Daniel Webster and Jacksonian Democracy Contributor(s): Nathans, Sydney (Author) |
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ISBN: 1421430533 ISBN-13: 9781421430539 Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press OUR PRICE: $44.65 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: December 2019 |
Additional Information |
BISAC Categories: - Biography & Autobiography - History | Europe - General - History | United States - General |
Dewey: B |
Series: Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political |
Physical Information: 0.8" H x 6.1" W x 8.9" (0.85 lbs) 266 pages |
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
Publisher Description: Originally published in 1973. Professor Nathans illuminates the changes wrought by Jacksonian democracy on the career of Daniel Webster, a major political figure, and on the destiny of a major political party, the Whigs. Daniel Webster was a creative anachronism in the Jacksonian era. His career illustrates the fate of a generation of American politicians, reared to rule in a traditional world of defined social classes where gentlemen led and the masses followed. With extensive research into primary sources, Nathans interprets Webster as a leader in the older political tradition, hostile to permanent organized political parties and fearful of social strife that party conflict seemed to promote. He focuses on Webster's response to the rise of entrenchment of voter-oriented partisan politics. He analyzes Webster's struggle to survive, comprehend, and finally manipulate the new politics during his early opposition to Jackson; his roles in the Bank War and the nullification crisis; and the contest for leadership within the Whig Party from 1828 to 1844. Webster and the Whigs resisted and then belatedly attempted to answer the demands of the new egalitarian mass politics. |