If you, like me and many others, are looking around lately and feeling like the world is coming apart at the seams, worrying that our democratic institutions are in serious danger, then I highly recommend that you pick up this book. Sexton takes an in-depth look back at some pivotal crisis moments during America's history that shaped the nation we know today: the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, the Great Depression, and World War II and its aftermath. It's reassuring to see that our country has been one of turmoil throughout its 242-year existence, and that each time it faced a moment of true crisis with an unknown outcome, luck was on our side. But that's the scary part as well: while the intellect and courage and convictions of our statesmen and citizens had a hand in striving for a good outcome, in the end it came down to sheer chance and the convergence of many disparate things. Still, although Sexton warns Americans to take off our rose-colored glasses and look at history not with nostalgia or a sense of inevitability, he does offer a kernel of hope and a glimmer of light for those fighting now to save what we hold dear - and to push America once again to become a better place:

"Crises have a way of empowering those who have hitherto been marginalized. The patriot cause unleashed social forces that ultimately gave birth to modern democracy; the African Americans and immigrants who served in the Union armies that reduced the Old South to rubble could not be treated after the war as they had been before it; and the white ethnics, working classes, and African Americans who swelled the ranks of organized labor formed the backbone of the New Deal coalition that would dominate American politics for a generation.

Moments of crisis also brought to center stage foreign powers, the most overlooked actors in American history. Foreign powers were the fulcrum upon which the fate of the American nation has hinged in those rare moments in which its future - indeed, its very existence, hung in the balance...

However events unfold in the short term, one thing is a near certainty: there will be a time when the American nation again encounters a crisis that unleashes transformative change. All of its citizens will have to make sacrifices in order for the nation to mobilize its full power. Furthermore, if the past is any indication, the outcome of the next crisis will be determined not only by the willingness of Americans to face it but also by the actions of those beyond the nation's borders as well as the foreign-born within them. At some point in the future, the United States will confront another Saratoga moment in which its fate hangs in the balance and it is not fully in control of the outcome. As we navigate our way through that crisis, whenever it may be, we would be well served to remember something that American history teaches us: the more we look outward, the more prepared we'll be."

A concise history of the United States revealing that a crisis has always determined the nation's course from the start.

In A Nation Forged by Crisis , historian Jay Sexton contends that US history is not a story of constant & steady progress, but of repeated disruptions brought about by shifts in the international system. It takes a look at the causes & the circumstances surrounding the 3 major events in US history: The American War of independence, The Civil War & The Great Recession & the New Deal.

Sexton shows that the American Revolution was caused due to the increasing integration of the British and American economies; Civil War was caused mainly due to the slavery issue yes, but also due to the absence of any credible foreign threats to the might of US; It explores the tensions over slavery in the mid-19th century, particularly the abolition of slavery by the British and it’s repercussions in the US. It also examines the New Deal and the role of European immigrants in transforming the Democratic Party. He concludes by urging the Americans to “revisit [these] previous moments of crisis,” to deal with the crisis US is facing in the present. Sexton’s book offers an insightful roadmap of how US reached it’s present position by examining it’s past and the way forward.

The book is well researched and well paced. The focus of the book is mainly on the circumstances and background around the crisis, while it rarely discusses the crisis itself. A little account of the American Revolution or the Civil War itself would had been informative. It presumes that you already have enough knowledge about the finer details of these events, so if you are unaware of these events in detail, you may feel a bit lost. On the other hand, if you are aware of these events in detail, you may find lot of the information repetitive, albeit from a different perspective. Overall if you are a major history buff & interested in US History, this book is for you.