Antebellum Books

Ladies of Liberty: The Women Who Shaped Our Nation

Cokie Roberts

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Total reviews: 29 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

In Founding Mothers, Cokie Roberts paid homage to the heroic women whose patriotism and sacrifice helped create a new nation. Now the number one New York Times bestselling author and renowned political commentator—praised in USA Today as a "custodian of time-honored values"—continues the story of early America's influential women with Ladies of Liberty. In her "delightfully intimate and confiding" style (Publishers Weekly), Roberts presents a colorful blend of biographical portraits and behind-the-scenes vignettes chronicling women's public roles and private responsibilities.

Recounted with the insight and humor of an expert storyteller and drawing on personal correspondence, private journals, and other primary sources—many of them previously unpublished—Roberts brings to life the extraordinary accomplishments of women who laid the groundwork for a better society. Almost every quotation here is written by a woman, to a woman, or about a woman. From first ladies to freethinkers, educators to explorers, this exceptional group includes Abigail Adams, Margaret Bayard Smith, Martha Jefferson, Dolley Madison, Elizabeth Monroe, Louisa Catherine Adams, Eliza Hamilton, Theodosia Burr, Rebecca Gratz, Louisa Livingston, Rosalie Calvert, Sacajawea, and others. In a much-needed addition to the shelves of Founding Father literature, Roberts sheds new light on the generation of heroines, reformers, and visionaries who helped shape our nation, giving these ladies of liberty the recognition they so greatly deserve.

American Creation: Triumphs and Tragedies in the Founding of the Republic (Vintage)

Joseph J. Ellis

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Total reviews: 57 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Creation minus One 3 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

Joseph Ellis is a well-known writer of popular histories, winner of both the Pulitzer and the National Book Award, so I began American Creation with high expectations. Of course, the major players at the Founding have filled countless books. As the author points out, it's tough to even-handedly write about men who were early cast as heroes or villains in our now almost mythological past. Like his "Founding Brothers," "American Creation" is a series of sketches. Each chapter examines the principal actors at a pivotal moment in the history of the Founding. Ellis begins with Adams, subject of his "Passionate Sage," then moves to the equally familiar Washington, the subject of "His Excellency." Next is James Madison, who was, briefly, during the Constitutional Convention, less Virginian than Nationalist. Rarely mentioned failures are also included in Ellis' story: the treaty-by-treaty betrayal of the Native Americans, and the avoidance of the slavery issue in order to win ratification for the Constitution. The evolution of political parties, and the author's fascination with the brilliant, slippery Jefferson segues into a final chapter on the Louisiana Purchase. In that one stroke, America changed from coastline bound Republic to continental Empire. What was missing-and what I expected from any book titled "American Creation" was the usual--any discussion of the innovative economic foundation upon which the modern U.S. stands. To any reader interested in this essential topic, the dollars and cents as well as the high flown ideals, I'd suggest Forrest McDonald's "Hamilton." Professor McDonald is a fierce partisan of his currently unpopular hero, but his discussion of the financial miracle Hamilton worked, saving the new born republic and laying the groundwork for the Purchase, is succinct and illuminating.

Editorial Review:

Acclaimed historian Joseph J. Ellis brings his unparalleled talents to this riveting account of the early years of the Republic.

The last quarter of the eighteenth century remains the most politically creative era in American history, when a dedicated group of men undertook a bold experiment in political ideals. It was a time of both triumphs and tragedies—all of which contributed to the shaping of our burgeoning nation. Ellis casts an incisive eye on the gradual pace of the American Revolution and the contributions of such luminaries as Washington, Jefferson, and Madison, and brilliantly analyzes the failures of the founders to adequately solve the problems of slavery and the treatment of Native Americans. With accessible prose and stunning eloquence, Ellis delineates in American Creation an era of flawed greatness, at a time when understanding our origins is more important than ever.

Lincoln President-Elect: Abraham Lincoln and the Great Secession Winter 1860-1861

Harold Holzer

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Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

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One of our most eminent Lincoln scholars, winner of a Lincoln Prize for his Lincoln at Cooper Union, examines the four months between Lincoln's election and inauguration, when the president-elect made the most important decision of his coming presidency -- there would be no compromise on slavery or secession of the slaveholding states, even at the cost of civil war.

