Inheriting the Revolution: The First Generation of Americans

Joyce Appleby's Inheriting a Revolution: The First Generation of Americans examines a post-Revolutionary America that looked differently than many founders had imagined. The focus of Appleby's book is the altered political, social, economic, and familial environment in which Americans who came of age after 1790 had to live--and in which many prospered. Appleby is prudent, however, to illustrate that not everyone flourished in the new America. Chroniclers recorded the American way of success as the qualities of the period's successful northern white men. "A new ideal character was created: the man who developed inner resources, acted independently, lived virtuously, and bent his behavior to personal goals" (11). White women, enslaved Africans, besieged Native Americans, and white men who did not adapt do not factor into this analysis. The Revolution bequeathed the first generation of Americans a society awash in opportunity. In the eyes of post-Revolution Americans, "Independence made possible the creation of a distinctive American society that honored individual initiative, institutional restraint, and popular public participation" (5). The subjects of Appleby's study seized new opportunities and recorded their stories of challenge and success in diaries and memoirs. Appleby credits four post-Revolution phenomena for facilitating early national success and growth. First, she continues the discussion of the radicalizing of politics, which Gordon Wood brilliantly began in The Radicalism of the American Revolution. Men of different classes and occupations found new voices in local, regional, and national politics. "Twelve years after the ratification of the Constitution, a national elite, established with such high hopes for forming a stabilizing center, had been ousted and with it went that union of social and political power essential to ruling class" (52). The second phenomenon which helped to shape the American social landscape was a revitalization of religion. As Nathan O. Hatch's excellent The Democratization of American Christianity also details, Christian revivalists, many of whom held little education--in an outright rejection of established church structures--preached of love and redemption in Christ. Religious movements brought together men and women of different backgrounds--including Africans--and inspired the establishment of voluntary religious associations. No one could "have predicted that the cool, rationalist attitudes of the Enlightenment would be overwhelmed by the warm passions of religious awakening" (8). The third important element for early America's success was new opportunity for the young. The availability of land, access to credit, and increased literacy rates prompted young people to take risks with their career ambitions. More importantly, young men departed rural areas in search of jobs and entrepreneurial experience. Family relationships changed dramatically as boys who would have once stayed

Appleby provides an excellent survey of the culture of the "first" generation of Americans and what influenced and shaped their interpretation of the American revolution that laid the groundwork for our governance and society today. Appleby notes that the first generation of Americans had to grapple with a yet unformed political and economic structure and much of their thinking and actions completed the formation of our national institutions and culture.Many themes run through the work. First, Jefferson's election in 1801 was critical because it marked the beginning of the expansion of democracy and participatory politics to the masses and reaffirmed the predominance of state and local control over politics. Literacy and the wide consumption of newspapers and books, social and physical mobility,inventiveness, the embryo of industrialization, the proliferation of religious denominations, the blurring of social distinctions, and the formation of political and social organizations are just a few of the many themes she touches upon. These cultural tides, and others, broadened and made more inclusive participation in the structuring of economic, political, and religious decision making in both formal institutions and informal channels of influence.Appleby also illuminates the growing isolation of the South from the rest of the country because of its rationalization of slavery -- an institution that was anathema to the ideals (if not the reality) of the nation's founding and ran counter to the democratization and upward mobility experienced by the rest of the nation. In hindsight we see the cultural beginnings of the schism between North and South -- here in cultural terms -- that explains how our nation could bring itself to such violent conflict in the Civil War years later.These are just a few of the themes in Appleby's work -- and does it little justice. It would take me 20 pages of run-on sentences to describe many of the thought provoking elements in this book. So in short, I highly recommend it for those interested in the nation's founding.

Appleby's thesis is that the generation of Americans born in 1776 through 1800 inherited an as yet unformed society whose outlines were based on the revolutionary conception of governance, but that it was that this first generation of post-war Americans who had to actually form the "more perfect union." She shows how this task was taken up by all kinds of Americans through all kinds of means, including evangelicalism, new mass communications vehicles like newspapers, and the formation of political and social clubs and societies. Empowered as they were by Jefferson's explosive policies, policies which eventually wrested the governance of the United States out of hands of the elitist, self-serving hands of the Federalists, the rising middle class cleared a space for themselves. Appleby assumes the reader knows the basic history of this period, an assumption which enables her to not only cover a lot of ground fairly quickly, but also to treat her material thematically. This approach may leave some readers unhappy or confused, but for those with a basic grounding in the era, the method can provide startling insights into a much-written about period of American history. In addition, the reader is given by virture of this technique insight into the present era. Appleby's one overriding insight is that once the civic religion of America was set into motion by this post-revolutionary first generation, and we Americans have been making only minor adjustments to this national imaginary and our place within it ever since. For fun, read as companion texts "The Education of Henry Adams" by Henry Adams and "Improvised Europeans" by Alex Zwerdling. These "un-common" Americans contrast nicely with the rising middle class population described here.

An excellent historical analysis of post American Revolution cultural and character regional developments responsible for much of the future general nature -- religous, economic, and social -- of both male and female Americans. It gives what might be considered a "true" picture of early 19th century U.S. history, not one that has been "cleaned up" to protect ancestry. It is a profound, in-depth work of the true scholar and historian to be thoroughly enjoyed. One learns much from such historical preparation.

Around page 20 I figured out I should skip the wordy Introduction. It would make a better Conclusion -- too abstract to follow if you don't already have some factual underpinnings.On to the rest of the book. Chapter 2 is sort of an overview. Remaining chapters cover "Enterprise", "Careers", "Distinctions" (about social status), "Intimate Relations", "Reform" (religious and moral), and "A New National Identity". The material is undeniably interesting -- dueling newspaper editors (and dueling everyone else), downtrodden young people finding their way, cultural battles between north and south, Federalists vs. republicans, the inception of careers and jobs that had not existed before... and did you know that separate right and left shoes were an invention of this recent time period? Where Appleby stocks the book with primary material, it's engaging. Where she talks in generalities, there are way too many sentences that have to be read several times to sink in. "The intense politicization of public life from political and institutional controversies accustomed Americans to public disclosure." (p. 41) Is this circular, or what? I imagine the book is most difficult for those unfamiliar with the material, a little easier for those who have some background. One other complaint: The reader is often left to wonder how things got to be as Appleby describes. For instance: "Jefferson and his supporters democratized American politics... by implementing policies that enabled people to work out the terms of their lives with minimal interference from family, church, or state." What policies? Not one example is given; there's nothing for the reader to grip. I'm intrigued by the statement but I'm left hanging.On the whole, it's a worthwhile bunch of material, and the style is sometimes engaging. Just be prepared to deal with the passages that are less engaging.