The Nation Takes Shape: A Review In the book The Nation Takes Shape, by Marcus Cunliffe, the author has one main point of view, that he expands on throughout the entire novel. That point of view concerns the first half-century of life under the newly formed government, under the constitution. He talks about the ways America began to achieve its own identity in the world in those years. He shows us how colonials began to become Americans, how a new nation found itself. He also shows an American character emerging as the new nation expanded across the continent. The author highlights many big even