Sean Wilentz Professor of History Princeton University's Books

Chants Democratic

New York City & the Rise of the American Working Class, 1788-1850

By: Sean Wilentz

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Chants Democratic

New York City & the Rise of the American Working Class, 1788-1850

By: Sean Wilentz

Focusing on the working class, Sean Wilentz explores the dramatic social and intellectual changes that took place during the early industrialization of New York City.

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476

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Oxford University Press, USA

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ISBN 10

0195040120

ISBN 13

9780195040128

The Kingdom of Matthias: A Story of Sex and Salvation in 19th-Century America

By: Paul E. Johnson,Sean Wilentz

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The Kingdom of Matthias: A Story of Sex and Salvation in 19th-Century America

By: Paul E. Johnson,Sean Wilentz

In the autumn of 1834, New York City was awash with rumors of a strange religious cult operating nearby, centered around a mysterious, self-styled prophet named Matthias. It was said that Matthias the Prophet was stealing money from one of his followers; then came reports of lascivious sexual relations, based on odd teachings of matched spirits, apostolic priesthoods, and the inferiority of women. At its climax, the rumors transformed into legal charges, as the Prophet was arrested for the murder of a once highly-regarded Christian gentleman who had fallen under his sway. By the time the story played out, it became one of the nation's first penny-press sensations, casting a peculiar but revealing light on the sexual and spiritual tensions of the day. In The Kingdom of Matthias, the distinguished historians Paul Johnson and Sean Wilentz brilliantly recapture this forgotten story, imbuing their richly researched account with the dramatic force of a novel. In this book, the strange tale of Matthias the Prophet provides a fascinating window into the turbulent movements of the religious revival known as the Second Great Awakening--movements which swept up great numbers of evangelical Americans and gave rise to new sects like the Mormons. Into this teeming environment walked a down-and-out carpenter named Robert Matthews, who announced himself as Matthias, prophet of the God of the Jews. His hypnotic spell drew in a cast of unforgettable characters--the meekly devout businessman Elijah Pierson, who once tried to raise his late wife from the dead; the young attractive Christian couple, Benjamin Folger and his wife Ann (who seduced the woman-hating Prophet); and the shrewd ex-slave Isabella Van Wagenen, regarded by some as "the most wicked of the wicked." None was more colorful than the Prophet himself, a bearded, thundering tyrant who gathered his followers into an absolutist household, using their money to buy an elaborate, eccentric wardrobe, and reordering their marital relations. By the time the tensions within the kingdom exploded into a clash with the law, Matthias had become a national scandal. In the hands of Johnson and Wilentz, the strange tale of the Prophet and his kingdom comes vividly to life, recalling scenes from recent experiences at Jonestown and Waco. They also reveal much about a formative period in American history, showing the connections among rapid economic change, sex and race relations, politics, popular culture, and the rich varieties of American religious experience.

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238

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Oxford University Press, USA

Published Date

ISBN 10

0199880085

ISBN 13

9780199880089

Rise of American Democracy

Jefferson To Lincoln

By: Sean Wilentz

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Rise of American Democracy

Jefferson To Lincoln

By: Sean Wilentz

A political history of how the fledgling American republic developed into a democratic state offers insight into how historical beliefs about democracy compromised democratic progress and identifies the roles of key contributors.

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1114

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W. W. Norton & Company

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ISBN 10

0393329216

ISBN 13

9780393329216

Bob Dylan in America

By: Sean Wilentz

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Bob Dylan in America

By: Sean Wilentz

A unique look at Nobel Prize winner Bob Dylan's place in American cultural history through unprecedented access to Dylan's studio tapes, recording notes, and rare photographs. Sean Wilentz discovered Bob Dylan’s music as a teenager growing up in Greenwich Village. Now, almost half a century later, he revisits Dylan’s work with the skills of an eminent American historian as well as the passion of a fan. Beginning with Dylan’s explosion onto the scene in 1961, Wilentz follows the emerging artist as he develops a body of work unique in America’s cultural history. Using his unprecedented access to studio tapes, recording notes, and rare photographs, he places Dylan’s music in the context of its time and offers a stunning critical appreciation of Dylan both as a songwriter and performer.

