Our America: A Hispanic History of the United States

The United States is still typically conceived of as an offshoot of England, with our history unfolding east to west beginning with the first English settlers in Jamestown. This view overlooks the significance of America's Hispanic past. With the profile of the United States increasingly Hispanic, the importance of recovering the Hispanic dimension to our national story has never been greater.

This absorbing narrative begins with the explorers and conquistadores who planted Spain's first colonies in Puerto Rico, Florida, and the Southwest. Missionaries and rancheros carry Spain's expansive impulse into the late eighteenth century, settling California, mapping the American interior to the Rockies, and charting the Pacific coast. During the nineteenth century Anglo-America expands west under the banner of "Manifest Destiny" and consolidates control through war with Mexico. In the Hispanic resurgence that follows, it is the peoples of Latin America who overspread the continent, from the Hispanic heartland in the West to major cities such as Chicago, Miami, New York, and Boston. The United States clearly has a Hispanic present and future.

And here is its Hispanic past, presented with characteristic insight and wit by one of our greatest historians.

Binding Type: Hardcover
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Published: 01/20/2014
ISBN: 9780393239539
Pages: 416
Weight: 1.62lbs
Size: 9.49h x 6.45w x 1.30d

Review Citations: Library Journal Prepub Alert 08/01/2013 pg. 57
Publishers Weekly 10/07/2013
Booklist 12/01/2013 pg. 11
Kirkus Reviews 12/15/2013
New York Times Book Review 01/19/2014 pg. 8
New York Times Book Review 01/26/2014 pg. 26
Library Journal 08/01/2013