Manifest Destinies

When the 1840s dawned, Americans were feeling optimistic about the future, and confident as their young nation finally came into its own. The population was growing, economic conditions were improving, and the country hadn’t seen war for nearly 30 years. Above all, America was looking west, where vast expanses of unsettled land seemed to offer prosperity to anyone resourceful enough to take advantage of the opportunity. By the end of the decade, the nation would significantly expand its boundaries, claiming Texas, New Mexico, California and the Pacific Northwest. Circumstances seemed vastly better than they had 10 years earlier—yet in Washington, secession was becoming a pressing issue, as slavery finally emerged as an irreconcilable difference between North and South.

With Manifest Destinies, historian Steven Woodworth has written a sweeping history of the 1840s that captures the enormous sense of possibility that inspired America’s growth—and shows how this extraordinary expansion of territories ultimately forced the nation to come to grips with the deep rift that result in the devastation of the Civil War just a decade later.

Along the way, Woodworth takes us across America as he paints a colorful and engaging portrait of a growing nation. There are the great elections of 1840, among them the first truly modern campaign that saw William Henry Harrison run as a pseudo-populist in a race that focused on entertaining voters rather than discussing issues; when the annexation of Texas dominated the debate; and when perennial candidate Henry Clay’s waffling cost him New York, and the election. Woodworth then takes us to 1848, when the Whigs and Democrats began finding their parties divided over slavery, and former Democrat Martin van Buren ran as a third-party candidate out of opposition to his party’s support for it. Throughout, Woodworth traces the path of what had been the “local” issue of slavery as it grew into a central national issue that divided religions, political parties and, ultimately, the nation itself.

Woodworth also offers a lively portrait of the extraordinary variety of transformations occurring across the land: the founding of the Church of Latter-Day Saints and the eventual migration of the Mormons; the war with Mexico that led to America’s annexation of the Southwest; settlers forging west, often in truly harrowing conditions, and the growth of California after the gold rush; and the technological progress in communications and infrastructure that would tie the nation together as never before.

Rich in character and detail and filled with dramatic events and a fascinating cast of characters, Manifest Destinies is an absorbing, animated re-creation of a decade that was crucial in forging a young nation’s character.