The U.S. War with Mexico, Manifest Destiny
and the Rise of the U.S. Empire
With Amy S. Greenberg, George Winfree Professor of American History
Amy Greenberg is an historian of antebellum America (1800-1860) with a particular interest in the relationship between the United States and the rest of the world in the decades before the Civil War.
Amy has published five books. Among them are
• Lady First: The World of First Lady Sarah Polk
• A Wicked War: Polk, Clay, Lincoln, and the 1846 U.S. Invasion of Mexico
• Manifest Manhood and the Antebellum American Empire
• Manifest Destiny and American Territorial Expansion: A Brief History with Documents
Professor Greenberg has written powerfully on Manifest Destiny and its role in arousing public sentiment for expansionism and imperialism which foreshadows what we see today in the movement stoked by white supremacy. She is also intrigued by partisan politics and the growth of America’s empire. She is currently researching and writing a history of nineteenth-century attitudes towards imperialism, focused on ordinary Americans.
Among her many achievements Professor Greenberg won the 1999 Penn State George W. Atherton Award for Excellence in Teaching; was named a Guggenheim Foundation Fellow in 2009. She is the former President of the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic.
