I loved this book! Daniel Walker Howe is a superb writer and an even better historian. Honestly, I was a bit skeptical about reading this book as I thought that there wasn't much there to keep my interest. I was surely mistaken once I started reading. DWH does an excellent job of giving the reader a view of what life was like for the typical American during this time period, and doing it in an interesting way that keeps your attention and doesn't just sound like facts being rattled off to the reader. He goes into great detail about social, political, economic and religious aspects of early 19th century life, which helps put you in the mindset of someone from that time. This book will not tell you EVERYTHING there is to know about all characters involved (John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, Van Buren...so on) but it will give you a very detailed highlight of their effect on our country as a result of their political careers. The only parts I found a bit stale were some of the chapters that seemed to list every type of Utopian society or religious sect that was sprouting at the time. To me that part was a bit taxing for me to get through. Still that doesn't have an effect on what I think of this book and I firmly declare this book worthy of five stars and the Pulitzer Prize that it received!