In the preface to the 1942 Pocket History of the United States co-authored by Allan Nevins and Henry Steele Commager, one reads that from its earliest beginnings, [America's] people have been conscious of a peculiar destiny, because upon it have been fastened the hopes and aspirations of the human race, and because it has not failed to fulfill that destiny or to justify those hopes."  Consequently, "America became the most ambitious experiment ever undertaken in the intermingling of people, in religious toleration, social equality, economic opportunity, and political democracy" (vi). Nevins and Commager contend that "there is something exhilarating in the story of the tenacious exaltation of liberty and the steady growth of democracy in the history of America."  The authors explain that the theme in their short book is "the development here of a people intelligent enough to want freedom and willing to work for it and to fight for...(Read Full Article)