On What Hath God Wrought

While Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789-1815 was a marked increase in quality compared to The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763-1789, What Hath God Wrought shrinks back a little bit. That is not to say this isn’t a good work—it is, and it’s mostly comprehensive. However, while Empire of Liberty offers a panoramic view of Jeffersonian America, Howe’s text primarily focuses on political developments in the age of Democrats and Whigs. There’s also plenty here on religion, but most (although not all) social and cultural discussions are subsumed into discussions of political and religious transformation. I would like to have seen a bit more on women, Native Americans (who are rightfully discussed in relation to the Florida Wars and Indian Removal, but not much more), African American life, and the transformation of social and cultural life in the West beyond Texas and California.

At the end of the day, the thing that Gordon Wood does a bit better than Daniel Walker Howe is synthesizing politics, culture, and society into one big snapshot. Nevertheless, this is essential reading to making sense of the early nineteenth century before the most protracted fights in the Sectional Crisis broke out.