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)

Poor transitions between audio clips

There were some pretty jarring narrator inconsistencies, sometimes mid-sentence. I can understand the need to rerecord certain passages during the course of production, but the blending of one clip with another was clumsy at times. Its hard to tell if it's due to poor recreation of audio capture settings in the studio for the sections that needed rerecording, or simply a separate narrator doing the rerecording altogether.

well narrated and an excellent overview

the narration is excellent and well paced. the author provides an excellent overview while going into detail on specific characters of interest in later history. in essential book to study that provides an excellent understanding of modern American culture and where its foundations lie.

Enjoyable

I think that although it feels like it should around a lot, this book does an excellent job covering the time period it sets out to describe.

It's amazing the changes that occur during this time. I have not read extensively on this time period so it was great to learn more.

<br />Comprehensive in scope

comprehensive in scope and masterful overview of early US history. easy to listen to but with pragmatic insights.

Great book bad narration

title is a bit misleading. narrator was fine. editing was distractingly bad. clean that up and it's an easy five.

Great history, poor production quality

An excellent history book, scholarly and authoritative, but also with a good narrative arc. Approaches from all levels: prominent individuals, social forces, critical evaluation.

Production quality is pretty bad though. On one level, just poorly mixed, jarringly, so at times. The narration is poor as well. Monotone, almost robotic.

a must listen for any history buff

fantastic narration
great story
constantly rewinding to re hear interesting parts
couldn't put it down

Good story, good reader, audio inconsistent

Where does What Hath God Wrought rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

This is the fourth of the Oxford History of the United States books I've read or listened to. The content is very good history, but not quite as engaging or dramatic as "The Glorious Cause" or "Battle Cry of Freedom". While the Reader is passably good, what is very annoying is that, when the Reader had to go back and redo a sentence, I'm presuming at some other time, the audio recording quality or settings was not consistent with the original. Tone, balance and volume are all different, creating a patchwork quilt of sound settings in the final product. It takes significant effort to ignore the constantly changing audio and concentrate on the content.

How could the performance have been better?

Better audio engineering.

Great History, Poor Audio Editing

This is a really solid history of a sometimes overlooked of American history. However, as others have noted, the audio editing is very poor at times. The narrator is quite gifted, but the editing should have had more attention. Overall, I was able to tolerate that enough to enjoy the story

comprehensive and thorough

comprehensive and thorough. a great survey of this period...reform, slavery, the Mexican War, and more.