Abraham Lincoln first demonstrated his determination and leadership in the Great Secession Winter -- the four months between his election in November 1860 and his inauguration in March 1861 -- when he rejected compromises urged on him by Republicans and Democrats, Northerners and Southerners, that might have preserved the Union a little longer but would have enshrined slavery for generations. Though Lincoln has been criticized by many historians for failing to appreciate the severity of the secession crisis that greeted his victory, Harold Holzer shows that the presidentelect waged a shrewd and complex campaign to prevent the expansion of slavery while vainly trying to limit secession to a few Deep South states.

During this most dangerous White House transition in American history, the country had two presidents: one powerless (the president-elect, possessing no constitutional authority), the other paralyzed (the incumbent who refused to act). Through limited, brilliantly timed and crafted public statements, determined private letters, tough political pressure, and personal persuasion, Lincoln guaranteed the integrity of the American political process of majority rule, sounded the death knell of slavery, and transformed not only his own image but that of the presidency, even while making inevitable the war that would be necessary to make these achievements permanent.

Lincoln President-Elect is the first book to concentrate on Lincoln's public stance and private agony during these months and on the momentous consequences when he first demonstrated his determination and leadership. Holzer recasts Lincoln from an isolated prairie politician yet to establish his greatness, to a skillful shaper of men and opinion and an immovable friend of freedom at a decisive moment when allegiance to the founding credo "all men are created equal" might well have been sacrificed.

What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815-1848 (Oxford History of the United States)

Daniel Walker Howe

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Total reviews: 27 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

The Oxford History of the United States is by far the most respected multi-volume history of our nation. The series includes three Pulitzer Prize winners, a New York Times bestseller, and winners of the Bancroft and Parkman Prizes. Now, in What Hath God Wrought, historian Daniel Walker Howe illuminates the period from the battle of New Orleans to the end of the Mexican-American War, an era when the United States expanded to the Pacific and won control over the richest part of the North American continent.
Howe's panoramic narrative portrays revolutionary improvements in transportation and communications that accelerated the extension of the American empire. Railroads, canals, newspapers, and the telegraph dramatically lowered travel times and spurred the spread of information. These innovations prompted the emergence of mass political parties and stimulated America's economic development from an overwhelmingly rural country to a diversified economy in which commerce and industry took their place alongside agriculture. In his story, the author weaves together political and military events with social, economic, and cultural history. He examines the rise of Andrew Jackson and his Democratic party, but contends that John Quincy Adams and other Whigs--advocates of public education and economic integration, defenders of the rights of Indians, women, and African-Americans--were the true prophets of America's future. He reveals the power of religion to shape many aspects of American life during this period, including slavery and antislavery, women's rights and other reform movements, politics, education, and literature. Howe's story of American expansion culminates in the bitterly controversial but brilliantly executed war waged against Mexico to gain California and Texas for the United States.
By 1848 America had been transformed. What Hath God Wrought provides a monumental narrative of this formative period in United States history.

Waking Giant: America in the Age of Jackson (American History)

David S. Reynolds

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Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

America experienced unprecedented expansion and turmoil in the years between 1815 and 1848. In Waking Giant, Bancroft Prize-winning historian and literary critic David S. Reynolds illuminates the period's exciting political story as well as the fascinating social and cultural movements that influenced it. He casts fresh light on Andrew Jackson, who redefined the presidency, along with John Quincy Adams and James K. Polk, who expanded the nation's territory and strengthened its position internationally.

Waking Giant captures the turbulence of a democracy caught in the throes of the controversy over slavery, the rise of capitalism, and the birth of urbanization. Reynolds reveals unknown dimensions of the Second Great Awakening with its sects, cults, and self-styled prophets. He brings to life the reformers, abolitionists, and temperance advocates who struggled to correct America's worst social ills. He uncovers the political roots of some of America's greatest authors and artists, from Ralph Waldo Emerson and Edgar Allan Poe to Thomas Cole and Asher B. Durand, and he reveals the shocking phenomena that marked the age: bloody duels and violent mobs, P. T. Barnum's freaks and all-seeing mesmerists, polygamous prophets and wealthy prostitutes, table-lifting spiritualists and rabble-rousing feminists. All were crucial to the political and social ferment that led to the Civil War.

Meticulously researched and masterfully written, Waking Giant is a brilliant chronicle of America's vibrant and tumultuous rise.

Hamilton's Curse: How Jefferson's Arch Enemy Betrayed the American Revolution--and What It Means for Americans Today

Thomas Dilorenzo

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Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Two of the most influential figures in American history. Two opposing political philosophies. Two radically different visions for America.

Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton were without question two of the most important Founding Fathers. They were also the fiercest of rivals. Of these two political titans, it is Jefferson—–the revered author of the Declaration of Independence and our third president—–who is better remembered today. But in fact it is Hamilton’s political legacy that has triumphed—–a legacy that has subverted the Constitution and transformed the federal government into the very leviathan state that our forefathers fought against in the American Revolution.

How did we go from the Jeffersonian ideal of limited government to the bloated imperialist system of Hamilton’s design? Acclaimed economic historian Thomas J. DiLorenzo provides the troubling answer in Hamilton’s Curse.

DiLorenzo reveals how Hamilton, first as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention and later as the nation’s first and most influential treasury secretary, masterfully promoted an agenda of nationalist glory and interventionist economics—–core beliefs that did not die with Hamilton in his fatal duel with Aaron Burr. Carried on through his political heirs, the Hamiltonian legacy:

• Wrested control into the hands of the federal government by inventing the myth of the Constitution’s “implied powers”
• Established the imperial presidency (Hamilton himself proposed a permanent president—–in other words, a king)
• Devised a national banking system that imposes boom-and-bust cycles on the American economy
• Saddled Americans with a massive national debt and oppressive taxation
• Inflated the role of the federal courts in order to eviscerate individual liberties and state sovereignty
• Pushed economic policies that lined the pockets of the wealthy and created a government system built on graft, spoils, and patronage
• Transformed state governments from Jeffersonian bulwarks of liberty to beggars for federal crumbs

By debunking the Hamiltonian myths perpetuated in recent admiring biographies, DiLorenzo exposes an uncomfortable truth: The American people are no longer the masters of their government but its servants. Only by restoring a system based on Jeffersonian ideals can Hamilton’s curse be lifted, at last.

Andrew Jackson: His Life and Times

H.W. Brands

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Total reviews: 69 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Solid Introduction to Andrew Jackson 4 out of 5 stars.
6 of 6 people found this review helpful.

Although it is 550 pages, this biography served as an excellent introduction to the life of our seventh President because I started the book almost wholly ignorant of this fascinating American patriot. This is the second H.W. Brands bio I have read. His bio of Benjamin Franklin was a better book but Andrew Jackson is, by no stretch, a disappointment.

Jackson was the first of many Presidents to realize that one doesn't have to know a thing about politics or even like politics to rise to this nation's highest office through popular vote. Actually, that makes sense. After all, the average American neither likes nor understands anything about politics. He spoke as the man of the people while simultaneously placing himself far above them & ruling with an iron will and fist. As a retired general who was renowned for his fearsome temper, he was used to being obeyed or else. Old habits die hard. Jacksonian Democracy seems to be: democracy is great as long as I'm in charge or, to paraphrase Jefferson "all men are created equal but some men are more equal than others." Jackson was a self-made man through considerable leadership and intellectual talents. He not only knew he was more capable than the next man, he had proof.

Politics is the art of compromise and Jackson was never a compromiser. A smart man of strong passions, he brooked no insult & did not suffer fools kindly. He seems to have considered anyone who disagreed with him in the slightest a fool. Jackson had that peculiarly abrasive personality that brought out the worst in anyone who disliked him & even caused much hesitation in those who supported him. Jackson's epitaph could fairly have read "loved, hated but never ignored." As a younger man, Jackson repeatedly demonstrated a singular lack of self control manifested in a hot-head and itchy dueling finger. He also seems to have unhesitatingly relished killing "the enemy" whether the enemy of was the misbegotten Indians or the wicked British. A slaveowner & expansionist, Jackson squarely alligned himself with the furtherance of American interests, whatever the collateral. Ignorable orders and bendable laws were hardly impediments to his goals. The ends justified the means. As an older man, he seemed to mellow and become more thoughtful but the lion could still roar and his claws, though usually retracted, were still very sharp and powerful. He was never a very intellectual nor spiritual man but had a surprisingly compassionate side to his personality in regards to his family. He was a strict Literal Constitutionalist and struggled incessantly against Interpretationalists. For a supposed common man of the people, he was strikingly conservative in his policies and Presidential demeanor.

