Social Theories of Jacksonian Democracy: Representative Writings of the Period 1825-1850

(Paperback)

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A reprint of the 1954 Bobbs-Merrill edition. History's first national party with roots in a mass electorate, the Jacksonian Democrats were not so much unified around a shared policy program as they were a patchwork of conflicting interests. They came together most vigorously in the name of what they opposed: the emerging financial and commercial monopolies, the old Washington dynasty, and any whiff of privilege or aristocracy. Yet they demonstrated how even unprincipled national parties could invigorate representative democracy and repair the growing rifts between Northern industrialists, the Old South, and the developing West. These texts show the Jacksonian movement as a cross-section of nineteenth century America. A picture of popular democracy in its infancy, they together form a study of unity in diversity.

Reviews

This bracing collection offers a profound glimpse into the depth and variety of social views Jackson and Van Buren had to negotiate in order to create the now familiar sort of political party that has been essential to American democracy. Composed of entirely primary sources, the collection remains a revealing window into the social and political thought of the Jacksonian America, and stands as an essential complement to contemporary secondary treatments of the era. --Russell Muirhead, Harvard University

Author Bio

Joseph L Blau was Professor of Religion, Columbia University.