The Myth of Class in Jacksonian America

Abstract

In the mid-1960s, Charles G. Sellers, Jr., was perhaps the most widely respected historian of the Jacksonian era. The author of several seminal articles on the period, he was in the midst of writing a multivolume biography of James K. Polk, two volumes of which had already appeared. Sellers's knowledge of the intricacies of Jacksonian politics, his comprehension of the importance of state politics, and his understanding of the relationship between society and politics were unrivaled. The second volume of his study of Polk received the Bancroft Prize, and Jacksonian scholars eagerly awaited the appearance of the promised third volume, covering the most crucial years of Polk's presidency.

Culture versus Economics: An American Dilemma

“…Without such generalizations one is unable to conceptualize wide-angle relationships. 4 Exceptions to this dictum could be found in the mid-nineteenth century (Formisano 1971;Gienapp 1987;Holt 1978;Silbey 1985) and-perhaps-the 1960s and 1970s (Carmines and Stimson 1989). More on these topics below.…”

“…25 Recent scholarship accounts for the fall of the Whig Party by looking not simply at antislavery sentiment in the North but also at nativism, anti-Catholicism, and temperance. See, e.g., Anbinder 1992;Gienapp 1987;andHolt 1978,1992. Michael Holt, in particular, has stressed the significance of antipartyism in the 1850s -a sentiment fueled by the Tweedledum/Tweedledee appearance of the major parties, neither of which saw fit to articulate differences on the major cultural questions of the day.…”