The Bipolar Nation: What America Has Given the World – The Good and the Bad
The 250th anniversary of the USA:
4th of July 2026
From Independence to Trump, from imperialism to isolationism, from the delights of mass consumption to climate change, from global dominance to growing chaos, from great promise to great danger: The age of America has had its highs and lows.
The United States has given a tremendous amount to the world, and to itself – and has demanded just as much in return. Philipp Gassert’s reappraisal of American history and its international influence is as ambivalent and enlightening as it is sobering. The author examines the seemingly insurmountable contradictions that have become so apparent in recent years, showing how deeply rooted they are in the founding and history of the nation. America, caught between revolution and disruption: the core historical through-lines of a bipolar nation: the great promise of freedom, infinite space (terrestrial and otherwise), an experiment in mass democracy, an unfettered market, limitless consumption, the imperialism of freedom.
- A critical assessment of the country that brought us Mickey Mouse, Facebook and the atomic bomb
- The author is a scholar of American and contemporary history, one of Germany’s most renowned experts on the US
- For readers of Herfried Münkler and Jill Lepore
Philipp Gassert has been professor of Contemporary History at the University of Mannheim since 2014. He has previously taught and conducted research at the German Historical Institute in Washington D.C., the University of Heidelberg, LMU Munich, the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Augsburg, and has held visiting professorships in Haifa and Vienna. Philipp Gassert’s research focuses on German and European contemporary history as well as transatlantic history and US foreign policy of the 20th and 21st centuries. In addition to his scholarly work, Gassert frequently writes for the ZEIT and FAZ.
