The Nation in a Nutshell

Before America was America, it was something else entirely. Towle's brisk, Victorian narrative sweeps from the mysterious earthworks of the Mound-Builders, advanced civilizations erased by time, through the shock of European contact, the violent birth of colonies, and the revolutionary firestorm that forged a nation from chaos. Written in the late 1800s, this is history as grand narrative: sweeping, confident, and utterly certain that America represents the culmination of civilization's long arc. Towle draws on geology and archaeology to reconstruct these lost societies, then traces the collision of cultures, the struggle for independence, and the gradual emergence of a unified nation from diverse and often conflicting peoples. It is, in other words, the story America told itself at the height of its self-confidence, and a fascinating window into how Victorians understood the American experiment.