THE AMERICAN FUTURE: A History. Simon Schama. HarperCollins. 400 pages. $29.99.

To such established literary genres as mystery, science fiction and memoirs by northerners who buy houses in southern countries and are terribly surprised by the consequences, we might add the Earnest Television Spinoff. We're not talking here about the Arthur cartoon oeuvre or Hannah Montana biographies but about more weighty topics, say the Civil War or the fall of Rome. The worthy series on public or cable television is usually accompanied these days by a book by the learned series host. Michael Wood has made a career out of this sort of thing.

Simon Schama, prolific historical scholar, author and lecturer, has long been an adept practitioner of this genre. His latest such venture, inspired by the 2008 presidential election, is The American Future: A History. The four-part series was shown on BBC America in January, timed for President Obama's inauguration; the book is now out. In this case, it's too bad Schama had to tie his book to the series. His historical narrative is excellent, but the travelogue-with-video-crew parts can be annoying intrusions.

With the 2008 campaign as the backdrop, Schama examines four issues at the center of current discourse -- the military, religion, race and immigration, and natural resources -- and demonstrates that they have been core dilemmas here since Europeans first set up housekeeping on Native American land. Jefferson fought with Hamilton over establishing an army and with Adams over religious toleration. John Wesley Powell warned that there wasn't enough water to irrigate the West. On all four issues, we have wrestled toward positive compromise, before the cycle begins again. Somehow, we push on, overcoming our worst instincts.

Schama delivers this history through the tales of individuals, from the familiar (the Founders) to the now obscure (Fred Bee, a white lawyer who fought for Chinese American rights.) The leitmotif is provided by the Meigs family, which has managed, Zelig-like, to get involved in virtually every war and social movement since the 18th century.

The Meigses are a marvelous bunch. Among them: Return Jonathan Meigs struggled in the early 19th century to help the Cherokees withstand settler encroachment. Quartermaster General Montgomery Meigs was a key part of the Union victory in the Civil War and made sure the Arlington estate of his West Point classmate Robert E. Lee was ruined for habitation with a soldiers' cemetery. Another Gen. Montgomery Meigs (Rt.), our contemporary, speaks his mind in public about the Iraq war.

Schama, an Englishman who lives in the United States, writes beautifully about Americans of the past but sometimes doesn't seem to much like Americans of the present, at least if they don't share his fairly obvious pro-Obama point of view. Moving stories of Fanny Lou Hamer and J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur are interspersed with the author's visits to The Heartland while taping the television series, and whenever he injects himself into the picture, Schama adopts a slightly sneering tone. Certainly, politicians and journalists are fair game. But a poor guy named Jim who helped organize the Iowa caucus that Schama attended is called ''a small, long-winded man,'' much like the ''ostentatious blowhards in beaver felt hats'' of our political past. Pastor Johnny, the minister of a mega-church outside Atlanta, is ''gamecock zesty,'' with a ''sock-it-to-you'' smile and a ''lime-green tie,'' man of God as vulgar marketer. It's all very clever, but can't Schama cut anyone a break?

Skip those mercifully brief sections, and consider Schama's fine historical perspective. His conclusion about our ability to cope in our present economic crisis is cautiously optimistic. But what is an American immigrant if not an optimist?

Anne Bartlett is a journalist in Washington, D.C.

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