Princeton professor Sean Wilentz here presents the in-depth story of the turn in American politics toward democracy. I suppose it is relatively well-known that the Founding Fathers (especially, say, John Adams) considered the phrase "democratic government" simply another way of saying "mob rule." Rules governing enfranchisement were written into the early state's charters…rules specifically designed to exclude persons of color and the poor from having a voice in government.
However, from its inception—no matter how much the Founding Fathers feared its outcome—a deeply democratic impulse was a key engine of American political development. However, this impulse took different forms: in fact, it might be more accurate to speak of American democracies, ultimately rooted in the differing socioeconomic spheres of the city and the country.
Wilentz demonstrates how this fundamental struggle to define American democracy shaped every major early American political debate the rise (and fall) of the federal banking systems, labor, and—most importantly—slavery. In particular, Wilentz I think does a fine job of demonstrating how the American Civil War was rooted in both concerns about state's rights and about slavery. He is also adamant that, though the break was an outworking of the "city" and "country" democracies birthed in the nation's founding, the institutionalization of slavery and white racial superiority was fundamental to the founding of the Confederate States of America; in the twisted logic of the time, the establishment of white superiority was seen as necessary to preserving true democratic rule.
On one level, this book is spectacularly well-done. The writing is clear, the research is meticulous (nearly 200 pages of endnotes are provided!), and his characterizations of the key figures are lively and even entertaining. However, at another level, the amount of detail can be almost excruciating for non-specialist readers like me. To be honest, I reached a point where I continued to read the book simply because I had read so much already that I felt that I must see it through. I'm glad that I did, but I knew that I was not probably getting as much benefit from Wilentz's work as I could or would have if I would have had a better background in the history of the period.
At the end of the day, I must give the book high marks, recognizing that any fault I found with it more relates to my poor preparation as a reader than to any flaw with the book itself. I would definitely say this is a book for connoisseurs not dilettantes. Wilentz shows that American politics has, from our birth, been infinitely complex, shaped by the forces of stalwart principle and expedient compromise.
Perhaps the most important part of the book for me was found in the final chapter, where Wilentz demonstrates how Abraham Lincoln saw himself as the inheritor of Thomas Jefferson's mantle. Many postmoderns have noted the oddity (and seeming hypocrisy) that the man who penned the Declaration of Independence with its self-evident truth that "all men are created equal" still owned slaves. However, Wilentz's story shows both how Jefferson was not hypocritical in his own time and yet laid the foundation for the rise of American democracy that eventually demanded the end of slavery. I'm left to ponder the reality that, like the writers of Scripture, it is possible that Jefferson wrote "better than he knew," his words giving shape to a reality even he couldn't see at the time. It causes me to ponder the nature of the continuing work of the Spirit as a reality of human life, and wonder where might the Spirit be at work today in our midst, speaking to us in the most unlikely of voices in the most unlikely of ways. ( )