America's Jubilee: A Generation Remembers the Revolution After 50 Years of Independence

by Andrew Burstein

In America's Jubilee distinguished historian Andrew Burstein presents an engrossing narrative that takes us back to a pivotal year in American history, 1826, when the reins of democracy were being passed from the last Revolutionary War heroes to a new generation of leaders.

Through brilliant sketches of selected individuals and events, Burstein creates an evocative portrait of the hopes and fears of Americans fifty years after the Revolution. We follow an aged Marquis de Lafayette on his triumphant tour of the country; and learn of the nearly simultaneous deaths of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson on the 4th of July. We meet the ornery President John Quincy Adams, the controversial Secretary of State Henry Clay, and the notorious hot-tempered General Andrew Jackson. We also see the year through the eyes of a minister's wife, a romantic novelist, and even an intrepid wheel of cheese. Insightful and lively, America's Jubilee captures an unforgettable time in the republic’s history, when a generation embraced the legacy of its predecessors and sought to enlarge its role in America’s story.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

384 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Andrew Burstein is the Charles P. Manship Professor of History at Louisiana State University, and the author of The Passions of Andrew Jackson, Jefferson’s Secrets, and Madison and Jefferson, among others. Burstein’s writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Nation, and Salon.com, and he advised Ken Burns’s production "Thomas Jefferson." He has been featured on C-SPAN's American Presidents Series and Booknotes, as well as numerous NPR programs, including Talk of the Nation and The Diane Rehm Show. He lives in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Reviews

[Miles Smith · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book covered a lot of interesting ground but was wordy and written in a clunky manner to such a degree I nearly lost interest. So much interesting anecdote but the delivery was fair to middling at best; its not a bad book and the notes have useful info on the Early Republic but I came away unimpressed.

[Jill Poulsen · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting topic to learn about, the generation after the founders and how they remembered and felt about their forefathers. It did get a little mundane in the middle, but I enjoyed the weaving of LaFayette's journey throughout.

[Kristi · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an engaging synthesis focused on the American Jubilee - marking fifty years since the Declaration of Independence - and how celebrated individual lives came to represent the nation. In terms of historical content I did not discover anything remarkably new to me personally, but Burstein's interpretation pushes back the emergence of "Jacksonianism" to the generational shifts of the mid-1820s, before Andrew Jackson's presidency. This is a worth-while read.