Brands spends a tremendous amount of time on Jackson's pre-Presidency life and not nearly enough on the contentious elections that sent his rival, John Q. Adams and then himself to the Presidency or on Jackson's two terms. Now I need to read a book or two specifically about Jackson's political career. A long, rewarding and unhesitatingly recommended read for anyone looking to familiarlize themselves with Old Hickory.

Editorial Review:

In this, the first major single-volume biography of Andrew Jackson in decades, H.W. Brands reshapes our understanding of this fascinating man, and of the Age of Democracy that he ushered in.

An orphan at a young age and without formal education or the family lineage of the Founding Fathers, Jackson showed that the Presidency was not the exclusive province of the wealthy and the well-born but could truly be held by a man of the people. On a majestic, sweeping scale Brands re-creates Jackson’s rise from his hardscrabble roots to his days as frontier lawyer, then on to his heroic victory in the Battle of New Orleans, and finally to the White House. Capturing Jackson’s outsized life and deep impact on American history, Brands also explores his controversial actions, from his unapologetic expansionism to the disgraceful Trail of Tears. This is a thrilling portrait, in full, of the president who defined American democracy.

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself, Enlarged Edition, Now with "A True Tale of Slavery"

Harriet A. Jacobs

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Total reviews: 65 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Dover Edition 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Concerning this edition (the book is a must read)... Dover's thrift editions are just that--thrifty. The text is close together and the overall readability of the edition is fair. It works, but I'd like to see Oxford or Penguin make a "classic" edition with a scholary introduction, footnoting and contextual information like 19th century reviews, etc... A good edition, needs improvement, but then it wouldn't have a "thrifty" price!

Editorial Review:

This enlarged edition of the most significant and celebrated slave narrative now completes the Jacob family saga, surely one of the most memorable in all of American history. John Jacobs' short slave narrative, "A True Tale of Slavery," published in London in 1861, adds a brother's perspective to Harriet Jacobs' own autobiography. It is an exciting addition to this now classic work, as John Jacobs presents additional historical information about family life so well described already by his sister. Importantly, it presents the people, places, and events Harriet Jacobs wrote about from the different perspective of a male narrator. Once more, Jean Yellin, who discovered this long-lost document, supplies annotation and authentication. She has also brought her Introduction up to date.

The Sun and the Moon: The Remarkable True Account of Hoaxers, Showmen, Dueling Journalists, and Lunar Man-Bats in Nineteenth-Century New York

Matthew Goodman

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Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

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The Sun and the Moon tells the delightful, entertaining, and surprisingly true story of how in the summer of 1835 a series of articles in the Sun, the first of the city’s “penny papers,” convinced the citizens of New York that the moon was inhabited.

Six articles, purporting to reveal the lunar discoveries made by a world-famous British astronomer, described the life found on the moon—including unicorns, beavers that walked upright, and, strangest of all, four-foot-tall flying man-bats. The series quickly became the most widely circulated newspaper story of the era. And the Sun, a brash working-class upstart less than two years old, had become the most widely read newspaper in the world.

Told in richly novelistic detail, The Sun and the Moon brings the raucous world of 1830s New York City vividly to life—the noise, the excitement, the sense that almost anything was possible. The book overflows with larger-than-life characters, including Richard Adams Locke, author of the moon series (who never intended it to be a hoax at all); a fledgling showman named P.T. Barnum, who had just brought his own hoax to New York; and the young writer Edgar Allan Poe, who was convinced that the moon series was a plagiarism of his own work.

An exhilarating narrative history of a city on the cusp of greatness and a nation newly united by affordable newspapers, The Sun and the Moon may just be the strangest true story you’ve ever read.

Selected Speeches and Writings: Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln

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Editorial Review:

Ranging from finely honed legal argument to dry and sometimes savage humor to private correspondence and political rhetoric of unsurpassed grandeur, the writings collected in this volume are at once the literary testament of the greatest writer ever to occupy the White House and a documentary history of America in Abraham Lincoln's time. They record Lincoln's campaigns for public office; the evolution of his stand against slavery; his pyrotechnic debates with Stephen Douglas; his conduct of the Civil War; and the great public utterances of his presidency, including the Emancipation Proclamation and the Gettysburg Address.

For the first time, the authoritative editions of works by major American novelists, poets, scholars, and essayists collected in the hardcover volumes of The Library of America are being published singly in a series of handsome paperback books. A distinguished writer has contributed an introduction for each volume, which also includes a chronology of the author's life and career, an essay on the text, and notes.