Banks failed, credit contracted, inequality grew, and people
everywhere were out of work while political paralysis and slavery
threatened to rend the nation in two. As financial crises always
have, the Panic of 1837 drew forth a plethora of reformers who
promised to restore America to greatness. Animated by an ethic of
individualism and self-reliance, they became prophets of a new
moral order: if only their fellow countrymen would call on each
individual's God-given better instincts, the most intractable
problems could be resolved. Inspired by this reformist fervor,
Americans took to strict dieting, water cures, phrenology readings,
mesmerism, utopian communities, free love, mutual banking, and a
host of other elaborate self-improvement schemes. Vocal activists
were certain that solutions to the country's ills started with the
reformation of individuals, and through them communities, and
through communities the nation. This set of assumptions ignored the
hard political and economic realities at the core of the country's
malaise, however, and did nothing to prevent another financial
panic twenty years later, followed by secession and civil war.
Focusing on seven individuals-George Ripley, Horace Greeley,
William B. Greene, Orson Squire Fowler, Mary Gove Nichols, Henry
David Thoreau, and John Brown-Philip Gura explores their efforts,
from the comical to the homicidal, to beat a new path to
prosperity. A narrative of people and ideas, Man's Better Angels
captures an intellectual moment in American history that has been
overshadowed by the Civil War and the pragmatism that arose in its
wake.
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