Primary Contributions (4)
Manifest Destiny, in U.S. history, the supposed inevitability of the continued territorial expansion of the boundaries of the United States westward to the Pacific and beyond. Before the American Civil War (1861–65), the idea of Manifest Destiny was used to validate continental acquisitions in the…
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Publications (3)
Henry Clay: The Essential American (May 2011)
By David S. Heidler, Jeanne T. Heidler
He was the Great Compromiser, a canny and colorful legislator whose life mirrors the story of America from its founding until the eve of the Civil War. Speaker of the House, senator, secretary of state, five-time presidential candidate, and idol to the young Abraham Lincoln, Henry Clay is captured in full at last in this rich and sweeping biography.David S. Heidler and Jeanne T. Heidler present Clay in his early years as a precocious, witty, and optimistic Virginia farm boy who at the...
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The Mexican War (Greenwood Guides to Historic Events 1500-1900) (November 2005)
By David S. Heidler, Jeanne T. Heidler
Victory over Mexico added vast western territories to America, but it also quickened the domestic slavery debate and crippled Mexico for decades, making the Mexican War one of our most ambiguous conflicts. Primary documents, biographical sketches and narrative chapters rounded out by twenty images and maps and a robust bibliography and index make this work by two of America's foremost Antebellum historians a must have to understand one of our most contentious episodes.\nThe United States...
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The War of 1812 (April 2002)
By David S. Heidler, Jeanne T. Heidler
Entangled in the Napoleonic conflicts on the European continent, the reasons for fighting the War of 1812 are far from clear. Once the conflict got underway, both the United States and Great Britain waged it in great confusion and finally concluded it inconclusively. Meanwhile, the war deeply divided American sentiment, possibly more than did any other war, including Vietnam. With an overview essay providing historical background, seven essays on specific topics related to the war, biographies...
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