What Hath God Wrought by Daniel Walker Howe

In addition to tracing the politics of the era, Howe focuses on the technological advances taking place at the time.

Whigs also wanted to keep prices of public land high so that select few individuals were not able to gobble up large tracts of newly acquired country. The party was also in favor of rapid economic growth and sought to centralize the banking system of the country. One important Whig policy was the establishment of a public school system. It was their belief that the drive to individual success must be restrained somewhat so that people could work together for the good of the overall society. The democratic view of America was a meritocracy in which anyone could succeed given drive and ingenuity, but the Whigs preferred a more cautious approach. Whigs supported more government intervention to subsidize economically disadvantaged parts of the country, while Andrew Jackson’s democrats thought that such monetary distribution would inevitably favor people who already held power in the area and so should be limited.

Whigs believed in popular demonstrations and other methods of governing that involved input from average people, as well as laws and regulations designed to protect common people against government and corporate exploitation. By contrast, Howe presents the Whig party as the true embodiment of America’s future. However, Howe takes a different view, presenting Jackson and his followers as white supremacists, supporters of slavery, and exploiters of natural resources for personal gain. One of the leading government figures of the time period was Andrew Jackson, who, in previous books about the rise of the American state, was cast as a proponent of democracy and essential to the spread of the institution. The book begins with the War of 1812 and ends with the Mexican American war in 1848.

What Hath God Wrought won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for History and is included in the Oxford History of the United States series. A Rhodes professor, Howe previously worked at Oxford University and the University of California. The title of Daniel Walker Howe’s history book, What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815-1848 (2007), refers to the time period in which a second generation of leaders emerged in America to take over for the Founding Fathers.

What Hath God Wrought by Daniel Walker Howe