Reviews for The emerging nation

The average rating for The emerging nation based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2016-10-03 00:00:00 Chris Emory One of the most intriguing challenges of the early American nation was, in the absence of a standing army or suitable navy, its noted neutrality, despite raging conflicts between the three main European powers, England at the top, France second, and Spain third, each one still holding lands on the American side of the Atlantic, pressing the new nation like a python. Frank Reuter does a thorough job of laying out the tensions that existed, the role these three powers played in trying to manipulate the United States during that early going and, were it not for Washington and several of his Cabinet members, might have successfully minimized the nation to its original thirteen states and never more, maybe less. To be clear, this is not a book for every reader, and most certainly not for someone looking to get a well-rounded picture of George Washington, but this is most certainly a title worthy of its scholarship, worthy of its focus, worthy to be called an overview of the first president’s complex and fragile foreign policy. At the very least, Trials and Triumphs helped to expand my understanding of our early foreign policy at a time when I often wondered how the new president, whose American Revolutionary aid came from France, was dealing with the volatile and violent situation of the French Revolution. Honestly, were it not for the ten or so editing errors, I might have taken it up to four stars.

Review # 2 was written on 2012-01-19 00:00:00 Jeffrey Schmidt This was an outstanding book from start to finish. The author spells out diplomatic action and, more importantly, the economic causes for the actions of the Barbary Coast States, England, Spain and France. Although the most prominent person in the narrative is Washington, Reuter does a fine job of integrating the lives of the secretaries of state and other diplomats.