Book Review

Canada and the United States

John Lauritz Larson's book, whose title represents a clever play on words, looks at the political and philosophical machinations that convulsed America from 1789 through the post-Civil War era as politicians defined governmental responsibilities. Analyzing internal improvements debates, Larson ably traces the roles of leading men from George Washington to Jay Gould, costumed in their ideological plumage, particularist desires, and personal ambitions as they acted their parts in national and state dramas. Political leaders everywhere initially supported publicly financed internal improvement projects. Only after many false starts and much wasted national treasure did the political players turn internal improvements over to private capitalists. In telling this story, Larson's book is a welcome extension of Charles Seller's work, The Market Revolution: Jacksonian America, 1815–1846 (1992)	1
Larson sees a complex, evolutionary political process at work in the new republic. Almost everyone agreed that the need for internal improvements was acute and that only government had the legitimacy and wherewithal to finance them. Improvement schemes at all levels, however, foundered on questions of class, political ideology, local interests, and federalism.	2
Washington assumed that national transportation improvements would mute arguments. He believed that his Potomac River improvement scheme fit that definition, but many in Congress were horrified at the thought that such an investment would empower the national government at the expense of the states.	. . .