A nation among nations book review

Thomas Bender is qualified in telling the story of America as he sees it given that he is a professor of history, the University Professor of Humanities, and director of the International Center for Advanced Studies at New York University. He is also the author and editor of many books, has been awarded prizes and scholarships, and is a renowned historian of American culture. In this way, well acquainted with the history of America, he is able to critically asses the fashion of its narration as well as recommend the way that it should be told, and its narration, he informs, us does not cohere to the way that American history actually occurred in reality.

According to Bender, we are apt to view American history as autonomous and independent events that signaled the rise of an autonomous and independent nation, but the country's history, he tells us, is really part of the world's history of the time, indistinguishable and part of a global conversation. American history is generally taught as something that happened to a self-contained nation, but, in reality, America was and is part of the world stage and whatever happened, occurred in connection to interlocking of simultaneous multiple events. These events shaped America, and America, in turn, shaped global events of the period.

Bender's way of telling history may not only make changes to the self-contained way that America per nation and history is taught in popular textbooks and classrooms but also to the way America perceives itself, as an 'exceptionalism' that has an ethos and past that is distinct form other countries. On the contrary: "the United States [is] one of the many provinces that collectively constitutes humanity" (7).

Bender's thesis starts off by his first chapter that explores and redefines the meaning of the "age of discovery." He has us asking what it is that precisely demarcates the New World from the old. What precisely is new about it? This chapter sets the stage for the rest of the book.

The second chapter extends the geography and chronology of the American Revolution, placing it contextually among the background of the powerful 18th century empires and the Great War, namely the Anglo-Franco conflict that lasted between 1689 to 1815. It was French reaction to Britain and territorial and political as well as economic events extraneous to America that helped the fledgling nation gain their independence from Britain and become a nation. Equally significant is the fact that America was only one of the numerous nations at the time that embroiled itself in revolutionary ardor. This was part of the spirit of the epoch were national competitiveness and aggression was the norm with nations reforming themselves and tearing themselves away from others. America was no exception. Rather, it was one of many that were doing the same thing.

Writing in a non-emotional, logical manner, the second chapter logically flows from the first with the first setting the stage by challenging our most prized opinion. We tend to think America as different and distinct from other nations. It is one of a kind, a special nation, "a nation amongst nations" -- but when we actually are led to investigate demarcating characteristics, we find that we are hard-pressed to come up with any. America may actually not be so unique as alleged.

The second chapter logically takes off from the first by destructing our belief that America was unique in its stance of rising against one of the most powerful empires of the time (an empire on which the sun never set),and that it did so independently. Rather, it was helped by other nations (primarily France) who opposed Britain and it was one of many nations who stimulated by revolution and desires for independence to rebel against their colonization. America, therefore, Bender shows us is not as unique as thought.

It is indicative of the fact that Bender initiates the first chapter with describing the ramifications of Columbus' deed on a global scale. The discovery of America comes later but Bender's implication is that its discovery is micro and almost insignificant when compared to the larger significance of the event which was really the discovery of an ocean that created a new world:

The consequences of discovering an oceanic world shaped the history of every continent. On every continent a new world emerged, with consequences for each. The story of North America and of the United States is part of that larger, more important history, not vice versa (16)

The world now saw that there was an ocean that linked countries and connected each to the other, and that the world was holistic and whole.

It is interesting, actually, that Bender opens up with this implication for it seems to be the motif of his book: America is not one country apart from others. Rather it was formed by others, and in turn forms others. It is part of the conversation of the whole. "The ocean," as bender writes," ceased to be a barrier and became "a wide common over which men may pass in all directions" and similarly too, America, one of these oceanic countries simply served as a treading space for all directions. It interacted with, and was influenced by others in economic, agricultural, political and all ways, and was in turn affected by others who whether willfully or not came into contact with it.