wbur.org
support wbur today!
Listen to this show
America’s Coming of Age
photo

What did America look like as an adolescent? In the tumultuous decades between the War of 1812 and the Mexican War in 1848, the young United States grew from an undeveloped, backwater outpost to a booming, new-world empire.

The transformation of a country and a continent, driven by commerce, evangelism, and communications, would set the course and shape the destiny, manifest or otherwise, of the nation we live in today.

Now, historian Daniel Walker Howe brings the era to life in an acclaimed new book.

This hour, On Point: America’s coming of age, and the world it made.

-Jacki Lyden

Guests:

Daniel Walker Howe, professor of history emeritus at Oxford University and UCLA, his new book is “What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America 1815-1848.”

Ted Widmer, historian, former speechwriter for President Bill Clinton, and director of the John Carter Brown Library at Brown University.

 

Tags:

 
 

Comments are closed.

Recent Shows
The Future of Aging
Thursday, November 5, 2009 image

A surge of new strategies to “manage” aging — from diets to testosterone. We’ll get the story.

Comments [31]
 
Climate, Congress & Copenhagen
Thursday, November 5, 2009 image

The Copenhagen climate conference is one month away. US climate action is going nowhere in Congress. We’ll look at the global implications of America’s domestic climate politics.

Comments [73]
On Point Blog
California, here we come! And we need your questions!

On Point is headed west!
No, no. Not for good. Only for one show. But it’s a very special show!  The NPR station in Thousand Oaks, California – KCLU – is celebrating their 15th anniversary. We’re lucky to have been on their airwaves for nearly seven years, and they invited us out west to host a live [...]

More » | Comments [7]
 
For Love of Science – or Money?

A new study supports the idea that U.S. dominance in engineering and science is threatened — but not for lack of training and education. It has more to do with a lack of social and economic incentives.

More » | Comments [5]
 
Matthew Hoh’s Resignation Letter

Matthew Hoh, a former Marine captain, became the first foreign service official to publicly resign in protest over the war in Afghanistan. The move has generated a lot of reaction. You can read Hoh’s resignation letter, posted by The Washington Post, which reported on it here.
It’s a topic for our news roundtable today. What [...]

More » | Comments [4]