| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 95.3

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| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 95.3 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Throes of Democracy: The American Civil War Era, 1829–1877. By Walter A. McDougall. (New York: HarperCollins, 2008. xxviii, 787 pp. $34.95, ISBN 978-0-06-056751-4.)

Walter A. McDougall's Throes of Democracy is an ambitious effort to capture the essence of the American experience from the age of Jackson to the abandonment of Reconstruction. The result is an extraordinary amalgam of anecdotes, observations, and fascinating bits of information, as McDougall traces in amazing depth and detail the course of American history through this troubled and expansive period. Nothing escapes McDougall's notice. He presents to us seemingly every particular of politics, religion, economic development, cultural life, and much more in the form of a lengthy journey through the turbulent early years of America's growth. Along the way, McDougall furnishes a series of vignettes on each of the states that entered the Union during this period, providing additional depth and perspective to what is already a remarkably thorough account.

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