A Work of Godly Ambition; Death or Glory: The American Civil War, the First Modern, Industrialised Conflict, Killed More Americans Than Both World Wars Combined

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Byline: DOMINIC SANDBROOK

AMERICA, EMPIRE OF LIBERTY: A NEW HISTORY by David Reynolds (Allen Lane, [pounds sterling]30)

WITH the canonisation sorry, inauguration of St Barack just a week away, media interest in all things American has rarely been greater. The Cambridge professor David Reynolds's new history of the United States, based on his gargantuan 90-part series for Radio 4, therefore seems perfectly timed although whether it can overcome British readers' famous reluctance to spend their cash on American history is another matter.

As a reading nation, we can never get enough of the Tudors and the Nazis.

But the colourful stories of the …