In the book, “The Market Revolution”, by Charles Sellers, Seller talks about the period in American History from 1815 to 1846. Seller refers to this time period as the “Jacksonian America”. Sellers main argument is that the major social revolution, created by capitalism, that occurred after the War of 1812 caused American politics to turn from constitutional republicanism to a more democratic way of politics. He believes Jackson was a main reason for this change in American politics. Jackson’s main policies consisted of breaking down the Bank of the U.S., the achievement of extending the voting right to white men without power, and rooting out all corruption in American politics. Sellers adheres to a predominately Marxist historiography. This
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As a chapter or idea comes to a close, the author is able to present clear and concise conclusions. This technique offers the reader to better understand Sellers’ generally lengthy chapters by presenting what is crucial to the plot before moving on to new ideas. This can be most easily seen in the end of chapter one where Sellers breaks down the main ideas into three questions. Sellers asks the reader the following questions, “1. How democratic- how responsive to popular majorities- would governments be? 2. Would government power be extensive and concentrated at the federal level or limited and defused among the states? 3. To what extent and in what ways would government promote growth?” (33). While Sellers offers these questions for the reader to ponder for the remainder of the book, he goes into even more depth of the direct topics at hand in the following paragraphs. He seeks to answer the question of the relationship between farmers and upper class elitists. The first chapter also is able to connect back to Sellers’ point about contradictions during this time period. He presents the contradictions in Republicanism and rural egalitarianism that create a “…generation’s climactic struggle over American destiny” (33). Sellers choice in structure and organization provide a clear understanding of the chronological order of events presented …show more content…
While there is some bias from Sellers against the elitist class, his ability to present his ideas clearly and showing the relationship between democracy and capitalism is done very well. The book is a great source for information on this very important chapter in U.S. history, where the economy and politics changed forever. Sellers is extremely in depth in his analysis which makes understanding the topic well easy. The clarity, organization and support of his argument quite clearly outweigh some of his biases against the middle and elitist
As a chapter or idea comes to a close, the author is able to present clear and concise conclusions. This technique offers the reader to better understand Sellers’ generally lengthy chapters by presenting what is crucial to the plot before moving on to new ideas. This can be most easily seen in the end of chapter one where Sellers breaks down the main ideas into three questions. Sellers asks the reader the following questions, “1. How democratic- how responsive to popular majorities- would governments be? 2. Would government power be extensive and concentrated at the federal level or limited and defused among the states? 3. To what extent and in what ways would government promote growth?” (33). While Sellers offers these questions for the reader to ponder for the remainder of the book, he goes into even more depth of the direct topics at hand in the following paragraphs. He seeks to answer the question of the relationship between farmers and upper class elitists. The first chapter also is able to connect back to Sellers’ point about contradictions during this time period. He presents the contradictions in Republicanism and rural egalitarianism that create a “…generation’s climactic struggle over American destiny” (33). Sellers choice in structure and organization provide a clear understanding of the chronological order of events presented …show more content…
While there is some bias from Sellers against the elitist class, his ability to present his ideas clearly and showing the relationship between democracy and capitalism is done very well. The book is a great source for information on this very important chapter in U.S. history, where the economy and politics changed forever. Sellers is extremely in depth in his analysis which makes understanding the topic well easy. The clarity, organization and support of his argument quite clearly outweigh some of his biases against the middle and elitist