Ripon Public Library

The broken heart of America, St. Louis and the violent history of the United States, Walter Johnson

eng

Includes bibliographical references and index

illustrationsmaps

index present

non fiction

The broken heart of America

bibliography

1111963122

Walter Johnson

St. Louis and the violent history of the United States

"From an award-winning historian, a groundbreaking portrait of pervasive exploitation and radical resistance in America, told through the turbulent history of St. Louis. From Lewis and Clark's 1804 expedition to the 2014 uprising in Ferguson, American history has been made in St. Louis. And as Walter Johnson shows in this searing book, the city exemplifies how imperialism, racism, and capitalism have persistently entwined to corrupt the nation's past. St. Louis was a staging post for Indian removal and imperial expansion, and its wealth grew on the backs of its poor black residents, from slavery through redlining and urban renewal. But it was once also America's most radical city, home to anti-capitalist immigrants, the Civil War's first general emancipation, and the nation's first general strike -- a legacy of resistance that endures. A blistering history of a city's rise and decline, The Broken Heart of America will forever change how we think about the United States."--, Provided by publisher

Prologue: Mapping the loss -- William Clark's map -- War to the rope -- No rights the white man is bound to respect -- Empire and the limits of revolution -- Black reconstruction and the counterrevolution of property -- The Babylon of the New World -- The shape of fear -- Not poor, just broke -- "Black removal by white approval" -- Defensible space -- How long? -- Epilogue: The right place for all the wrong reasons