The Anxious Republic: A History of the New American Nation, 1788-1860
Edition: 5
Copyright: 2024
Pages: 274
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For scholars, the eight decades that separate the close of the War for Independence from the Outbreak of the Civil War represent some of the most storied—and most studied—years in the narrative of American history. Equally important were the changes that accompanied the nation’s transition to capitalism, including the decade-over-decade growth of population; the cityward and westward movements of people; the rise of industry, the expansion of commercial agriculture, and revolutionary means of moving goods and people around an expanding republic. These were also troubled decades, marked by unsettling developments and shaped by the racial, class, and political problems that appeared in the 1780s and sometimes worsened with each passing decade.
The Anxious Republic, then, offers students and instructors an interpretation of the development of the American Republic. It is intended to narrate the course of these critical years, and also offer insight into the troubles that would eventually rend the nation.
Preface
Introduction
PART ONE: CONTESTED VISIONS
CHAPTER 1: Before the Republic
Critical Issues
The View from 1787: Royall Tyler’s Contrast and the Contested American Republic
The Contrast as a Document
Plot and Context
Republican Virtue/Republican Citizenship
Inclusion and Exclusion—Class, Race, and Power
Review
CHAPTER 2: Creating and Contesting the Constitution
Critical Issues
Making a Constitution
Ratification and Resistance
The New National Cart…
…And Those Left Behind
Review
CHAPTER 3: A Decade of Troubles, 1789–1799
Critical Issues
Left over Concerns
The Hamiltonian Economic Vision
Whiskey Rebels and the Principles of Revolution
Revolution and Reaction
Toward a Partisan Politics
Review
CHAPTER 4: An Era of Not-So-Good Feelings: From Jefferson to Monroe
Critical Issues
The Flagging of High Federalism
The Election of 1800
The Jefferson Years, 1801–1809
Toward the War of 1812
Causes of the War: Maritime Rights, Agrarian Cupidity, and Anglo-Indian Intrigue
Dissoluble Union/Disappearing Federalists
The Rise of National Republicans
Review
PART TWO: ECONOMY AND SOCIETY 93
CHAPTER 5: Market Revolution and Its Discontents
Critical Issues
Explaining the Market Revolution
The Costs of Capitalism
Review
CHAPTER 6: Reforming an Imperfect Republic
Critical Issues
The Spirit and Capitalism
Perfecting Society
Review
PART THREE: DEMOCRACY AND EMPIRE 151
CHAPTER 7: The Age of Contradictions: Jacksonian America
Critical Issues
Jackson, the Common Man, and the Presidency
Making White Man’s Democracy
The Limits of White Man’s Democracy: Whiteness and Class
Workingmen and Whigs: Party Formations in the Age of Jackson
Fiscal Policies and Financial Crises
Making Sense of the Jacksonian Moment
Review
Critical Issues
Land, Slavery, and Disagreement, 1783–1820
Manifest Destiny and American Democracy
The Other Anxious Republic: Texas
Linguistic Sleight of Hand and the Mexican War
A Dose of Arsenic
Review
PART FOUR: TOWARD THE ANXIOUS REPUBLIC’S COLLAPSE
CHAPTER 9: Asperities & Animosities: The Republic in Crisis, 1848–1856
Critical Issues
Transforming Gold Into Lead—The Alchemy of California & The Compromise of 1850
Gone with the Whigs
What’s the Matter with the Kansas-Nebraska Act?
Doughface Democrats/ Ascendant Republicans
Review
CHAPTER 10: 1857–1860: A Republic “Approaching its End”
Critical Issues
Re-Imagining the Constitutional Family with Roger Taney
The Politics of Panic
Lincoln, Douglas, and Brown: Slavery and America, 1858–59
1860: An Election
Review