Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789-1815 (Oxford History of the United States)

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

Synopsis:

Synopsis:

Synopsis:

Synopsis:

About the Author

Table of Contents

What Our Readers Are Saying

Add a comment for a chance to win!

Average customer rating based on 1 comment:

OneMansView, December 11, 2009 (view all comments by OneMansView)
Ambitious and comprehensive look at a complex period in American history

This book is an ambitious and fairly comprehensive attempt to describe and explain the transformation of the United States in the 1780s from a poorly structured, powerless collection of states to a nation that finally achieved an independent identity and standing in the world community by 1815. In that transformation, no areas of American life escaped profound changes, be it demographics, infrastructure, culture, economics, law, religion, etc. Most important, however, given that the American Revolution was in the first instance a political revolution, the author focuses on the attempt of conservative aristocrats to rollback the democratic excesses of farmers and artisans in the 1780s through the checks and balances of the Constitution of 1787 and on the resultant profound clash waged throughout the 1790s and beyond between the Federalists, led by Washington and Hamilton, and the Jeffersonian Republicans, including Madison, concerning the direction that the US would take politically, economically, and diplomatically.

The chaos engendered by the French Revolution, the two-decade war beginning in 1793 between France and England, the neo-British financial plan of Hamilton, and the pro-British diplomacy of the Federalists exacerbated fears among Republicans of a latent desire to reestablish a monarchial order, while Federalists found pro-French views to be indicative of pending anarchy. While not really like modern political parties, the Democratic-Republican societies of the mid-90s became an organized Republican opposition, playing a major role in Jefferson’s election in 1800. Federalist paranoia of pro-French and democratic sentiments reached both its height and nadir with the passage of the Sedition Act in 1798, resulting in the shutting down of several Republican newspapers and the jailing of their editors. It was a last gasp of those desirous of retaining the old order before being swept away by the democratic promise of the Revolution.

As also told in Wood’s “The Radicalism of the American Revolution,” the most profound change across this span of thirty years or so was in the reordering of society. The automatic deference to landed gentry, the learned, priests, and the like slowly eroded as people began to trust their own instincts and emphasize their self-interests. This was entirely consistent with the radical principle of placing total sovereignty of the nation in the hands of all the people. The framers undoubtedly little understood the forces that they had unleashed. Americans essentially rejected social orders. Public opinion became an amorphous amalgamation of all views and was credited with more wisdom than elite opinion. As the author points out, this general social leveling was cause for consternation among the more learned as classical and enlightenment views were scarcely known to “middling” folk; furthermore, artistic endeavors did not measure up to European standards. Americans were not philosophers and scientists; they were tinkerers. Interestingly, Benjamin Franklin was the founder with his practical advice who was the most popular founder in the 19th century. This is not to say that there was no idealism in the American psyche. Virtuous republicans were concerned with education, humanitarian societies, and prison reform.

Though the Republicans may have been anti-Hamilton, they were not anti-commerce. In fact, the Republicans were staunch advocates of free trade to give farmers markets for their surplus production. Subsistence farming was seen to be stultifying for the human spirit. The Jeffersonian promotion of westward expansion was the mechanism for the US to remain a largely agricultural society, while also remaining commercially active. The Hamiltonian vision of widespread manufacturing was evocative of the horrendous conditions found in European cities filled with factories. The author points to the disingenuous views of the Jeffersonians that the world community would welcome a system of free trade, completely ignoring political realities. In fact, it was the restriction of US trade involving the seizing of ships and sailors by both the British and the French in the mid-1800s that directly led to the Republican embargo in 1808. The self-inflicted hardship on the US, with no noticeable effect on Britain, resulted in the War of 1812.

The changes in the political and social makeup of the US in the decades of the 1790s and 1800s were of such significance that Jefferson contended that his election was part of a second American revolution. It is hard to argue against the casting off of the psychological and commercial dependence on Britain, the democratization of US political and social life that more or less continues today, the formation of a working national government from a mere constitutional blueprint, and all the other developments of the era as constituting profound, even revolutionary, changes. It would be difficult to compare the extent of these changes with other American periods. The one constant of American life has been change.

No other book comes to mind that attempts to bring together all of the elements of American society of this complex period, hence a label of being ambitious. For its length, the book is amazingly readable, organized into nineteen focused chapters. As far as any Jeffersonian bias on the part of the author, Jefferson was the principal figure and symbol of a way of thinking that ultimately did prevail in the US and largely continues today. That is simply reality. The author does not dismiss Hamiltonian financial ideas that also exist today. It is the elitism of the Federalists that was swept away by a newly formed “people.” He does acknowledge that Jefferson completely misunderstood the need for the US to develop a manufacturing capacity. Yet one can look at the urban degradation with the coming of US industrialization to know that Jefferson had that part right. At this point, this book stands as the preeminent book on this era in its willingness to take on most all aspects of the entire period.

Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No
(1 of 1 readers found this comment helpful)

report this comment

Product Details

ISBN:

9780195039146

Subtitle:

A History of the Early Republic, 1789-1815

Author:

Wood, Gordon S.

Author:

Rakove, Jack

Author:

null, Gordon S.

Publisher:

Oxford University Press, USA

Subject:

United States Civilization 1783-1865.

Subject:

United States Politics and government.

Subject:

United States - Revolutionary War

Subject:

History & Theory - General

Subject:

United States - 18th Century

Subject:

United States - Antebellum Era

Subject:

United States / Revolutionary Period (1775-1800)

Subject:

History, American | Early National

Subject:

US History - 20th Century

Subject:

US History-19th Century

Edition Description:

Trade Paper

Series:

Oxford History of the United States

Publication Date:

20091028

Binding:

Hardback

Grade Level:

General/trade

Language:

English

Illustrations:

Y

Pages:

800

Dimensions:

8 x 5.31 in 1 lb