Description: This sweeping history of the 1840s captures America's enormous sense of possibility and shows how the extraordinary expansion of territories forced the nation to come to grips with the deep rift that would bring war just a decade later.
Review Quotes: "[This] new, magnificent account . . . is full of wonder even for seasoned students of U.S. history." --The Dallas Morning News
"A vivid, episodic pageant of westward-ho empire building. . . . This is narrative history writ large and vigorously--with foreshadowings of tragedy." --Publishers Weekly "In this balanced political and military history, Woodworth tracks political tensions exacerbated by continental expansion. . . . Woodworth dramatically presages the collapse of political parties in the 1850s by his accessible account of the 1840s." --Gilbert Taylor, Booklist