The Market Revolution

Charles Sellers is Professor of History Emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley. His two-volume biography of President James Polk won a Bancroft Prize in 1967.

"Sellers presents an ambitious, sweeping synthesis of Jacksonian America that is both thought-provoking and challenging. I learned a great deal from it."--Kenneth W. Noe, State University of West Georgia"Marks an ambitious effort to narrate and explain the triumph of capitalism in antebellum America....the Market Revolution is, without doubt, a monumental work....It achieves what many historians have called for: a syntesis of the often fragmented findings of the 'new social history' and a new political narrative that shows the impact of subaltern groups' experience and action on the public life of the nation."--Reviews in American History"A brave, magesterial effort to rewrite the era's history."--Sean Wilentz, The New Republic"A fresh and persuasive account."--Eric Foner, History Book Club"The most important interpretive survey of the Jacksonian period in the last half-century....Books like this endure and resonate."--Richard E. Ellis, Journal of the Early Republic"A brilliant inspiration to all of us."--Harry L. Watson, Journal of the Early Republic"Few books have attempted so much and few have offered such an all-embracing explanation for so diverse a range of phenomena."--Stephen E. Maizlish, American Historical Review"Simply the best synthesis now available on Jacksonian America...the crowning achievement of Professor Seller's long and distinguished career."--Steven Watts, Journal of American History"The book makes the reader ponder the role of capitalism in a democratic society, providing new ways of looking at a much-interpreted era."--History: Review of New Books"A powerfully argued grand synthesis of a key period in American history, this book will teach and provoke as have few works in the last decade. For no other period of American history can one find such a sweeping, coherent account, which creatively interprets the scholarship of the last thiry years. Sellers fuses scholarship with moral purpose in ways that force us to rethink the relationship between capitalism and democracy."--Paul Goodman, University ofCalifornia, Davis"A brilliant achievement. Combining vast scholarship with vivid, trenchant prose, Charles Sellers has produced a sweeping new interpretation of the economy, culture, and politics of antebellum America. Sellers' vision restores drama and historical coherence to the decades which witnessed a massive transformation of American life and a fundamental definition of our dominant national culture. The Market Revolution should fascinate general readers as itwill compel the attention of professional historians."--Harry L. Watson, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill"Rare...[A] pleasure to read...lively, provocative, and conceptually rich....A powerful book, which all American historians will want to read....He succeeds in the difficult task of showing familiar material in a new light."--Journal of Social History"A broad sweeping picture....Sets a standard that all historians should strive to emulate....Masterfully depicts the massive transformation experienced by the United States after 1815."--Journal of Interdisciplinary History"Vigorous and vivid prose, at times richly textured and evocative yet remarkably condensed and often epigrammatic....A magesterial synthesis of social and political history."--Major L. Watson, Journal of the Early Republic"Excellent for use in a specialized period course."--Jim Rice, George Mason University"It has been said correctly of the book that it has a majesterial quality, and it does indeed convey to the reader a vivid sense of the whole social and political context in which the economy operated at the time. It is moreover a thoroughly researched book that should be of great value to students of the Jacksonian period."--R.J. Saulnier, Center for the Study of the Presidency