Product Description

Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. won the Pulitzer Prize for The Age of Jackson. It is a triumph of historical scholarship, analysis, and interpretation and throws much new light on a host of Americans, well-known and less well-known, who come to life in remarkable portraits that are both brilliant and sensitive. We learn a good deal that is new about the Jacksonian era, its relation to the Jeffersonian age it succeeded and to the periods that have followed.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #454974 in Books
• Published on: 1988-11-28
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 577 pages

Review
A landmark in American historical writing. -- Marquis James

An original, brilliant and monumentally massive historical work...It is a major achievement -- The New York Times

Performed not merely adequately but brilliantly . . . a remarkable piece of analytical history. -- Allan Nevins

About the Author
Arthur Meier Schlesinger Jr. is a distinguished Professor of History and the author of 16 books. He has twice won the Pulitzer Prize, first for The Age of Jackson, then 20 years later for A Thousand Days, his portrait of the Kennedy administration, which also won the National Book Award. He served in the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) during the Second World War and as special assistant to the president in the Kennedy White House. In 1967, Schlesinger was appointed Albert Schweitzer Chair in the Humanities at the City University of New York Graduate School.

Customer Reviews

A Classic That is Still Deeply Relevant
This book is a classic of American History, and is very much a chapter in Schlesinger's broader project of discovering the roots of (then-) modern liberalism through history. This is a book that is best described as a history of ideas, and particularly of the idea of democracy as it expanded in the 1830s and 1840s, embracing universal suffrage and economic as well as political egalitarianism. The book very much reflects the time in which it was written and the debates which it was part of, and, like much history of the period, seeks to refocus discussion of American history away from themes of frontier and nationalialism.

There are several things this book is not:

This book is not a comprehensive history of the period;
it is not even a social or economic history of the period;
it is not a biography of Jackson (indeed, Martin Van Buren may well receive more ink than Jackson in this book); and
it is not an attempt to write a definitive work; rather, it is a voice in a rather lively debate.

Schlesigner's voice in the book is clear and open. His own biases and prejudices are on the surface, not hidden and not given any claims of a "disinterested" scientific approach. Yet his research and his mustering of support are thorough and meticulous, and he is just as clear in discussing the shortcomings of his analysis (such as in the closing chapters) as in describing the shortcoming of other's analyses.

His fundamental argument is that the Jacksonian intellectual tradition was the first American intellectual tradition to clearly recognize a need for economic as well as political egalitarianism, and the first to make good on the fundamental concept that "All men (still men in the Jacksonian age) are created equal." He focuses on the entire intellectual movement of Jacksonian Democracy, not exclusively on the General himself, and shows the differing currents of thought and how they interacted to create a policy that fundamentally based itself on addressing a conflict between classes.

Schlesinger's project does have difficulty in dealing with reactions to slavery, which cut across class and ideological lines, and he wrestles through this to recognize in the end that a fundamental conflict of the time was the conflict between a sectionally and ideologically motiviated politics, resulting in much "crossing of aisles" and in radically different alliances in the 50s and 60s than existed in the 30s and 40s. Perhaps, however, it is just as important to examine ideologies that go beyond the Jacksonian economic perspectives and focus on underlying religious and moral views. Schlesigner also wrestles briefly, and less successfully still, with the impact of immigration and the opening of the frontier on the development of American political ideas. In doing so, at the end of the book, however, he is more laying out the areas needing further work than attempting to actually tackle the issues in detail.

Some of the many strenghts: Schlesigner provides us with the most coherant discussion before or since of the failure and demise of federalism, gives us the best history before or since on the battles over the 2nd National Bank, and brings out significant parts of the Jacksonian inheritance that had long been underappreciated. He incorporates original material into his work in a way that animates the material, makes it clearly understandable, and provides it context. Perhaps most importantly of all, he contributes a voice to American history that is personal and open, and puts the biases and personal intellectual struggles of the writer on display as part and parcel of his analysis.

Since Schlesinger's time, much has changed, but, in the developing debates Jacksonian Democracy is perhaps even more relevant. For example, there is again an alliance between economic and religious conservatives as there was in the Harrison/Van Buren election. Other reviewers have criticized, for example, Schlesigner's finding of common cause with the radical Jacksonians given Schlesinger's prediliction for "big government" liberalism; yet Schlesinger is very clear and insightful in showing how that the Jacksonian opposition's early view of limited government was inspired by the clear alliance of government and business at the time to the detriment of the common person, and that the view of government involvement developed significantly as the Jacksonians consolidated power and then watched it dissipate. We are once again in an era where the conservative party is increasingly the party of a bigger, more expansive and intrusive government, one which actively promotes policies geared toward conservative causes and business interests, and where liberals are, once again, more often the voice of governmental restraint. Schlesinger's analysis is helpful in tying together the development of differing approaches to government all in a common attempt to serve and respond to egalitarian social concerns. Schlesigner also is careful to call out the discontinuities between Jacksonian Democracy and the New Deal, highlighting in particular the struggles of the Jacksonians with industrialization, immigration and slavery.

While this book is highly recommended for all, and, indeed, is among the very best American History works, it is particularly recommended for those seeking intellectual roots for egalitarianism.

A Great Historian; A Great President
When, as a young man, Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. published "The Age of Jackson" he gave us an insightful volume about the founder of the modern Democratic party, and of the critical generation of U.S. History that followed the presidencies of Madison and Monroe, and preceded the woefully incompetent administrations that helped to precipitate the Civil War. From the vantage point of the year 2000, it is easy to criticize the author for failing to take Jackson to task for his vile policy toward native Americans. It is also much harder for intelligent Americans of today to understand the merits of Jackson's opposition to the Bank of the United States. But his opposition to the Bank of the United States was derived from a populist streak that makes liberals cheer, and his position on other major issues justifies the honors bestowed on him by today's Democrats (just as Republicans have "Lincoln Day" dinners to annually honor their party's best President, Democrats have "Jefferson-Jackson Day" dinners to honor their party's two founders).

"The Age of Jackson" is probably the second place that all college history students should turn to, as they study pre-Civil War America, second only to getting the raw outline of events from their required textbook. Of course, the Schlesinger book is no longer the final place for the student's research; more recent, albeit less well-written works must be studied as well. Still, historians would be hard-pressed to ignore this classic.

Captures the Spirit of the Times
Many conservatives love Andrew Jackson and hate Franklin Roosevelt; many liberals love Franklin Roosevelt and hate Andrew Jackson; rare it is will you find a historical scholar with the cojones to point out a truth that most are loathe to admit - that the two men, though separated by a century, represented manifestations of the same basic ideology, and as such should be admired by anyone who adheres to progressive political values.
Arthur Schlesinger - a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian (for this and one other book) and a high-ranking employee for Franklin D. Roosevelt, Adlai E. Stevenson, and John F. Kennedy - is supremely well-qualified to render a verdict as to Jackson's legacy. This he does, and in spades, in a book that brilliantly captures the spirit of the Jacksonian Era even while digging deep into the political, economic, social, cultural, religious, and intellectual life of the time. This book is in part a chronicle of the movers and shakers of the Jacksonian movement(Martin Van Buren, John Calhoun, Jackson himself, and countless others), but it is primarily an all-encompassing chronicle of a political movement that has been more or less forgotten today. Anyone who doesn't recommend this book either doesn't know much about American history, or has an ideological agenda that they wish to foist upon you which is impeded by the facts presented in this volume. Ignore their imprecations and read it anyway.