The Jacksonian Promise

by Feller, Daniel

• ISBN13: 9780801851681
• ISBN10: 0801851688
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1995-12-01
• Publisher: Johns Hopkins Univ Pr

Summary

In Jacksonian Promise historian Daniel Feller offers a fresh look at the United States in the tumultuous Age of Jackson. Viewing the era through the eyes of people who lived in it, Feller's account captures the optimism and energy that filled America after the War of 1812. His emphasis on Americans' confidence in the future and faith in improvement challenges historians who depict the Jacksonian temperament in terms of anxiety and foreboding. Jacksonian Promise opens with the Jubilee anniversary of Independence in 1826, when Americans celebrated their national birthright of liberty and opportunity. Blessed with abundant resources and what they held to be the best government on earth, citizens believed they could accomplish nearly anything. They felt it in their power to remake themselves, their country, and the world. Feller traces the influence of this enterprising spirit across a broad range of Jacksonian activity. Experiment and innovation flourished as Americans built canals and factories, founded unions and utopias, staged religious revivals and moral crusades, and campaigned to eradicate social ills and to purify law and politics. Yet despite their common source, competing programs of progress soon clashed with each other. As citizens organized to pursue their hopes for America's future, divisions arose among that pointed ultimately toward civil war.

Author Biography

Daniel Feller is associate professor of history at the University of New Mexico.

Table of Contents

Series Editor's Foreword	p. ix
Preface	p. xi
The Year of Jubilee	p. 1
The Spirit of Improvement	p. 14
The Law of Enterprise	p. 33
The Statecraft of Progress	p. 53
The Realm of Reason	p. 76
The Kingdom of Christ	p. 95
The Republic of Labor	p. 118
The Elevation of Character	p. 138
The Politics of Democracy	p. 160
Descent into Discord	p. 185
Bibliographical Essay	p. 205
Index	p. 219
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