Richard Kluger’s highly researched history of our nation’s growth from the few colonies to claiming the entire swath of land between the oceans and other territories as states (Alaska and Hawaii) and more nuanced relationships, e.g., Puerto Rico and Guam is a serious claim on anyone’s interest in knowing how the process developed. Admittedly, it was a hard book to read but it accomplished its goal of tracing our history relative to land acquisition.
From the title, “Seizing Destiny”, the reader understands that the peoples of the United States understood that they were destined to own what others had. We saw that we were special and would use the land appropriately, in contrast to the Native Indians and Mexico. In a sense, President Bush’s insight that our nation would change in the Mideast into a democracy is aligned with this historical vision.
The other aspect of the advance of our people to lands owned by others is that we were less than honest in our negotiations. Again, one wonders whether anyone learns from history, Dishonesty has been ingrained in the Bush Administration.
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