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418

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Anchor

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ISBN 10

0767931793

ISBN 13

9780767931793

The Politicians and the Egalitarians: The Hidden History of American Politics

By: Sean Wilentz

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The Politicians and the Egalitarians: The Hidden History of American Politics

By: Sean Wilentz

One of our most eminent historians reminds us of the commanding role party politics has played in America’s enduring struggle against economic inequality. “There are two keys to unlocking the secrets of American politics and American political history.” So begins The Politicians & the Egalitarians, Princeton historian Sean Wilentz’s bold new work of history. First, America is built on an egalitarian tradition. At the nation’s founding, Americans believed that extremes of wealth and want would destroy their revolutionary experiment in republican government. Ever since, that idea has shaped national political conflict and scored major egalitarian victories—from the Civil War and Progressive eras to the New Deal and the Great Society—along the way. Second, partisanship is a permanent fixture in America, and America is the better for it. Every major egalitarian victory in United States history has resulted neither from abandonment of partisan politics nor from social movement protests but from a convergence of protest and politics, and then sharp struggles led by principled and effective party politicians. There is little to be gained from the dream of a post-partisan world. With these two insights Sean Wilentz offers a crystal-clear portrait of American history, told through politicians and egalitarians including Thomas Paine, Abraham Lincoln, and W. E. B. Du Bois—a portrait that runs counter to current political and historical thinking. As he did with his acclaimed The Rise of American Democracy, Wilentz once again completely transforms our understanding of this nation’s political and moral character.

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460

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W. W. Norton & Company

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ISBN 10

0393285014

ISBN 13

9780393285017

The Politicians and the Egalitarians: The Hidden History of American Politics

By: Sean Wilentz

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The Politicians and the Egalitarians: The Hidden History of American Politics

By: Sean Wilentz

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460

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W. W. Norton & Company

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0393285014

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9780393285017

The Rise of American Democracy

Jefferson to Lincoln

By: Sean Wilentz

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The Rise of American Democracy

Jefferson to Lincoln

By: Sean Wilentz

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1044

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W. W. Norton

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ISBN 10

0393058204

ISBN 13

9780393058208

Rites of Power

Symbolism, Ritual, and Politics Since the Middle Ages

By: Sean Wilentz

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Rites of Power

Symbolism, Ritual, and Politics Since the Middle Ages

By: Sean Wilentz

Collection drawn from the essays presented to and discussed by the Shelby Cullom Davis Center seminar from 1980 to 1982. Includes bibliographies and index.

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344

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ISBN 10

0812279484

ISBN 13

9780812279481

No Property in Man

Slavery and Antislavery at the Nation’s Founding

By: Sean Wilentz

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No Property in Man

Slavery and Antislavery at the Nation’s Founding

By: Sean Wilentz

A radical reconstruction of the founders’ debate over slavery and the Constitution. Americans revere the Constitution even as they argue fiercely over its original toleration of slavery. Some historians have charged that slaveholders actually enshrined human bondage at the nation’s founding. The acclaimed political historian Sean Wilentz shares the dismay but sees the Constitution and slavery differently. Although the proslavery side won important concessions, he asserts, antislavery impulses also influenced the framers’ work. Far from covering up a crime against humanity, the Constitution restricted slavery’s legitimacy under the new national government. In time, that limitation would open the way for the creation of an antislavery politics that led to Southern secession, the Civil War, and Emancipation. Wilentz’s controversial and timely reconsideration upends orthodox views of the Constitution. He describes the document as a tortured paradox that abided slavery without legitimizing it. This paradox lay behind the great political battles that fractured the nation over the next seventy years. As Southern Fire-eaters invented a proslavery version of the Constitution, antislavery advocates, including Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass, proclaimed antislavery versions based on the framers’ refusal to validate what they called “property in man.” No Property in Man invites fresh debate about the political and legal struggles over slavery that began during the Revolution and concluded with the Confederacy’s defeat. It drives straight to the heart of the most contentious and enduring issue in all of American history.

