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The Early American Republic, 1789-1829
Paul E. Johnson
Oxford University Press, USA, 2006
good general introduction
There has been a recent interest in the early American period, with best sellers on specialized topics. To enjoy these books, one needs a good general introduction to the era. This is it.
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Israel on the Appomattox: A Southern Experiment in Black Freedom from the 1790s Through the Civil War
Melvin Patrick Ely
Vintage, 2005
How free black and white folk lived together for decades
+ Way Down Yonder...
A Southern experiment in black freedom from the 1790s through Civil War times? President Thomas Jefferson condemned slavery but didn't believe whites and liberated blacks could live together in harmony: His cousin Richard Randolph and ninety blacks set out to prove him wrong, and built a bastion of ...
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The Elusive Republic: Political Economy in Jeffersonian America
Drew R. McCoy
The University of North Carolina Press, 1996
Where have all the political economists gone?
+ The founding fathers lived in a very different world.
+ This is a book to hang on to.
+ Bringing Jefferson to life
+ Good and Easy read--Religio-Philosophial gloss on US history
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The Free Women of Petersburg
Suzanne Lebsock
W. W. Norton & Company, 1985
How Free?
The book focuses on women's work in an antebellum southern town. Excluding slave women, Lebsock seems to claim working women enjoyed a certain amount of freedom and independence. She also portrays the middle class as accepting married white women as wage earners as long as their jobs paid well or ...
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The Agrarian Origins of American Capitalism
Allan Kulikoff
University Press of Virginia, 1992
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Soul by Soul: Life Inside the Antebellum Slave Market
Walter Johnson
Harvard University Press, 2001
Slavery upclose
+ In the Image of God . . . but Treated Like Chattel
+ Well written
+ very informative and specific
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Liberty and Power: The Politics of Jacksonian America (American Century Series)
Harry L. Watson
Hill and Wang, 1990
Very comprehensive
+ IN THE AGE OF JACKSON
+ Good overview of period and its implications for US history
+ AP US History Student
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A Shopkeeper's Millennium: Society and Revivals in Rochester, New York, 1815-1837
Paul E. Johnson
Hill and Wang, 2004
Excellent study of "The Burnt-Over District" of upstate NY.
+ At the Dawn of American Capitalism
+ Great Book
New York State's construction of the Erie Canal transformed the tiny frontier town of Rochester into young America's first inland boom town, with an economy based on milling local grain and transporting the flour east to feed the older coastal cities. In this role, it became the prototype for ...
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Reforming Men And Women: Gender in the Antebellum City
Bruce Dorsey
Cornell University Press, 2006
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A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812
Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
Vintage, 1991
Amazingly preserved firsthand account of colonial America
+ Rural Colonial Life is More Interesting Than You Think
+ Midwife's Tale
I greatly enjoyed this book, which gave a truly unique and rare perspective into female life in early Colonial New England. Thoroughly absorbing the chapters is truly co-dependent on simultaneously reading through the footnotes at the back, so know in advance that there will be a lot of flipping ...
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What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815-1848 (Oxford History of the United States)
Daniel Walker Howe
Oxford University Press, USA, 2007
Very well-balanced, fully detailed antebellum history
+ Essential American History
+ An enjoyable history, but viewed through a modern moral lense ...
+ A marvelous historical account
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The Rise and Fall of the American Whig Party: Jacksonian Politics and the Onset of the Civil War
Michael F. Holt
Oxford University Press, USA, 2003
A well reasoned work of political history.
+ Vital Civil War book
+ Thank you Mr. Holt
In the Rise and Fall of the American Whig Party, Professor Holt convicingly demonstrates through detailed inspection and analysis of national, state and local elections that the Whigs were always a deeply divided political party whose continued existance as a potent political force was always ...
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Inheriting the Revolution: The First Generation of Americans
Joyce Appleby
Belknap Press, 2000
Thought Provoking
+ Brilliantly-formed, eloquently-reasoned thesis
+ stimulating but unreliable interpretation of religious histo
+ Buy this book!
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The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln
Sean Wilentz
W. W. Norton, 2005
A Wonderful Read covering the paradox of expansion of "American Democracy" and the centrifugal forces that tore America asunder
+ ...reviewers question whether anyone but scholars will slog through the 1000-page tome. --Bookmarks Magazine.
+ The Rise of American Democracy
Sean Wilentz's "The Rise of American Democracy" is a fantastic read covering my favorite period of American History. The general thesis of the book discusses the expansion of democracy in America, beginning with the Federalist Period and concluding with the first shot fired at Fort Sumter in April ...
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The Road to Disunion: Volume I: Secessionists at Bay, 1776-1854 (Road to Disunion Vol. 1)
William W. Freehling
Oxford University Press, USA, 1991
A Plow Through
+ Professor's Prose Style Makes "Road" a Difficult Journey
+ Excellent social and political history
I debated giving this one 3 stars but the information in it is very good. A thurough evaluation of the subject. If you want a detailed history, this is it.
On the downside, it is a dense read. It took me a while to plow through the entire book. Part of this is the density of info but much is due ...
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