The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln is a non-fiction book by Sean Wilentz published in 2005 by W. W. Norton & Company.

Contents Preface Prologue I. THE CRISIS OF THE NEW WORLD ORDER 1. American Democracy in a Revolutionary Age 2. The Republican Interest and the Self-Created Democracy 3. The Making of Jeffersonian Democracy 4. Jefferson’s Two Presidencies 5. Nationalism and the War of 1812 II. DEMOCRACY ASCENDANT 6. The Era of Bad Feelings 7. Slavery, Compromise, and Democratic Politics 8. The Politics of Moral Improvement 9. The Autocracy and Democracy of America 10. The Jackson Era: Uneasy Beginnings 11. Radical Democracies 12. 1932: Jackson’s Crucial Year 13. Banks, Abolitionists, and the Equal Rights Democracy 14. "The Republic has degenerated into a Democracy" 15. The Politics of Hard Times 16. Whigs, Democrats, and Democracy III. SLAVERY AND THE CRISIS OF AMERICAN DEMOCRACY 17. Whig Debacle, Democratic Confusion 18. Antislavery, Annexation, and the Advent of Young Hickory 19. The Bitter Fruits of Manifest Destiny 20. War, Slavery, and the American 1848 21. Political Truce, Uneasy Consequences 22. The Truce Collapses 23. A Nightmare Broods Over Society 24. The Faith That Might Makes Right 25. The Iliad of All Our Woes Epilogue

Reviews Describing The Rise of American Democracy as "magisterial," historian Eric Foner places particular emphasis on Wilentz’s commitment to writing "political history."Foner, 2005: "Among its other virtues…The Rise of American Democracy is political history…" And: "...the book is a magisterial synthesis that deserves the attention of anyone interested in the American past."

Rather than history as "merely a reflection of social forces," Wilentz acknowledges a reciprocity in which "politics shaped American society and was, in turn, shaped by it."Foner, 2005

Foner cautions readers that The Rise of American Democracy, at over 1,000 pages, presents a challenge due simply to its length, "too long and detailed, no doubt, for the taste of some readers."Foner, 2005: "Wilentz tells this story in a long, detailed narrative--too long and detailed, no doubt, for the taste of some readers."

Historian Gordon S. Wood review of The Rise of American Democracy marvels at the sheer length of this "monumental" tome to antebellum politics. Though "a tour de force of historical compilation and construction," Woods anticipates that the work may overwhelm all but the most dedicated scholars and graduate students.Wood, 2005: "...a tour de force of historical compilation and construction that more than justifies all the articles and monographs on antebellum politics written by historians over the past several decades."

Praising the book as "old-fashioned", Wood notes that Wilentz approaches his topic in a manner that rejects current trends of viewing history "through the lenses of race, gender and popular culture."Wood, 2005: "He therefore feels justified in making this in-your-face challenge to the new political historians and in writing this old-fashioned narrative."

Rather, Wilentz locates the struggles over democracy and slavery among white male politicians and activists, placing them at the center of his narrative. As such, the work is explicitly contrary to "the new political historians…who explicitly reject any sort of narrative of dead white males bringing about the triumph of democracy within the two-party system. This, however, is the very subject of Wilentz's book."Wood, 2005: "He therefore feels justified in making this in-your-face challenge to the new political historians and in writing this old-fashioned narrative."

The Rise of American Democracy includes a number of engaging and informative "vignettes" concerning key political episodes in the early 19th century America, among these The Peggy Eaton affair, Rhode Island’s Dorr Rebellion and John Brown’s raid."Along the way Wilentz offers some beautifully drawn and concise vignettes of important events—like the antislavery printer Elijah Lovejoy's martyrdom, the Amistad affair, the Dorr Rebellion of dissidents in Rhode Island and John Brown's raid—that are better than many book-length accounts."Wood, 2005

Footnotes

Sources Foner, Eric. Wilentz, Sean. 2005. The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln. W. W. Norton and Company, New York. . Wood, Gordon S.