Waking Giant: America in the Age of Jackson

In aptly titled, Waking Giant, David Reynolds takes on the very difficult task of writing a biography of an era. It is reminiscent of the now classic, Only Yesterday: An Informal History of the 1920's that brings that era to life. This chronicle of the "era of the common man", helps to fill a gap for general readers. A check of Pulitzer Prize winners for history suggests that there is a trend for revisiting the Jackson Age. There is a winner in 2008 What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815-1848 (Oxford History of the United States) and a runner up in 2006 The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln. These are the first to appear (other than books on niche topics) since Schlesinger's The Age of Jackson (Back Bay Books (Series)) in 1946. Jackson is our first president to come from humble means and from the frontier. While his accomplishments are few and dubious (for instance the war on the bank and his Native American policies) he solidified the power of the President by force of personality and held the nation together in his fight against nullification. As those who have been born free of monarchy and legally entrenched aristocracy came of age, the country was awash in new ideas in art, religion, entertainment and commerce that were not influenced by the established ways of Europe. As the common man gained confidence the country did too and envisioned a sea to sea destiny. Reynolds shows how the seeds of the territorial and military infrastructure and a national identity were sown and fostered in this period. Reynolds' forte is literature (he has written on Melville and Whitman) but he does an outstanding job with religion, politics, business and synthesizing what they all have to do with Jackson. Reynolds provided the links for me to understand what I had been looking for regarding Jackson. It is not the accomplishments of Jackson for which he is honored, but for his spirit and for the common man whom he represents.

Waking Giant is extraordinary. It is remarkably well informed and readable. Reynolds is to be commended on his efforts and ability to produce such an outstanding book on a most interesting subject. Particularly insightful are the sections on Emerson, Melville, Hawthorne and Poe. The book gave me new insight on these writers, and on a period of American Literature that I have been studying and thinking about for years.

David S. Reynolds provides a broad survey of the United States of America between 1815 and 1848, commonly referred to as the "Age of Jackson". After reaffirming its independence from England in the War of 1812, the United States emerged as a world power brimming with a cast of first-generation American politicians, soldiers, scientists, writers and artists. No hagiography, this book explores both triumphs and failures, both accomplishments and limitations of scores of both American legends and lesser-known significant figures. In the beginning and end of the book, Reynolds covers the Presidential administrations of James Monroe, John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, Martin Van Buren, William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, and James Polk; he closes with the 1849 inauguration of Zachary Taylor. With the demise of the Federalists, the Democrat Monroe enjoyed the "Era Of Good Feelings", but national politics soon disintegrated into bitter partisanship between the Democrats and Whigs. Such enmity existed that Congress refused to provide appropriations for the 1840's White House, making President John Tyler pay his own heating bill. Modern parallels abound: Reynolds describes Senators "in the odd position of opposing the war (with Mexico) for political reasons while voting to fund it so as not to appear unpatriotic." A key cultural flashpoint is the amplifying clash between abolitionists and slave-owners that would soon thereafter erupt into the Civil War. Another theme involves the young nation's embrace or rejection of mother country England through disparate arenas like political science, literature or theater. In the middle chapters, Reynolds also explores religion, medicine, scientific inventions, fine art, entertainment and fads of the era. The text is occasionally repetitive, often retelling events from earlier in the book instead of simply alluding to them and moving to new information. Further editing might have yielded a more cohesive volume. Reynolds previously wrote a biography of Walt Whitman and, though usually apt, his inclusion of Whitman's observations in almost every chapter grows tiresome. Reynolds includes a 30-page index and 17 pages of sources and additional recommended reading. The book also includes over 40 black and white illustrations. Detailed but not exhaustive, this volume is informative yet still highly readable. This would probably make an excellent gift for a social studies teacher or casual American history buff.

There have been made fine books on the era between the War of 1812 and the Civil War that was dominated by Andrew Jackson. From the Pulitzer Prize winning "The Age of Jackson" by Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. (1945) to Robert Remini's three volume biography of Jackson (1977, 1981, 1984), the field have been dominant with political histories. Mr. Reynolds takes a different approach with politics taking a backseat to the cultural times of America. The literary, spiritual, theaterical, etc. are all covered in this history of how Americans lived. The political aspect is covered in a basic approach of an introduction while the celebrities, quacks, writers, and preachers take center stage. The writing is lively and interesting.