Thomas Bender Is Qualified in Telling the Book Review

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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.

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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….....

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