The Turbulent Era: Riot and Disorder in Jacksonian America

by Michael Feldberg

The Turbulent Riot and Disorder in Jacksonian America

Genres: History

144 pages, Paperback

First published March 27, 1980

Reviews

[Debra Marsh · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am a historian specializing in Jacksonian Era mob violence. This book is one of my main staples for good thoughts and ideas. I read it again in preparation for writing the opening chapter of my PhD dissertation. The Turbulent Era is straight forward, easy to read, and reasonable in its conclusions. Moreover, much of what the author says jives with my personal research. The real drawback is the lack of footnotes. Feldman offers some great thoughts but fails to substantiate them with appropriate citations. In the end, it works well for me. It leaves me with a book to write :)

[August Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Michael Feldberg is a concise and engaging writer, serving his ability to crystallize and explain violence in the Jacksonian Era aptly. The book became infinitely more interesting having recently viewed Martin Scorcese's "Gangs of New York" a couple times; Scorcese's visualization of the Jacksonian Era brings to life Feldberg's words on the page.

[Thomas Mackie · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a reflection on the past year, this book speaks our age. The last paragraph of this 1980 history of riots (128-129) is very telling. "...if history has any predictive power...we can expect to experience various forms of collective violence--both familiar and new--at some time in the nation's foreseeable future...so long as violence remains a part of the nation's political processes, rioting and the attempt to suppress it will once again fill the nation's streets with violence, destruction, and regrettably, death." Sometimes you read a history that makes you rethink who we are as a nation.