America's Coming of Age

What did America look like as an adolescent? In the tumultuous decades between the War of 1812 and the Mexican War in 1848, the young United States grew from an undeveloped, backwater outpost to a booming, new-world empire.

The transformation of a country and a continent, driven by commerce, evangelism, and communications, would set the course and shape the destiny, manifest or otherwise, of the nation we live in today.

Now, historian Daniel Walker Howe brings the era to life in an acclaimed new book.

This hour, On Point: America's coming of age, and the world it made.Guests:

Daniel Walker Howe, professor of history emeritus at Oxford University and UCLA, his new book is "What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America 1815-1848."

Ted Widmer, historian, former speechwriter for President Bill Clinton, and director of the John Carter Brown Library at Brown University.