Category: Jacksonian America
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The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln (2005) by Sean Wilentz
Princeton University’s Sean Wilentz’s The Rise of American Democracy (2005) is an ambitious work of U.S. political history. It is a dense but readable and deeply researched account of how democratic politics took shape from the age of the Revolution through the Civil War. At nearly a thousand pages, the book is far more than…
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The Making of the Monroe Doctrine (1975) by Ernest R. May
Ernest R. May’s The Making of the Monroe Doctrine (1975) is a classic in historical interpretation, exploring not merely the famous and enduring foreign policy proclamation of 1823 but the domestic political crucible from which it emerged. Across 300-some well-researched pages, May reframes the Monroe Doctrine not as an inevitable ideological pronouncement, but rather as…
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Andrew Jackson and the Bank War (1967) by Robert V. Remini
Robert Remini’s Andrew Jackson and the Bank War (1967) is a real gem of a book. I can’t recommend it highly enough. It offers a brilliant account of one of the most consequential and contentious episodes in early American political and economic history. First published in 1967, this work continues to resonate not just as…
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Prelude to Civil War: The Nullification Controversy in South Carolina, 1816-1836 (1965) by William W. Freehling
William W. Freehling’s Prelude to Civil War: The Nullification Controversy in South Carolina, 1816-1836 (1965) by William W. Freehling (1965) remains a foundational text in the study of antebellum American political development. In fewer than two hundred pages, Freehling delivers a penetrating and nuanced examination of one of the most consequential constitutional and political showdowns…
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