At a time of severe partisanship…this brilliant new history, Land of Hope…is much needed. It is accurate, honest, and free of the unhistorical condescension so often paid to the people of America’s past.

—Gordon S. Wood, author of Friends Divided: John Adams and Thomas Jefferson

Land of Hope, his latest book, is a lucid and engaging account of the “great American story.” McClay is a charming storyteller—and a first-rate scholar.

—Michael Barone, Resident Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute; Senior Political Analyst at the Washington Examiner; coauthor of The Almanac of American Politics

We’ve long needed a readable text that truly tells the American story…Wilfred McClay has supplied the need.

—Robert P. George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence, Princeton University

In a time when America seems pulled in opposite directions…the most balanced, nuanced history of the United States I have read in the past fifty years.

—Daniel Henninger, Deputy Editor, Editorial Page, The Wall Street Journal

Wilfred McClay tells it like it is: as a story of hope.

—Glenn Harlan Reynolds, Beauchamp Brogan Distinguished Professor of Law, University of Tennessee

No one has told the story of America with greater balance or better prose than Wilfred McClay. Land of Hope is a history book that you will not be able to put down.

—James W. Ceaser, Professor of Politics, University of Virginia

I wish Land of Hope had been there when I was teaching U.S. history. It is history as literature—broad, detailed, compassionate.

—Will Fitzhugh, Founder, The Concord Review

This is the most cheerful and inspiring history of America written so far this century…America is far from perfect…but it is genuinely dedicated to the ideals of equality and democracy.

—Patrick Allitt, Cahoon Family Professor of American History, Emory University

In Land of Hope, Bill McClay succeeds at multitasking…a learned and readable history of the United States, from Columbus to Trump, with balance and integrity.

—Robert Paquette, Professor of History and President, The Alexander Hamilton Institute

This is Bill McClay’s Land of Hope, a superb historian’s version of the American story, in lively prose spiced with keen analysis.

—Mark Bauerlein, author of The Dumbest Generation

Land of Hope is in every way a remarkable piece of work, clearly written and as balanced and fair-minded as any American history you will ever read.

—John Agresto, Professor of Political Science; former President of St. John’s College; author of Rediscovering America

Wilfred McClay has written more than a textbook…Beautifully written and fair minded, Land of Hope ranks among finest surveys of the nation’s past.

—Gilbert T. Sewall

Wilfred M. McClay holds the Victor Davis Hanson Chair in Classical History and Western Civilization at Hillsdale College. His book The Masterless: Self and Society in Modern America received the 1995 Merle Curti Award of the Organization of American Historians for the best book in American intellectual history. Among his other books are A Student's Guide to U.S. History, Religion Returns to the Public Square: Faith and Policy in America, Figures in the Carpet: Finding the Human Person in the American Past, Why Place Matters: Geography, Identity, and Public Life in Modern America, and most recently, Jewish Roots of American Liberty: The Impact of Hebraic Ideas on the American Story. He has served on the National Council on the Humanities and the advisory board for the National Endowment for the Humanities, and he is a member of the U.S. Commission on the Semiquincentennial, charged with planning the nation's 250th-anniversary celebration in 2026. He is a graduate of St. John's College (Annapolis) and received his PhD in History from Johns Hopkins University.