"Burge's persuasive critique of the standard account of American empire should alter how manifest destiny is studied and taught."—Matt Millsap, South Dakota History
"A Failed Vision of Empire is a valuable part of a growing literature seeking to place manifest destiny in its proper historical and historiographical position."—Michael Hill, American Nineteenth Century History
"This well-written, deeply researched, and provocative book deserves a wide readership because it advances important ideas that will spark plenty of discussions about manifest destiny and expansion in the nineteenth century U.S."—Evan C. Rothera, Civil War Monitor
“An important correction to a traditional view of manifest destiny still found in U.S. history textbooks.”—Abraham Hoffman, Roundup Magazine
"A Failed Vision of Empire is engaging and persuasive. Burge will convince historians to rethink all aspects of manifest destiny: its objectives, chronology, popularity, and fulfillment. The book will not only appeal to scholars fascinated by territorial expansion and U.S. empire, but also to readers interested in nineteenth-century America and political culture. Overall, Burge recovers the contentious and unrealized story of manifest destiny obscured by triumphalist narratives."—Nicholas Dipucchio, Register
"A Failed Vision of Empire builds on current literature that questions the teleological power of manifest destiny. . . . This work challenges readers to explore what many students and scholars have come to consider familiar historical themes in unfamiliar ways."—Claire Wolnisty, Annals of Wyoming
“By shattering long-held notions that mid-nineteenth-century white Americans shared a common commitment to their country’s territorial growth, Daniel Burge complicates stereotypes about U.S. imperialism while speaking to today’s nation disunited. His astute parsing of cartoons, literature, and political discourse makes for a lively, informative, and ultimately convincing read.”—Robert E. May, author of Manifest Destiny’s Underworld: Filibustering in Antebellum America
“New and important. . . . A Failed Vision of Empire provides a much wider framing of the concept of manifest destiny than most prior works, which in turn helps to dismantle it as the single explanatory framework often grafted onto the late 1840s and 1850s. Burge explores little-known episodes that will be valuable to not just specialists but more general historians.”—Thomas Richards Jr., author of Breakaway Americas: The Unmanifest Future of the Jacksonian United States
