Historian Howe illuminates the period of American history 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. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

Starred Review. In the latest installment in the Oxford History of the United States series, historian Howe, professor emeritus at Oxford University and UCLA (The Political Culture of the American Whigs), stylishly narrates a crucial period in U.S. history a time of territorial growth, religious revival, booming industrialization, a recalibrating of American democracy and the rise of nationalist sentiment. Smaller but no less important stories run through the account: New York's gradual emancipation of slaves; the growth of higher education; the rise of the temperance movement (all classes, even ministers, imbibed heavily, Howe says). Howe also charts developments in literature, focusing not just on Thoreau and Poe but on such forgotten writers as William Gilmore Simms of South Carolina, who helped create the romantic image of the Old South, but whose proslavery views eventually brought his work into disrepute. Howe dodges some of the shibboleths of historical literature, for example, refusing to describe these decades as representing a market revolution because a market economy already existed in 18th-century America. Supported by engaging prose, Howe's achievement will surely be seen as one of the most outstanding syntheses of U.S. history published this decade. 30 photos, 6 maps. (Sept.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

Starred Review. This authoritative addition to Oxford's "History of the United States" series is a product of synthesis and astute analysis. Intellectual and cultural historian Howe (Making the American Self: Jonathan Edwards to Abraham Lincoln) touches upon the rapidly expanding nation's economy, foreign relations, and social structures, taking into account race, gender, and ethnicity, and bringing special insights to his discussion of religious revivals and the evolution of moral consciousness, reform movements, and political institutions. The evocative title, which was the first message carried by Morse's telegraph, refers to the changes wrought by religious sensibilities as well as those wrought by technological breakthroughs. Howe boldly emphasizes the "communications revolution" rather than the "market revolution" of the early 19th century, asserting that the latter largely happened among 18th-century commercial farmers. On the other hand, he does not emphasize a "Jacksonian America." Andrew Jackson, he asserts, was not as uniformly democratic or influential as his supporters maintain. A worthy addition to public and academic institutions; beginning scholars will appreciate the maps and the extensive bibliographic essay, fleshed out by the journal citations in the footnotes. Highly recommended. Frederick J. Augustyn Jr., Library of Congress Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

Daniel Walker Howe is Rhodes Professor of American History Emeritus, Oxford University, and Professor of History Emeritus, University of California, Los Angeles. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

Maps	xi
Editor's Introduction	xiii
Abbreviations Used in Citations	xvii
Introduction	1
Prologue: The Defeat of the Past	8
1 The Continental Setting	19
2 From the Jaws of Defeat	63
3 An Era of Good and Bad Feelings	91
4 The World That Cotton Made	125
5 Awakenings of Religion	164
6 Overthrowing the Tyranny of Distance	203
7 The Improvers	243
8 Pursuing the Millennium	285
9 Andrew Jackson and His Age	328
10 Battles over Sovereignty	367
11 Jacksonian Democracy and the Rule of Law	411
12 Reason and Revelation	446
13 Jackson's Third Term	483
14 The New Economy	525
15 The Whigs and Their Age	570
16 American Renaissance	613
17 Texas, Tyler, and the Telegraph	658
18 Westward the Star of Empire	701
19 The War Against Mexico	744
20 The Revolutions of 1848	792
Finale: A Vision of the Future	837
Bibliographical Essay	856
Index	879

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