Party, 132, 133–34, 203, 208, 212–13, 221, 266, 267, 278, 279; Atlantic City Convention (1964), 21, 134, 136–38; and Iowa caucuses (2008), 5–7, 9–10, 12–19;
see also
Clinton, Senator Hillary; Obama, Barack

Democratic Review,
256

Denver, Colorado, 279, 344

Des Moines, Iowa: 2008 caucuses, 1–22

Detroit, Michigan, 61–62, 297

Dewey, Admiral George, 116, 117

DeWine, Senator Mike, 6

Dickey, Reverend James, 180–81

Dickinson, Emily, 203

Dixon, Thomas, Jr.:
The Clansman,
211

Dodd, Chris, 15

Donaldson, James, 87

Doublehead (Cherokee chief ), 320

Douglas, Senator Stephen, 74, 255

Douglass, Frederick, 205, 209

DuBois, W. E. B., 120, 193, 203–4, 207, 209, 359;
The Souls of Black Folk,
192, 195, 199, 200

Durand, Asher 94

 

Eastland, Senator James, 133, 137

Easton, Langdon, 87, 95

Ebenezer Baptist Church, Atlanta, 206–10

economy, the, 7, 114, 212–13, 247–48, 309, 330, 342–43

Edison, Thomas, 120, 331; Vitagraph, 116

Edwards, Anderson, 194–95

Edwards, Curly, 282

Edwards, Haden, 249

Edwards, Senator John, 15, 17

Edwards, Jonathan, 168, 179

Eisenhower, President Dwight D., 41, 58, 110, 124

Elliott, Charles, 253–54, 255

Ellison, Cilida, 300

Ellison, Congressman Keith, 300

Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 255–56

energy policies, 308–12

England, Lynndie, 57

environmental policies, 309–11

Erie Railroad, 88

Evans, Walker, 349

Evarts, William Maxwell, 283

Everett, Congressman Edward, 326–27, 328

Falwell, Jerry, 145

Faust, Drew, 29

Fellowes, Captain Gustavus, 235–36

Ferguson, Adam, 239

Ferris, George, 331

Fillmore, President Millard, 267

Finney, Charles Grandison, 178–80, 181, 184, 193;
Lectures on Revivals,
180

Fishman, Simon, 348

Fisk Free School for Negroes, Nashville, 201, 202, 210

Fisk Jubilee Singers, 202–3

Fisk Singers, 200–201, 202

Fitzgerald, F. Scott:
The Great Gatsby,
307

Floyd, John B., 68, 69, 70, 71, 73

Flynt, Wayne, 213

Ford, Henry, 295–97;
The International Jew: The World's Foremost Problem,
297