America, América

Praise

“As a leading historian of the western hemisphere attests, the history of the US—especially from independence to the second world war—is tightly tied to the countries to its south. America, América focuses on these vital connections. Greg Grandin’s argument is compelling and written with zest. His history is punchy, the array of sources is vast, and the narrative pace is superb.” —Financial Times

“Historian Greg Grandin’s audacious new book . . . will, for many readers, upend conceptions of the hemisphere . . . each day’s headlines further confirm the deep-rooted patterns that his brilliant and urgently needed history traces . . . America, América pursues its course across the centuries with verve, superb pacing, and impressive delicacy of touch.” —Esther Allen, Los Angeles Review of Books

“A lone, expansionist United States pitted against a collective of sovereign American nations—this rivalry has played a key role in creating the modern world, Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Greg Grandin argues in his sweeping new book, America, América . . . The moral center of gravity of Grandin’s book is tilted toward Latin America. It is the lesser-known story, and one that offers crucial insights to the United States and the wider world.” —Ieva Jusionyte, Los Angeles Review of Books

“Grandin makes a persuasive case . . . If The End of the Myth helped make sense of the first Trump Administration, America, América sheds light on the expansionist ambitions Trump has voiced during his second term . . . In America, América, he argues that, if the promise of social-democratic movements is to be realized, it will be because North and South Americans come together to believe in our shared fate as Americans . . . Grandin suggests that historical struggles for social democracy across Latin America might serve as a model for a social-democratic movement of the future.” —The New Yorker

“One of the best historians today at writing for both scholars and the general public. This is an extraordinarily ambitious book . . . America, América reads at times as the historical equivalent of the great epic novels of Gabriel García Márquez.” —Irish Times

“Grandin has written a stirring new book . . . America, América shows how over the course of five centuries, America in the north and America in the south have shaped each other through war, conquest, competition and cooperation. Their intercontinental relationship has had implications for not only the Western Hemisphere but also the modern world . . . Grandin is such a terrific writer and perceptive historian that I was swept along by his enthralling narrative.” —The New York Times

“Grandin makes a compelling case for the intricate connections tying the United States to its southern neighbors. In bright, fluid prose, the historian argues that Latin American political thought and diplomatic ideals have mightily influenced the more powerful northern country. . . . Grandin is distressed by the resurgence today of reactionary impulses in the United States. Yet he finds grounds for hope south of the United States, where ‘more than 480 million Latin Americans, out of a total of 625 million, live under some kind of social democratic government.’” —Foreign Affairs

“This book, the best piece of nonfiction so far this year, corrects some of the lazy thinking about what America (the country) does and doesn’t do, and clarifies what, exactly, is new about its Trump-led strategy of domination.” —Semafor

“A sweeping, magisterial analysis of 300 years of conflicting geopolitical understandings of sovereignty that have defined Anglo-American and Spanish American relations . . . The relevance of this history cannot be overemphasized.” —Science

“Historian and Pulitzer Prize winner Grandin brilliantly reexamines the development of the historical relationship between the United States and Latin America in this comprehensive volume . . . Grandin carefully and calmly traces a 500-year arc from the genocidal Spanish conquest to the coup-ridden 20th century . . . Weighty but not encyclopedic, argumentative but never overbearing, this monumental work of scholarship deserves pride of place in any historical collection that values reasonably argued discussion and deeply researched history.” —Library Journal (starred review)

“An authoritative history of the debates and brutality that made our world.” —Kirkus (starred review)

“Scintillating . . . It’s a monumental new view of the New World.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Dazzling. Sweeping. Mind-altering. World-changing. This is a once-in-a-generation contribution destined to become our new reference for understanding the making of the modern world. With extraordinary depth, erudition and precision, Grandin avenges the dead and fights for the living.” —Naomi Klein, New York Times bestselling author of Doppelganger

“For nearly a century, historians have attempted to tell a ‘common history’ of ‘Greater America,’ one that brings the history of the United States and Latin America together in a shared and durable conceptualization. In America, América, Greg Grandin does just this and advances an urgent vision of the relational history of the hemisphere. Adding to his already extraordinary corpus of works and reinterpreting five centuries in broad and beautiful strokes, it ends with a chilling conclusion about the diplomatic and moral failures of our current politics and its return to unilateralism and deliberate misunderstandings of the past. A major and desperately needed synthesis of the Americas and the making of modernity.” —Ned Blackhawk, author of National Book Award-winning The Rediscovery of America

“America, América is the best kind of book: masterful and erudite yet absolutely riveting. By considering the long, sweeping story of Latin America and the United States in the same frame, acclaimed historian Greg Grandin has given us a novel and necessary understanding of a deeply entwined history that is sure to surprise readers, not least because he shows convincingly and urgently how a different past—and with it a different, better present—might have been possible.” —Ada Ferrer, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Cuba: An American History

“Greg Grandin’s America, América takes José Martí’s famous essay, ‘Nuestra América’ and recasts it as a sweeping historical epic. Here is Our American history, told as it never has been told before, full of staggering violence and loss, unforgettable villains and heroes, and the courageous endurance of the poor multitudes, so many sources of inspiration. Beautifully written, this brilliantly researched and reasoned book helps account for the sorry state of the present while offering historical lessons on how we might reach a better future.” —Francisco Goldman, author of Pulitzer Prize finalist Monkey Boy

“In this sweeping and provocative work, Greg Grandin provides a groundbreaking reinterpretation of the intertwined histories of the two Americas, foregrounding Latin American resistance to the hegemony of the United States. This is a compelling new vision of the relationship between the two continents.” —Amitav Ghosh, author of the bestselling Ibis Trilogy and Smoke and Ashes

“In his awe-inspiring masterpiece, Greg Grandin shows how hemispheric relationships have defined the history of the United States for five centuries. Latin Americans did more than decry our failures to live up to the new world’s revolutionary ideals. As our country ascended to hegemon in the last century, our neighbors pushed—in part because of their unequal might and wealth—for the reimagination of how the globe itself ought to be governed.” —Samuel Moyn, author of Liberalism Against Itself