Summary
In this very rich and engaging history, Sean Wilentz recounts the contentious debates among the many conflicting constituencies that vied for power across the new republic as he traces the growth of government of, by, and for the people from the period just after the Founding Fathers up to the Civil War. Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln are the beginning and end points of this lively, jam-packed brew, and Andrew Jackson is shown to have been a central figure in the shaping and defining of American democracy. Wilentz's colorful tapestry draws on politics, religion, legislation, local and national events, political parties, and the issues of slavery, expansion, and war-but mostly on people as they speak up and organize to get what they want. Wilentz provides fresh views of three presidents, deepens our understanding of how North and South took different paths, clarifies terms, and thickens our knowledge of American history. THE RISE OF AMERICAN DEMOCRACY was selected as a New York Times Notable Book of the Year for 2005.
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Media Reviews
"[B]y viewing history through the prism of democracy, Wilentz often discovers illuminating angles on his subject."
-- Publishers Weekly
"Drawing on extensive research and a deep immersion in modern scholarship-the footnotes alone provide a road map to the last quarter-century of historical writing-the book is a magisterial synthesis that deserves the attention of anyone interested in the American past." -- Eric Foner
-- Nation
"What [Wilentz has] done in THE RISE OF AMERICAN DEMOCRACY, and done exceedingly well, is to trace the play between politicians and political ideas, on the one hand, and the people and popular movements, on the other....Readers may weary at the length of Wilentz's book, but, as a model for integrating social and political history, it's hard to dispute." -- Jill Lepore
-- New Yorker
"[A] magnificent chronicle. The life of an idea that, although it is mentioned nowhere in the Constitution, nevertheless slowly elbowed its way into the heart of American life." -- Malcolm Jones
-- Newsweek
"This enormous book by Sean Wilentz has been in the works a long time, and the results are nothing less than monumental. [I]t is a tour-de-force of historical compilation and construction that more than justifies all the articles and monographs on antebellum politics written by historians over the past several decades. Wilentz...has drawn extensively on these secondary sources and on his own research. He has brought it all together into a clear and generally readable narrative." -- Gordon S. Wood
-- New York Times Book Review
"The writing is about as engaging and lucid as a reader of contemporary history could ask for...." -- Gideon Lewis-Kraus
"THE RISE OF AMERICAN DEMOCRACY is a truly magnificent effort. It's size...may deter some readers, but it will surely become a landmark of American historiography. It is elegantly written, imaginatively conceived, and the footnotes alone are worth reading as a guide to the past thirty years of scholarship on pre-Civil War US history." -- Adam I. P. Smith
Bibliographic Details
Publisher: W W Norton & Co Inc
Published date: 2006
Size: 6 x 8.75 inches
Weight: 2.7 pounds
Pages: 1044
Publisher's Notes
A political history of how the fledgling American republic developed into a democratic state at the onset of the Civil War offers insight into how historical beliefs about democracy compromised democratic progress, providing coverage of the rivalry between Jeffersonians and Federalists, and identifying the roles of key contributors, including Andrew Jackson, Anti-Masons, and fugitive slaves. Reprint.
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