Throes of Democracy

Historian Walter A. McDougall paints a huge and busy canvas in his social and political history of the years before and after the Civil War, culminating in the nation`s centennial. McDougall delights in the robust participation of individuals and groups as he masterfully recounts the larger-than-life personalities, the epic events, and the hustle and bustle activity that drove the eighteenth century forward through the best and worst of times. A unifying idea is that the entrepreneurial impulses were matched by an inflated rhetoric of speculation, not just about business, but about freedom and democracy themselves. [THROES OF DEMOCRACY: THE CIVIL WAR ERA, 1829-1877 is the second volume of a projected three-volume, comprehensive history of the United States. The first volume is FREEDOM JUST AROUND THE CORNER: A NEW AMERICAN HISTORY 1585-1828.] Copyright (C) Muze Inc. 2005. For personal use only. All rights reserved.