Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789-1815 (127 page)

For the Jeffersonians in power, see Marshall Smelser,
The Democratic Republic, 1801–1815
(1968); Nobel E. Cunningham Jr.,
The Jeffersonian Republicans in Power: Party Operations, 1801–1809
(1963); and Forrest McDonald,
The Presidency of Thomas Jefferson
(1976).

On banking in Jeffersonian America, see Bray Hammond,
Banks and Politics from the Revolution to the Civil War
(1957); Howard Bodenhorn,
State Banking in Early America: A New Economic History
(2003); and J. Van Fenstermaker,
The Development of American Commercial Banking: 1782–1837
(1965). For Jefferson’s problems with debt, both public and private, see the illuminating study by Herbert E. Sloan,
Principle and Interest: Thomas Jefferson and the Problem of Debt
(1995). On urban development, see David T. Gilchrist, ed.,
The Growth of the Seaport Cities, 1790–1825
(1967).

On Gallatin, see Henry Adams,
The Life of Albert Gallatin
(1879); and Raymond Walters Jr.,
Albert Gallatin: Jeffersonian Financier and Diplomat
(1957). Theodore J. Crackel,
Mr. Jefferson’s Army: Political and Social Reform of the Military Establishment, 1801–1809
(1987) and Robert M. S. McDonald,
Thomas Jefferson’s Military Academy: The Founding of West Point
(2004) explain the paradox of the warhating, anti-military Jefferson founding West Point.

On Jefferson’s dismantling of the Federalist bureaucracy, see Leonard D. White,
The Jeffersonians: A Study in Administrative History, 1801–1829
(1951). See also Noble E. Cunningham Jr.,
The Process of Government Under Jefferson
(1979); and Robert M. Johnstone Jr.,
Jefferson and the Presidency
(1979). Of course, as in all periods of Jefferson’s life, the appropriate volumes of Dumas Malone’s biography are helpful.

David Hackett Fischer,
The Revolution of American Conservatism: The Federalist Party in the Era of Jeffersonian Democracy
(1965), looks at party competition in the early nineteenth century with fresh eyes. Indispensable for understanding politics in the early Republic is Philip Lampi’s monumental
Collection of American Election Data, 1787–1825
. The collection of data for presidential, congressional, gubernatorial, and state legislative elections is available online via the American Antiquarian Society’s Web page: “A New Nation Votes: American Election Returns, 1787–1825.” On the right to vote, see Chilton Williamson,
American Suffrage: From Property to Democracy, 1760–1860
(1960); and Alexander Keyssar,
The Right to Vote: The Contested History of Democracy in the United States
(2000).

On the Federalists’ cultural reaction to the Jeffersonian victory, see Linda K. Kerber,
Federalists in Dissent
(1970); and William C. Dowling,
Literary Federalism in the Age of Jefferson: Joseph Dennie and the Port Folio, 1801–1811
(1999). See also James H. Broussard,
The Southern Federalists, 1800–1816
(1978). For John Randolph and the spirit of ‘98, see Norman K. Risjord,
The Old Republicans: Southern Conservatism in the Age of Jefferson
(1965). Fine studies of politics in two states are Donald J. Ratcliffe,
Party Spirit in a Frontier Republic: Democratic Politics in Ohio, 1793–1821
(1998) and Andrew Shankman,
Crucible of American Democracy: The Struggle to Fuse Egalitarianism and Capitalism in Jeffersonian Pennsylvania
(2004).

On the society of the early Republic, see Christopher Clark,
Social Change in America: From the Revolution Through the Civil War
(2006); Alice Felt Tyler,
Freedom’s Ferment: Phrases of American Social History from the Colonial Period to the Outbreak of the Civil War
(1962); and especially Joyce Appleby,
Inheriting the Revolution: The First Generation of Americans
(2000). J. M. Opal,
Beyond the Farm: National Ambitions in Rural New England
(2008) is a sensitive and subtle study of ambition in the early Republic. On the excessive drinking in the early Republic, see W. J. Rorabaugh,
The Alcoholic Republic: An American Tradition
(1979). On rioting in the colleges, see Steven J. Novak,
The Rights of Youth: American Colleges and Student Revolt, 1798–1815
(1977). Paul A. Gilje,
Rioting in America
(1996), is the best survey of the general subject of rioting.

