| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 109.4

You have not been recognized as a subscriber to the AHR online. About 140 words from this article are provided below; about 497 words remain.

If you are a individual member of the American Historical Association, you may:: • login here if you have already registered for online access.; • Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.
• Set up your online account for the first time. AHA members can go to the AHA individual membership section to locate their member numbers.
If you are not a member of the American Historical Association, you can:: • Join the AHA and receive many member benefits including print and electronic issues of the American Historical Review.
• Purchase a research pass to gain two hour access to the entire History Cooperative web site. You will have full access to current issues of the American Historical Review (104.3-present). Note: the Research Pass does not provide access to JSTOR's holdings of the American Historical Review.
Instititutions can:: • Subscribe to this journal and receive print and electronic issues.
• Activate your existing subscription so that we recognize your IP number ranges.

| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 109.4 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Canada and the United States

James E. Block. A Nation of Agents: The American Path to a Modern Self and Society. Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. 2002. Pp. xi, 658. $45.00.

This book by James E. Block is large, dense, and abstractly written. The introductory chapter of thirty-five pages quotes over sixty contemporary experts on the character of the United States, in addition to the score of historical figures the author mentions. Twenty-five more authorities are cited in the footnotes to the introduction. The persevering reader frequently runs up against sentences like this: "In this architectonic conception [of John Dewey's] which formed the Protestant-liberal settlement, the internal conflicts and mutual antipathy on the part of each was overcome to constitute a consensual model of Protestant agency character in inclusive liberal institutions" (p. 33).

. . .

There are about 497 more words in this article. Please log in (or, if you are not yet an authorized user, please go to the User Setup page) to gain full access rights. Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.