The Shortest History of the United States
ISBN
Publisher
Imprint
Year Published
Print Length
Format
SKU
9798893031195
The Experiment
N/A
2025
288 pages
Paperback
25476
Original price was: ₨4,795.00.₨1,300.00Current price is: ₨1,300.00.
Discover the 250-year story of a nation often divided, and the people who have stood up for its citizens’ inalienable rights
Description
The United States was founded based on the monumental idea that everyone deserves the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Yet throughout our two hundred and fifty years as an independent country, we have faced many obstacles to these self-evident truths: slavery, wars, economic depressions. Still, the United States is one of the most powerful nations in the world and is a hub for global economics, innovation, and culture. How did a nation, which throughout its history has hardly been united, become one of the biggest global superpowers of the twenty-first century?
Don Watson dissects both the flaws and triumphs of our nation’s history in The Shortest History of the United States. He traces moments of liberty and justice, inequity and oppression, to show how a country at war with itself in the 1860s, and the leader of the free world less than a hundred years later, became a nation beset by wild division and turmoil in the twenty-first century. Along the way he highlights the key figures who have fought for our inalienable truths―in politics and at home, on the frontiers and in our cities, in our books and music and on our screens. A sweeping history of a profoundly multicultural country, The Shortest History of the United States shows how our country continues to stand while fighting for unity and justice for all.
Praise and Reviews
"The best book by an outsider about America―forever.
"
― David Sedaris, author of Me Talk Pretty One Day, on American Journeys---------------
"This is not travelogue, it is dazzlingly eloquent and perceptive; it is the Tocqueville of damaged but persistent and enduring dreams. Like Tocqueville, and unlike much writing by foreigners about the United States, it is affectionate and comes across the many Americas and their oddities with an uncondemning eye. It is entertaining and celebrates the not-often mentioned capacity of Americans to talk, narrate their lives and utter orations, a tendency which has always interested me as a foreigner. It is full of incident and consistently engaging. As a star of the epigram he's right up there with Tocqueville, and as a story-teller he loses nothing to Theroux."
― Thomas Keneally, author of Schindler’s List, on American Journeys------------
"A marvelous polemic."
― Forbes, on Death Sentence----------------
"Watson wields the language like a bullwhip."
― San Diego Union-Tribune, on Death Sentence-------------
"There is a dictionary of clichés on my desktop in Beirut and I heartily recommend Watson's Dictionary of Weasel Words by the Australian Don Watson."
― Robert Fisk, author of The Great War for Civilisation, on Watson’s Dictionary of Weasel Words, Cant and Management Jargon--------------
"A truly magnificent achievement."
― Peter Carey, author of Parrot and Olivier in America, on The Passion of Private White---------------
"The book’s brilliance lies in the way it reveals the layers of complexity both in the politics which surround Keating, which will feel familiar to anyone who has been at the heart of government at that level, and also the layers of complexity in the man himself. . . . And if you want to get a real feel for politics from the inside then yes, I might recommend my diaries, but I would definitely recommend Watson’s book, too. At almost 750 pages, you will need a fair bit of time to read it, but if you’re like me, you will get to the end and want to read it again."
― The New European, on Recollections of a Bleeding Heart--------------
"This is a brilliant original work."
― Times Literary Supplement, on Caledonia Australis--------------
"A loving rumination on Australia, the landmass, and those who live on it and from it. . . . Watson refuses to be captured by easy categorisations or received opinion. . . . The writing is crisp, witty and sardonic. . . . Watson is an original, with an authentic, prophetic voice."
― The Monthly, on The Bush------------
"Watson's magnificent, celebratory, contradictory study of the Australian bush will challenge the national imagination."
― The Weekend Australian, on The Bush
About the Author
Don Watson is an author and screenwriter who formerly worked as a political adviser and speechwriter. He is the author of three Quarterly Essays and many acclaimed books, including Recollections of a Bleeding Heart, American Journeys, The Bush, Watsonia, and The Passion of Private White.
The Shortest History of the United States
By : Don Watson
Discover the 250-year story of a nation often divided, and the people who have stood up for its citizens’ inalienable rights
Description
The United States was founded based on the monumental idea that everyone deserves the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Yet throughout our two hundred and fifty years as an independent country, we have faced many obstacles to these self-evident truths: slavery, wars, economic depressions. Still, the United States is one of the most powerful nations in the world and is a hub for global economics, innovation, and culture. How did a nation, which throughout its history has hardly been united, become one of the biggest global superpowers of the twenty-first century?
Don Watson dissects both the flaws and triumphs of our nation’s history in The Shortest History of the United States. He traces moments of liberty and justice, inequity and oppression, to show how a country at war with itself in the 1860s, and the leader of the free world less than a hundred years later, became a nation beset by wild division and turmoil in the twenty-first century. Along the way he highlights the key figures who have fought for our inalienable truths―in politics and at home, on the frontiers and in our cities, in our books and music and on our screens. A sweeping history of a profoundly multicultural country, The Shortest History of the United States shows how our country continues to stand while fighting for unity and justice for all.
Praise and Reviews
"The best book by an outsider about America―forever.
"
― David Sedaris, author of Me Talk Pretty One Day, on American Journeys---------------
"This is not travelogue, it is dazzlingly eloquent and perceptive; it is the Tocqueville of damaged but persistent and enduring dreams. Like Tocqueville, and unlike much writing by foreigners about the United States, it is affectionate and comes across the many Americas and their oddities with an uncondemning eye. It is entertaining and celebrates the not-often mentioned capacity of Americans to talk, narrate their lives and utter orations, a tendency which has always interested me as a foreigner. It is full of incident and consistently engaging. As a star of the epigram he's right up there with Tocqueville, and as a story-teller he loses nothing to Theroux."
― Thomas Keneally, author of Schindler’s List, on American Journeys------------
"A marvelous polemic."
― Forbes, on Death Sentence----------------
"Watson wields the language like a bullwhip."
― San Diego Union-Tribune, on Death Sentence-------------
"There is a dictionary of clichés on my desktop in Beirut and I heartily recommend Watson's Dictionary of Weasel Words by the Australian Don Watson."
― Robert Fisk, author of The Great War for Civilisation, on Watson’s Dictionary of Weasel Words, Cant and Management Jargon--------------
"A truly magnificent achievement."
― Peter Carey, author of Parrot and Olivier in America, on The Passion of Private White---------------
"The book’s brilliance lies in the way it reveals the layers of complexity both in the politics which surround Keating, which will feel familiar to anyone who has been at the heart of government at that level, and also the layers of complexity in the man himself. . . . And if you want to get a real feel for politics from the inside then yes, I might recommend my diaries, but I would definitely recommend Watson’s book, too. At almost 750 pages, you will need a fair bit of time to read it, but if you’re like me, you will get to the end and want to read it again."
― The New European, on Recollections of a Bleeding Heart--------------
"This is a brilliant original work."
― Times Literary Supplement, on Caledonia Australis--------------
"A loving rumination on Australia, the landmass, and those who live on it and from it. . . . Watson refuses to be captured by easy categorisations or received opinion. . . . The writing is crisp, witty and sardonic. . . . Watson is an original, with an authentic, prophetic voice."
― The Monthly, on The Bush------------
"Watson's magnificent, celebratory, contradictory study of the Australian bush will challenge the national imagination."
― The Weekend Australian, on The Bush
About the Author
Don Watson is an author and screenwriter who formerly worked as a political adviser and speechwriter. He is the author of three Quarterly Essays and many acclaimed books, including Recollections of a Bleeding Heart, American Journeys, The Bush, Watsonia, and The Passion of Private White.