In 1829 Andrew Jackson arrived in Washington in a carriage. Eight years and two turbulent presidential terms later, he left on a train. Those years, among the most prosperous in American history, saw America transformed not only by growth in transportation but by the expansion of the market economy and the formation of the mass political party.

Jackson's ambivalence--and that of his followers--toward the new politics and the new economy is the story of this book.

Historians have often depicted the Old Hero (or Old Hickory) as bigger than life--so prominent that his name was wed to an era. Donald Cole presents a different Jackson, one not always sure of himself and more controlled by than in control of the political and economic forces of his age. He portrays Jackson as a leader who yearned for the agrarian past but was also entranced by the future of a growing market economy. The dominant theme of Jackson's presidency, Cole argues, was his inconsistent and unsuccessful battle to resist market revolution.

Elected by a broad coalition of interest groups, Jackson battled constantly not only his opponents but also his supporters. He spent most of his first term rearranging his administration and contending with Congress. His accomplishments were mostly negative--relocating Indians, vetoing road bills and the Bank bill, and opposing nullification. The greatest achievement of his administration, the rise of the mass political party, was more the work of advisers than of Jackson himself.

He did, however, make a lasting imprint, Cole contends. Through his strength, passions, and especially his anxiety, Jackson symbolized the ambivalence of his fellow Americans at a decisive moment--a time when the country was struggling with the conflict between the ideals of the Revolution and the realities of nineteenth-century capitalism.

Donald Cole analyzes the political skills that brought Van Buren the nickname Little Magician," describing how he built the Albany Regency (which became a model for political party machines) and how he created the Democratic party of Andrew Jackson.

Originally published in 1984.

The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These paperback editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Donald Cole analyzes the political skills that brought Van Buren the nickname Little Magician," describing how he built the Albany Regency (which became a model for political party machines) and how he created the Democratic party of Andrew Jackson. Originally published in 1984. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

"Well researched... and well written, this work gives us Kendall, warts and all. We see the avarice, the ambition, and the contradictions of his subject.... This is biography at its best." -- Journal of American History

A rare, fascinating personality emerges in Donald B. Cole's biography of Amos Kendall (1789--1869), the reputed intellectual engine behind Andrew Jackson's administration and an influential figure in the transformation of young America from an agrarian republic to a capitalist democracy. Born on a small Massachusetts farm and educated at Dartmouth, Kendall moved to Kentucky as a young man to seek his fortune and eventually became one of the few nationally prominent antebellum politicians who successfully combined northern origins and southern experience. Kendall's role in democratizing American politics is shown in a compelling narrative of his evolution from a republican idealist to a democratic individualist who contributed greatly to the rise of the Democratic Party. The first biography of Kendall, this superbly written and researched volume charts the progression of American democracy and the culture that created it.

"Donald B. Cole's splendid book is carefully researched, detailed yet boldly interpretive, and gracefully written." -- Civil War History

" T]his biography is both enjoyable and an indispensable read for those interested in understanding the development of Jacksonian democracy." -- Journal of the Early Republic

B.B. French knew just about everything and everyone in the sweep of American history from the Age of Jackson to the Civil War and Reconstruction. His recollections shed light on the personalities, events, manners, and politics of the times.

The violence and radicalism connected with the Industrial Workers of the World textile strike of 1912 in Lawrence, Massachusetts, left the popular impression that Lawrence was a slum-ridden city inhabited by un-American revolutionaries. "Immigrant City" is a study of Lawrence which reveals that the city was far different.
The book opens with an account of the strike of 1912. It then traces the development of Lawrence from the founding of the city in 1845, when its builders hoped to establish a model mill town, through its years of immigration and growth of 1912. Donald Cole puts the strike in its proper perspective by examining the history of the city, and he emphasizes the immigrant's constant search for security and explores the very important question of whether the immigrant, from his own point of view, found security.
The population of Lawrence was almost completely immigrant in nature; in 1910, 90 per cent of its people were either first or second generation Americans, and they represented nearly every nation in the world. The period covered by the book--1845 through 1921--is the great middle period of American immigration, which began with the Irish Famine and ended with the Quota Law of 1921. While "Immigrant City" concentrates on one American city, it reveals much about American immigration in general and demonstrates clearly that, in spite of the poverty that most immigrants fought, life for the foreign-born in America was not as grim as some writers have suggested.