Books The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln
Books and Publications Average Rating:

Rating: - Amazing
I'm still in the process of reading this book but I really like how the author writes. It's fairly easy to get through considering it is somewhat lengthy (page wise). It's a great political history during an amazing time in America's past. Mr. Wilentz definitely does bring to life the debate over the role the new government would have in Americans lives. It is definitely not boring and if you are interested in this time period, then you should definitely read this book.

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Rating: - Great
I'm new to American history reading. I enjoyed this book because it will give you an expansive understanding of a huge chunk of American history - a base to start reading more specialized books. I read it with a highlighter in hand, so that I can reread the highlights again in a couple years.

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Rating: - The best available introduction to the subject
Sean Wilentz has achieved a reputation as a significant American public intellectual, and as a notably partisan historian, defending his beloved Democratic Party and its revered founder, Andrew Jackson. Thus many historians might be forgiven for expecting this work to be polemical and biased. They would be wrong. In seeking to grasp the entire span of American history between the Revolution and the Civil War, Wilentz has in this long-awaited volume embraced a balanced, nuanced, and judicious view of his subject.

Moreover, despite the book's imposing length, I found myself continually surprised by Wilentz's admirable conciseness on matters of great complexity. It is not too much to say that this is an elegantly brief portrait of the crucial founding decades of the American republic.

Finally, The Rise of American Democracy restores politics to the front and center of American history, not as an elite pastime, but as the main arena of American life. This is a bold and courageous corrective to the long reign of social history in the academy, from an author who is himself one of the pioneers of social and labor history.

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Rating: - Disjointed effort at addressing a woefully under-represented era
American history appreciation has experienced a welcome rebirth in the last decade, especially where non-fiction books are concerned. Perhaps it is this that has left me spoiled. If McCullough can take a monster-sized tome about one of the dryest of pugnacious characters (Adams) then perhaps I have come to expect a Home Run every time a new book comes to bat. Maybe 20 years ago Wilentz' book would be a masterwork, but as it stands it leaves a little to be desired. At the risk of sounding ungrateful, I found this book disjointed and not particularly likeable to read. Doubtless the author knows his circumstantial history, but the downfall of the work is that it reads as such. Like a series of individual events, where characters are rarely fully fleshed out after being hastily introduced, places are rapidly cycled in, out, and through, and themes are rarely tied together for longer than 2 paragraphs. Before you say it, you are correct that this book aims for more than just mere biography. It's just sad that the author runs through so many separate points along the historical curve that the reader is left addled and weary attempting to put the human story bridges into place that Wilentz appears to show precious little empathy for. I do not question his knowledge as historian nor his zeal for the subject matter, only his power as an author to flesh out a subject while bringing meaning and life to it.