Six scholars consider important aspects of American antebellum 
expansion in this collection of studies newly available in paperback.

    Robert W. Johannsen of the University of Illinois at Urbana offers 
fresh insight into the meaning of the term "manifest destiny," arguing 
for a broader definition.

    John M. Belohlavek of the University of South Florida takes a 
close look at the expansionist attitudes of Caleb Cushing, a 
Massachusetts politician, diplomat, reformer, and intellectual. 

    Thomas R. Hietala of Grinnell College examines the complicated 
clash of cultures (the result of Manifest Destiny) and how it was 
viewed by observant individuals such as George Catlin, a painter 
who traveled and lived among Native Americans just prior to the 
expansionist surge of the 1840s.

    Winner of the Webb essay competition for 1996, Samuel J. 
Watson of Rice University studies U.S. Army officers' responses to 
territorial expansionism between 1815 and 1846. Sam W. Haynes 
uncovers the social and political complexities, including a 
widespread fear of Great Britain, that made Texas' annexation the 
most divisive issue of its day. Finally, Robert E. May of Purdue 
University offers a compelling examination of American filibustering 
during the Manifest Destiny era.

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SAM W. HAYNES and CHRISTOPHER M. MORRIS are associate 
professors of history at the University of Texas at Arlington.


Number Thirty-one: Walter Prescott Webb Memorial Lectures



What people are saying about this book

" . . . a very satisfying collection, with edifying perspectives on an era 
in which expansionists prevailed."—Southwestern Historical Quarterly