Fighting for America

The Struggle for Mastery in North America, 1519-1871

Jeremy Black

AAUP Public and Secondary School Library Selection

Narrated by Jeffrey Whittle

Available from Audible

Book published by Indiana University Press

Prize winning author Jeremy Black traces the competition for control of North America from the landing of Spanish troops under Hernán Cortés in modern Mexico in 1519 to 1871 when, with the Treaty of Washington and the withdrawal of most British garrisons, Britain accepted American mastery in North America. In this wide-ranging narrative, Black makes clear that the process by which America gained supremacy was far from inevitable. The story Black tells is one of conflict, diplomacy, geopolitics, and politics. The eventual result was the creation of a United States of America that stretched from Atlantic to Pacific and dominated North America. The gradual withdrawal of France and Spain, the British accommodation to the expanding U.S. reality, the impact of the American Civil War, and the subjugation of Native peoples, are all carefully drawn out. Black emphasizes contingency not Manifest Destiny, and reconceptualizes American exceptionalism to take note of the pressures and impact of international competition.

Jeremy Black is Professor of History at the University of Exeter. He is author of more than 100 books including Fighting for America: The Struggle for Mastery in North America, 1519-1871 and War and the Cultural Turn. Black received the Samuel Eliot Morison Prize from the Society for Military History in 2008.

REVIEWS:

“A refreshing take on Manifest Destiny.... American (and Canadian) readers will learn a lot of new things and be led into new ways of viewing old ones. An important contribution.”

—Walter Nugent, author of Into the West: The Story of Its People

“This fascinating book describes the 300-plus year history of North America, from the landing of the first Spanish explorers until 1871, when American businessmen and politicians finally succeeded in stretching the national border from the Atlantic to the Pacific with the completion of the transcontinental railroad.”

—Military Heritage