On the development of the West, see Malcolm J. Rohrbough,
Trans-Appalachian Frontier: People, Societies, and Institutions, 1775–1850
(3rd ed., 2008); and Reginald Horsman,
The Frontier in the Formative Years, 1783–1815
(1970). On the new cities of the West, see Richard C. Wade,
The Urban Frontier: Pioneer Life in Early Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Lexington, and St. Louis
(1964). Andrew R. L. Cayton has become the premier modern historian of the early Midwest. See his
The Frontier Republic: Ideology and Politics in the Ohio Country, 1780–1825
(1986);
Frontier Indiana
(1996); and a series of jointly edited volumes: Cayton and Peter S. Onuf, eds.,
The Mid-West and the Nation: Rethinking the History of an American Region
(1990); Cayton and Fredrika J. Teute, eds.,
Contact Points: American Frontiers from the Mohawk Valley to the Mississippi, 1750–1830
(1998); Cayton and Susan E. Gray, eds.,
The American Midwest: Essays on Regional History
(2001); and Cayton and Stuart D. Hobbs, eds.,
The Center of a Great Empire: The Ohio Country in the Early American Republic
(2005).

Two especially important books that deal with the West and land speculation are Alan Taylor,
William Cooper’s Town: Power and Persuasion on the Frontier of the Early American Republic
(1995); and Stephen Aron,
How the West Was Lost: The Transformation of Kentucky from Daniel Boone to Henry Clay
(1996). Land policy and land laws are covered in Malcolm J. Rohrbough,
The Land Office Business: The Settlement and Administration of American Public Lands, 1789–1837
(1968).

Writing on the Lewis and Clark expedition is immense. See Stephen Dow Beckham et al.,
The Literature of the Lewis and Clark Expedition: A Bibliography and Essays
(2003). For a fast read, see Stephen E. Ambrose,
Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West
(1996). For a more scholarly study, see James P. Ronda,
Finding the West: Explorations with Lewis and Clark
(2001). Arthur Furtwangler,
Acts of Discovery: Visions of America in the Lewis and Clark Journals
(1999) and Thomas P. Slaughter,
Exploring Lewis and Clark: Reflections on Men and Wilderness
(2003) treat the journals very imaginatively. There are many selectively edited versions of the explorers’ journals. One example is Frank Bergon, ed.,
The Journals of Lewis and Clark
(1995).

On the Louisiana Purchase, see the superb narrative by Jon Kukla,
A Wilderness So Immense: The Louisiana Purchase and the Destiny of America
(2003) and the relevant chapters in George Dangerfield,
Chancellor Robert R. Livingston of New York, 1746–1803
(1960). For more analytical and contextual studies of the Purchase, see Peter J. Kastor,
The Nation’s Crucible: The Louisiana Purchase and the Creation of America
(2004); and Alexander DeConde,
This Affair of Louisiana
(1976). On the Burr conspiracy, see the books cited earlier on Burr, together with Thomas Abernethy,
The Burr Conspiracy
(1954); and Buckner F. Melton Jr.,
Aaron Burr: Conspiracy to Treason
(2002).

On the theories of America having a deleterious effect on all living creatures, Antonello Gerbi,
The Dispute of the New World: The History of a Polemic, 1750–1900
(1973) is basic. On the native peoples in this period, see Gregory Evans Dowd,
A Spirited Resistance: The North American Indian Struggle for Unity, 1745–1815
(1992); Reginald Horsman,
Expansion and American Indian Policy, 1783–1812
(1967); Francis Paul Prucha,
American Indian Policy in the Formative Years: The Indian Trade and Intercourse Acts, 1790–1834
(1962); and Anthony F. C. Wallace,
Jefferson and the Tragic Fate of the First Americans
(1999). For a sensitive study of the irony in that tragic fate, see Bernard W. Sheehan,
Seeds of Extinction: Jeffersonian Philanthropy and the American Indian
(1973). For a pathbreaking work on Indian-white relations, see Richard White,
The Middle Ground: Indians, Empires, and Republics in the Great Lakes Region, 1650–1815
(1991). With the Iroquois in upstate New York and Canada, the ground was different, according to Alan Taylor,
The Divided Ground: Indians, Settlers, and the Northern Borderlands of the American Revolution
(2006). On the Cherokees, see two superb books by William G. McLoughlin,
Cherokees and Missionaries, 1789–1839
(1984) and
Cherokee Renascence in the New Republic
(1986).

