The Jacksonian Persuasion: Politics and Belief

by Marvin Meyers

Book Overview

A Stanford University Press classic.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0804705062
• ISBN13: 9780804705066
• Release Date: June 1957
• Publisher: Stanford University Press
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.88 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.4" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

A tour de force in American intellectual history

Marvin Meyers has written a trenchant analysis of the Jacksonian period which constitutes a radical departure from the prior literature. He stakes his ground early by noting that "political democracy was the medium more than the achievement of the Jacksonian party". The work recalls astute observers of American society at that time such as Tocqueville, Leggett, Sedgewick and Rantoul. Here through their eyes we become witness to the paradoxical and nuanced nature of the Jacksonian "persuasion" (as opposed to ideology, for example). It is the first time that we are confronted with the notion of fear in American history, in which the Jacksonians view the ineluctability of the American experiment with a degree of circumspection. Meyers' work is also outstanding as a paradigm for understanding the thoughts and ideas of a given epoch: to understand those thinkers as they understood themselves.