Restless Giant: The United States from Watergate to Bush vs. Gore (Oxford History of the United States)
by James T. Patterson
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Book Summary Information
Author: James T. PattersonEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Published)
Format: Bargain Price
Published: 2005-09-23
ISBN: N/A
Number of pages: 448
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Book Reviews of Restless Giant: The United States from Watergate to Bush vs. Gore (Oxford History of the United States)
Book Review: Good survey of recent American history
Summary: 4 Stars
I've often felt that 'contemporary history' is not just an oxymoron, but a fallacy as well. Good history depends on two things: information and perspective. Information, in that there are sources available that provide insight into the motivations behind decisions and events, and perspective in that there is enough distance to make an assessment of what decisions and trends truly shaped subsequent developments. Without both, the observations and conclusions made may not be inaccurate, but they are not really historical judgments.
For this reason, I approached James Patterson's book with some skepticism. It's not that I didn't think he was up to the task (his previous contribution to the Oxford History of the United States, Grand Expectations: The United States, 1945-1974 (Oxford History of the United States), is testament to his ability to write such history), but that the task itself was in many ways a fool's errand. Yet Patterson has done an admirable job of applying a historical assessment of America during the last quarter of the twentieth century. He strikes an admirable balance in examining the political, social, and economic developments of those decades; what emerges is a portrait of America becoming more conservative politically during these decades while coming to terms with the 'rights revolution' of the 1960s. I was particularly impressed with his discussion of American culture of the period, something that was sorely lacking in a couple of the earlier volumes of the series.
Nevertheless, the challenge of writing contemporary history shows in these pages. Many of the document collections remain closed, and Patterson seems heavily dependent upon contemporary journalism in assessing events. Where his problems are particularly evident, though, is in drawing conclusions about developments. The challenge for historians is in assigning causality, to say why something happens. Too often what Patterson does is to present various explanations of events without coming to any definite conclusions himself. While such evenhandedness is admirable, it demonstrates the fundamental problem - we still don't know enough to make judicious assessments of the impact of events still within living memory. The result is best regarded as an interim account, one that will be revised in many respects as our knowledge and distance from the times grows.
This is not to diminish the author's achievement. Patterson has written a good, comprehensive survey of recent American history, easily the best one available to us today. Even readers who remember well the events Patterson describes will learn something new from this book, one that is likely to remain the standard history of the era for many years to come.
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