In Thomas Hietala’s book, Manifest Design: American Exceptionalism and Empire, is an excellently written and researched analysis of the political economy of America in the 1840’s as well as the political and social ramifications of expansion. Though the majority of the book focuses on the annexation of Texas, as well as the Democrats disagreement about what should be done if or when we do expand, particularly in Texas. By providing a revisionist approach to the prior knowledge on the period of westward expansion, particularly the urgency and extent of it under presidents such as Tyler and Polk, Hietala changed the view of expansionism from a large group of brave frontiersmen wanting to explore and settle the west into a small group of politicians
