Awards

• Winner of Bancroft Prize 2006
• Winner of Bancroft Prizes 2006
• Winner of Bancroft Prizes 2006.
• Winner of New York Times Notable Book 2005
• Winner of New York Times Notable Book 2005.

Overview

In this magisterial work, Sean Wilentz traces a historical arc from the earliest days of the republic to the opening shots of the Civil War. One of our finest writers of history, Wilentz brings to life the era after the American Revolution, when the idea of democracy remained contentious, and Jeffersonians and Federalists clashed over the role of ordinary citizens in government of, by, and for the people. The triumph of Andrew Jackson soon defined this role on the national level, while city democrats, Anti-Masons, fugitive slaves, and a host of others hewed their own local definitions. In these definitions Wilentz recovers the beginnings of a discontenttwo starkly opposed democracies, one in the North and another in the Southand the wary balance that lasted until the election of Abraham Lincoln sparked its bloody resolution. 75 illustrations.

Full Product Details

9780393329216

Table of Contents

Reviews

...truly magnificent... 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... Sean Wilentz has injected new life into a familiar story. Adam I.P. Smith, The Times Literary Supplement Written by one of America's leading historians of the early republic, it provides a rich, detailed and lengthy narrative of the pre-Civil War period. John E. Owens, The Times Higher Educational Supplement

Author Information

Sean Wilentz is the George Henry Davis 1886 Professor of American History at Princeton University and author of the Bancroft Prize-winning The Rise of American Democracy, Bob Dylan in America, and many other works.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available