What Hath God Wrought

The Transformation of America, 1815 - 1848

By: Daniel Walker Howe

Narrated by: Patrick Cullen

Length: 32 hrs and 50 mins

Publisher's summary

Pulitzer Prize, History, 2008

In this addition to the esteemed Oxford History of the United States series, historian Daniel Walker Howe illuminates the period from the Battle of New Orleans to the end of the Mexican-American War, an era of revolutionary improvements in transportation and communications that accelerated America's expansion and prompted the rise of mass political parties.

He examines the rise of Andrew Jackson and his Democratic party but contends that John Quincy Adams and other advocates of public education, economic integration, and the rights of blacks, women, and Indians were the true prophets of America's future.

Howe's panoramic narrative - weaving together social, economic, and cultural history with political and military events - culminates in the controversial but brilliantly executed war against Mexico that gained California and Texas for America.

Please note: The individual volumes of the series have not been published in historical order. What Hath God Wrought is number V in The Oxford History of the United States.

Listen to more of the definitive Oxford History of the United States.

©2007 Oxford University Press, Inc. (P)2009 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

"One of the most outstanding syntheses of U.S. history published this decade." ( Publishers Weekly)
"He is a genuine rarity: an English intellectual who not merely writes about the United States but actually understands it." ( Washington Post)
"A stunning synthesis....it is a rare thing to encounter a book so magisterial and judicious and also so compelling." ( Chicago Tribune)

Great book, poorly edited audio

In depth look at the US in the early to mid 1800s. Very poor editing made the audio sound like it was being read by a computer

Perfunctory book; disjointed narration

What did you like best about What Hath God Wrought? What did you like least?

As many have noted, the narration is an obvious patchwork of multiple takes. It's like listening to a roomful of people by turns telling you the same story. The book itself is an authoritative treatment of the period, but it feels much more like a textbook than others in this brilliant series.

Fantastic book about an untold period of the U.S.

This is a fantastic book that tells the story of a period in United States history that very few Americans are familiar with or understand the massive importance of this period in the formation of what we believe is the United States.

Chalk full of fascinating information

This book is really long, and when my mood was wrong, I found myself tuning it out. It's a lot of facts, and no storyline to speak of, so the mood has to be right. But man, what great stuff. Amazingly well researched and shining with professionalism, this book can take you right back to antebellum America and almost make you feel like you lived through it. Because I wasn't always focused enough to listen for long stretches, it took me about 6 months to finally reach the finish line. I'd switch to something else for a while, but kept coming back to this one. It ended up being one of my favorite audiobooks. Worth buying for sure.

One of the best

This book does more to explain the history and modern culture of the United States than any of the dozens of books I have read.

An interesting book with some issues

While I am enjoying this book, there are some issues. There is a LOT more about religion than I thought. From the description, I thought it was going to be about technology and politics. I'm a casual reader of history. It seems that this book is written for someone with a more than casual love of history. Be prepared to ocasionally pause this book and do a Google search for terms that the author assumes the reader is familiar with. While this book is read well, it doesn't seem to be edited well. I can imagine that it takes days if not weeks to record these books. In other books, you can tell when they have stopped and started recording by the suttle changes in pitch or tone. Usually this happens at the end of pages, chapters, or parts. In this book, it happens mid-sentence. A lot. While it doesn't make the book unlistenable, it is annoying.

Rich material ruined by sound processing

This book could have been so good: a good narrator, fascinating subject, good writing, ruined by an obvious sound processing algorithm that reduced pauses, and spacing in the original narration.

It often sounds like constant run-on sentences, running from one topic to another to another, where natural inflections or pauses for effect, or for a topic to sink in, have been removed.

I would ask Audible for a reimbursement but I'm going to "gut" it out for the above virtues.

Up to you to judge.

Weird Audio

The guy doing the reading is smooth, but over and over there are places that have obviously been interjected (or seem so). The volume and relative stress suddenly change. It's off-putting, but certainly doesn't ruin the book.

for history buffs only...

father spoke was good it was at times very long and required the patience on my part to get through it. In the end I'm glad I did...

Really could be 5

This book is a very thorough overview of the people and events of Antebellum America. For it's content it is an easy 5. It is a teaching narrative. I give it a 4 because it's not the most enjoyable read or listen. A lot of that simply has to do with the events of this time