On the politics of the judiciary in this period, see William R. Casto,
The Supreme Court in the Early Republic: The Chief Justiceships of John Jay and Oliver Ellsworth
(1995); Richard E. Ellis,
The Jeffersonian Crisis: Courts and Politics in the Young Republic
(1971); Andrew Shankman,
Crucible of American Democracy: The Struggle to Fuse Egalitarianism and Capitalism in Jeffersonian Pennsylvania
(2004); and Maeva Marcus, ed.,
Origins of the Federal Judiciary: Essays on the Judiciary Act of 1789
(1992). Indispensable for understanding the Supreme Court in its earliest years is Maeva Marcus et al., eds.,
The Documentary History of the Supreme Court of the United States, 1789–1800
(1985–). On the Court, see also the relevant volumes in the Oliver Wendell Holmes Devise History of the Supreme Court of the United States, the multi-volume history of the Court endowed by Justice Holmes on his death: Julius Goebel,
Antecedents and Beginnings to 1801: History of the Supreme Court of the United States
(1971); George Lee Haskins and Herbert A. Johnson,
Foundations of Power: John Marshall, 1801–1815
(1981).

In addition to the books on Marshall cited earlier, see R. Kent Newmyer,
John Marshall and the Heroic Age of the Supreme Court
(2001); see also Newmyer’s superb biography of Story,
Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story: Statesman of the Old Republic
(1985).

The origins of judicial review are treated in Edward S. Corwin,
The “Higher Law” Background of American Constitutional Law
(1955); and Charles G. Haines,
The American Doctrine of Judicial Supremacy
(1932). For an important corrective to the idea that judicial review meant judicial supremacy, see Larry Kramer,
The People Themselves: Popular Constitutionalism and Judicial Review
(2004). Efforts to place
Marbury v. Madison
in historical context include Christopher Wolfe,
The Rise of Modern Judicial Review: From Constitutional Interpretation to Judge-Made Law
(1986); J. M. Sosin,
The Aristocracy of the Long Robe: The Origins of Judicial Review in America
(1989); Robert Lowry Clinton,
Marbury v. Madison and Judicial Review
(1989); and William E. Nelson,
Marbury v. Madison: The Origins and Legacy of Judicial Review
(2000). Especially important in understanding the development of judicial review is Sylvia Snowiss,
Judicial Review and the Law of the Constitution
(1990).

On the development of the corporation see Oscar and Mary Flug Handlin,
Commonwealth: A Study of the Role of Government in the American Economy: Massachusetts, 1774–1861
(1947, 1969); E. Merrick Dodd,
American Business Corporations Until 1860, with Special Reference to Massachusetts
(1954); Ronald E. Seavoy,
The Origins of the American Business Corporation, 1784–1855: Broadening the Concept of Public Service During Industrialization
(1982); Hendrik Hartog,
Public Property and Private Power: The Corporation of the City of New York in American Law, 1730–1870
(1983); and Johann N. Neem,
Creating a Nation of Joiners: Democracy and Civil Society in Early National Massachusetts
(2008).

Benjamin Rush has yet to find a biographer worthy of his importance. But see Nathan G. Goodman,
Benjamin Rush: Physician and Citizen, 1746–1813
(1934); Carl Binger,
Revolutionary Doctor: Benjamin Rush, 1746–1813
(1966); and David F. Hawke,
Benjamin Rush: Revolutionary Gadfly
(1971). On education in the early Republic, see Lawrence A. Cremin,
American Education: The National Experience, 1783–1876
(1980); and Carl F. Kaestle,
Pillars of the Republic: Common Schools and American Society, 1780–1860
(1983). Important for understanding newspapers and the spread of information in the period are Richard D. Brown,
Knowledge Is Power: The Diffusion of Information in Early America, 1700–1865
(1989); Richard D. Brown,
The Strength of a People: The Idea of an Informed Citizenry in America, 1650–1870
(1996); and Frank Luther Mott,
American Journalism: A History of American Newspapers in the United States Through 250 Years, 1690–1940
(1941). On the emergence of humanitarian institutions, see Conrad E. Wright,
The Transformation of Charity in Post-Revolutionary New England
(1992).

On criminal punishment and penal reform, see Louis Masur,
Rites of Execution: Capital Punishment and the Transformation of American Culture, 1776–1865
(1989); Michael Meranze,
Laboratories of Virtue: Punishment, Revolution, and Authority in Philadelphia, 1760–1835
(1996); and Adam Jay Hirsch,
The Rise of the Penitentiary: Prisons and Punishment in Early America
(1992).