WHAT GOD HATH WROUGHT - BIBLIOGRAPHY ~ (SPOILER THREAD)

[Bentley, Group Founder, Leader, Chief]

This thread is a "spoiler thread" and is a bibliography thread which identifies many of the books which were referenced or used as primary documents during the writing of What God Hath Wrought Please feel free to add properly cited books (book covers, author's photo, and author's links). Add a review or a few words why this book is important to the subject matter, etc.; but remember there is no self promotion, etc. Any self promotion links or posts are removed.

[Bentley, Group Founder, Leader, Chief]

MOST INFLUENTIAL MAJOR INTERPRETATIONS OF THIS ERA

The Age of Jackson

by Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.

Synopsis

The young Schlesinger, for all the tradition he embodied, had a refreshing streak of informality. While working in the Kennedy White House, he found time to review movies for Show magazine. He also admitted his mistakes. One, he said, was neglecting to mention President Jackson’s brutal treatment of the Indians in his Pulitzer Prize-winning “Age of Jackson.” It was published when he was 27, and is still standard reading.

The book rejected earlier interpretations linking the rise of Jacksonian democracy with westward expansion. Instead, it gave greater importance to a coalition of intellectuals and workers in the Northeast who were determined to check the growing power of business.

The book sold more than 90,000 copies in its first year and won the 1946 Pulitzer Prize for history

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Schlesinger considered the distinguishing feature of the period the spread of democracy through class conflict spearheaded by the industrial workers.

One of three books that celebrate the Democratic Party of the time as the agent and defender of democracy against its Whig rival. The author disagrees with these works but says that he has learned from them and admire their authors' knowledge and skill.

[Bentley, Group Founder, Leader, Chief]

The Market Revolution

by Charles Grier Sellers

Synopsis

Based on impeccable scholarship and written with grace and style, The Market Revolution provides a sweeping political and social history of the entire Jacksonian period from the diplomacy of John Quincy Adams to the birth of Mormonism under Joseph Smith, from Jackson's slaughter of the Indians in Georgia and Florida to the Depression of 1819, and from the growth of women's rights to the spread of the temperance movement

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Sellers argued that market capitalism was an aggressive imposition upon a reluctant population.

[Bentley, Group Founder, Leader, Chief]

The Rise of American Democracy (2005)

by Sean Wilentz

Synopsis

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

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The above book updated Schlesinger's viewpoint and updated and expanded those views.

[Bentley, Group Founder, Leader, Chief]

Retrospect of Western Travel

by Harriet Martineau

Synopsis

Martineau's classic American travel narrative has long been unavailable. This new abridgment of the original 1838 edition offers an unsurpassed firsthand view of Jacksonian America. Here are Martineau's penetrating condemnation of slavery and her championship of abolition and women's rights; her incisive portraits of Jackson, Clay, Calhoun, Webster, Garrison, Emerson, and the Beechers; her critical observations of American schools, asylums, colleges, and prisons; and more. Historian Daniel Feller, author of The Jacksonian Promise, introduces the narrative, identifies the major characters, and provides an index for easy use

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Howe used an excerpt from this book as the epigraph for What God Hath Wrought

[Mark]

Bentley wrote: "The Market Revolution

by Charles Grier Sellers

Synopsis

Based on impeccable scholarship and written with grace and style,..."

There's an interesting history behind this book, as it was originally slated to be a volume in the Oxford History of the United States -- in fact, the very volume that was substituted by Howe's book. Though the reasons aren't known for certain, apparently there was an issue with Sellers's focus on economics to the detriment of other aspects of the era, so his book was eventually published similarly (the same thing happened with H.W. Brands's book Colossus, which ended up being released separately and Richard White invited to write the volume on the Gilded Age instead). Given that we have both books, I'd say it was a win-win for readers.

[Alisa]

Mark, make sure to also use the proper citation format when noting a book or author in your comments. For a book it is book cover, author photo (when available) and author link. When mentioning an author without reference to a specific book it is the last two.

by H.W. Brands

Richard White

Interesting stuff. Thanks.