The Jacksonian period in United States history is a rich past of politics and economic importance. Harry Watson’s book Liberty and Power analyzes these important facets of the period, while simultaneously providing evidence of the daily lives of the citizens. This, combined with his ability to eliminate the use of professional history jargon and smooth transitions from one topic to the next, creates an easy interpretation and understanding of the era. Liberty and Power is a rebuttal to a previous work written by Alexis de Tocqueville in 1835. Watson argues that Tocqueville’s analysis of Jacksonian politics is not an accurate understanding of the period, greatly undermining the “importance of Jacksonian America’s political parties.”
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Accordingly, in one such instance he sets up an argument addressing how citizens viewed their political obligations and the consequences of fulfilling them, by doing this he not only sets up his argument that their “uncertainty” in their politics would create “significant implications” during the period. Ultimately, Watson concludes his book stating that under President Jackson the United States had shifted itself in technologies, while striving to keep former political and economic sentiments. The decision to relinquish government control on the “Monster Bank” was an economic decision that has not been repeated. Watson further states that while Jackson did not restore the “Old Republic” he became a piece of political ideologies that still exist today in that he exemplified liberty and rights. While Watson uses an ample amount of common vernacular throughout his book, he assumes that his audience has former knowledge of Tocqueville’s Democracy in America. Unfortunately, due to this it can be difficult to understand the fluency of his thesis. While Watson offers a brief description of what Tocqueville’s book was about, it is not enough to be confident that Watson is addressing the same areas as Tocqueville does thus, creating a lack of information to completely validate his thesis without further research and reading of the Democracy of
Accordingly, in one such instance he sets up an argument addressing how citizens viewed their political obligations and the consequences of fulfilling them, by doing this he not only sets up his argument that their “uncertainty” in their politics would create “significant implications” during the period. Ultimately, Watson concludes his book stating that under President Jackson the United States had shifted itself in technologies, while striving to keep former political and economic sentiments. The decision to relinquish government control on the “Monster Bank” was an economic decision that has not been repeated. Watson further states that while Jackson did not restore the “Old Republic” he became a piece of political ideologies that still exist today in that he exemplified liberty and rights. While Watson uses an ample amount of common vernacular throughout his book, he assumes that his audience has former knowledge of Tocqueville’s Democracy in America. Unfortunately, due to this it can be difficult to understand the fluency of his thesis. While Watson offers a brief description of what Tocqueville’s book was about, it is not enough to be confident that Watson is addressing the same areas as Tocqueville does thus, creating a lack of information to completely validate his thesis without further research and reading of the Democracy of