This radical land: a natural history of American dissent

'The American people sees itself advance across the wilderness, draining swamps, straightening rivers, peopling the solitude, and subduing nature,' wrote Alexis de Tocqueville in 1835.

That's largely how we still think of 19th-century America today: a country expanding unstoppably, bending the continent's natural bounty to the national will, heedless of consequence.

A country of slavery and of Indian wars. There's much truth in that vision. But if you know where to look, you can uncover a different history, one of vibrant resistance, one that's been mostly forgotten. 'This Radical Land' recovers that story.