America, América

A New History of the New World

By: Greg Grandin

Narrated by: Holter Graham

“Dazzling. Sweeping. Mind-altering. World-changing. . . . Destined to become our new reference for understanding the making of the modern world.” —Naomi Klein, New York Times bestselling author of Doppelganger

“Scintillating . . . It’s a monumental new view of the New World.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

From the Pulitzer Prize–winning historian, the first comprehensive history of the Western Hemisphere, a sweeping five-century narrative of North and South America that redefines our understanding of both

The story of how the United States’ identity was formed is almost invariably told by looking east to Europe. But as Greg Grandin vividly demonstrates, the nation’s unique sense of itself was in fact forged facing south toward Latin America. In turn, Latin America developed its own identity in struggle with the looming colossus to the north. In this stunningly original reinterpretation of the New World, Grandin reveals how North and South emerged from a constant, turbulent engagement with each other.

America, América traverses half a millennium, from the Spanish Conquest—the greatest mortality event in human history—through the eighteenth-century wars for independence, the Monroe Doctrine, the coups and revolutions of the twentieth century, and beyond. Grandin shows, among other things, how in response to U.S. interventions, Latin Americans remade the rules, leading directly to the founding of the United Nations; and how the Good Neighbor Policy allowed FDR to assume the moral authority to lead the fight against world fascism.

Grandin’s book sheds new light on well-known historical figures like Bartolomé de las Casas, Simón Bolívar, and Woodrow Wilson, as well as lesser-known actors such as the Venezuelan Francisco de Miranda, who almost lost his head in the French Revolution and conspired with Alexander Hamilton to free America from Spain; the Colombian Jorge Gaitán, whose unsolved murder inaugurated the rise of Cold War political terror, death squads, and disappearances; and the radical journalist Ernest Gruening, who, in championing non-interventionism in Latin America, helped broker the most spectacularly successful policy reversal in United States history. This is a monumental work of scholarship that will fundamentally change the way we think of Spanish and English colonialism, slavery and racism, and the rise of universal humanism. At once comprehensive and accessible, America, América shows that centuries of bloodshed and diplomacy not only helped shape the political identities of the United States and Latin America but also the laws, institutions, and ideals that govern the modern world. In so doing, Grandin argues that Latin America’s deeply held culture of social democracy can be an effective counterweight to today’s spreading rightwing authoritarianism.

A culmination of a decades-long engagement with hemispheric history, drawing on a vast array of sources, and told with authority and flair, this is a genuinely new history of the New World.

Our fates intertwined

Comparing and contrasting Spain and England's colonization of the Americas, through the Bolivar Revolution, Monroe Doctrine, Cold War, to now, Grandin does a fascinating job showing how our political currents are intertwined in this hemisphere.

Amazing eye-opening perspective on American History

An amazing new perspective on American history. Should be required reading for all high school and college students and faculty. Good reading.

Most important history book of 2025

Graeber writes the history of the Americas that the U.S. selectively amnesia-thetize from our versions of the world. This should be required reading for anyone traveling in LATAM

Why I relate to Latin America as a Colonial Woman from the United States

I have often considered myself a daughter of the Americas, defined myself that way. I am “pura gringa”, from one of the oldest colonial families in the United States. And yet I was drawn to Latin America, focusing my college degree on essentially US imperialism and LA economic development. As I say in my intro to Collaborative Hardball: Using the Power of a New Negotiation to Change the World, this was because I grew up surrounded by patriarchy and Wall Street and I think I knew intuitively what LA had suffered at the expense of Anglo male supremacy. Anyway, I loved this book and may even re-read as there is so much in it. We in the U.S. are “hitting our bottom” as they say in AA. We have been drunk on dominance and a “rape” culture that needs to turn a corner if the world will survive. Thank you Gregg Grandin. My only criticism is that I often felt like women’s voices were sort of a tack-on and needed to be more consistently in the foreground throughout. If you are interested in my book check out www.susancoleman.global/book

Deeply researched and smoothly executed

This book reveals so much about the relationship between the “Americas” that I did not know (or only understood the thin surface of a complex and inter-tangled experience)—A deep dive into the Western Hemisphere’s history that is well worth your time.