The United States of America, founded in the eighteenth century, soon became the dominant political formation in North America. What were the historical factors that enabled its political and economic rise? What did its rapid expansion mean for the Indigenous nations, Black people, and ethnic minorities in the USA, who found themselves marginalised in this ‘modern’ nation of ‘free’ individuals?
This volume, From Independence to the Civil War, covers important themes and historiographical debates:

• Life in pre-colonial America and the consequences of colonialism for Indigenous peoples
• The American Revolution and the formulation of the US Constitution
• Jeffersonian and Jacksonian republicanism, key political ideas of ‘Westward Expansion’ and ‘Manifest Destiny’, the War of 1812, and the Monroe Doctrine
• The development of the transatlantic slave trade and racialised ‘chattel slavery’, and the long struggle of enslaved people for emancipation
• The Civil War (1860–1865), its context, and academic perspectives on the conflict
• This richly detailed volume also contains a map of the USA’s territorial acquisitions, images, and tables with important timelines, as well as a detailed bibliography.

The first such textbook to be written by an Indian author, this book is specially designed as per the latest NEP 2020 history syllabus. Students of history, political science, and sociology will find it an accessible and invaluable resource.

Archana Ojha is Professor of History, Kamala Nehru College, University of Delhi.

List of Figures, Maps, and Tables     vii
Preface     ix
Acknowledgments     xi

Introduction     1

1. The American Revolution: The Rise of a Nation     18
2. The Formulation of the American Constitution     52
3. Thomas Jefferson and Jeffersonian Democracy     73
4. Andrew Jackson and the Emergence of a New Political Ethos     89
5. Removal of Indigenous Peoples and Westward Expansion     105
6. The War of 1812     141
7. American Exceptionalism: Chattel Enslavement     164
8. The Civil War: Slavery, Sectionalism, and Economic Interests     223

References     257

Index     266