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369

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Harvard University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0674916050

ISBN 13

9780674916050

Andrew Jackson

The American Presidents Series: The 7th President, 1829-1837

By: Sean Wilentz

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Andrew Jackson

The American Presidents Series: The 7th President, 1829-1837

By: Sean Wilentz

The towering figure who remade American politics—the champion of the ordinary citizen and the scourge of entrenched privilege "It is rare that historians manage both Wilentz's deep interpretation and lively narrative." - Publishers Weekly The Founding Fathers espoused a republican government, but they were distrustful of the common people, having designed a constitutional system that would temper popular passions. But as the revolutionary generation passed from the scene in the 1820s, a new movement, based on the principle of broader democracy, gathered force and united behind Andrew Jackson, the charismatic general who had defeated the British at New Orleans and who embodied the hopes of ordinary Americans. Raising his voice against the artificial inequalities fostered by birth, station, monied power, and political privilege, Jackson brought American politics into a new age. Sean Wilentz, one of America's leading historians of the nineteenth century, recounts the fiery career of this larger-than-life figure, a man whose high ideals were matched in equal measure by his failures and moral blind spots, a man who is remembered for the accomplishments of his eight years in office and for the bitter enemies he made. It was in Jackson's time that the great conflicts of American politics—urban versus rural, federal versus state, free versus slave—crystallized, and Jackson was not shy about taking a vigorous stand. It was under Jackson that modern American politics began, and his legacy continues to inform our debates to the present day.

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219

Publisher

Macmillan

Published Date

ISBN 10

1429900989

ISBN 13

9781429900980

Chants Democratic

New York City & the Rise of the American Working Class, 1788-1850

By: Sean Wilentz

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Chants Democratic

New York City & the Rise of the American Working Class, 1788-1850

By: Sean Wilentz

Focusing on the working class, Sean Wilentz explores the dramatic social and intellectual changes that took place during the early industrialization of New York City.

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476

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Oxford University Press, USA

Published Date

ISBN 10

0195040120

ISBN 13

9780195040128

Bob Dylan In America

By: Sean Wilentz

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Bob Dylan In America

By: Sean Wilentz

One of America’s finest historians shows us how Bob Dylan, one of the country’s greatest and most enduring artists, still surprises and moves us after all these years. Growing up in Greenwich Village, Sean Wilentz discovered the music of Bob Dylan as a young teenager; almost half a century later, he revisits Dylan’s work with the skills of an eminent American historian as well as the passion of a fan. Drawn in part from Wilentz’s essays as “historian in residence” of Dylan’s official website, Bob Dylan in America is a unique blend of fact, interpretation, and affinity—a book that, much like its subject, shifts gears and changes shape as the occasion warrants. Beginning with his explosion onto the scene in 1961, this book follows Dylan as he continues to develop a body of musical and literary work unique in our cultural history. Wilentz’s approach places Dylan’s music in the context of its time, including the early influences of Popular Front ideology and Beat aesthetics, and offers a larger critical appreciation of Dylan as both a songwriter and performer down to the present. Wilentz has had unprecedented access to studio tapes, recording notes, rare photographs, and other materials, all of which allow him to tell Dylan’s story and that of such masterpieces as Blonde on Blonde with an unprecedented authenticity and richness. Bob Dylan in America—groundbreaking, comprehensive, totally absorbing—is the result of an author and a subject brilliantly met.

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240

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Anchor

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ISBN 10

0385529899

ISBN 13

9780385529891

The Age of Reagan

A History, 1974-2008

By: Sean Wilentz

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The Age of Reagan

A History, 1974-2008

By: Sean Wilentz

The past thirty-five years have marked an era of conservatism. Although briefly interrupted in the late 1970s and temporarily reversed in the 1990s, a powerful surge from the right dominated American politics and government from 1974 to 2008. In The Age of Reagan, Sean Wilentz, one of our nation's leading historians, accounts for how a conservative movement once deemed marginal managed to seize power and hold it, and describes the momentous consequences that followed. Vivid, authoritative, and illuminating from start to finish, The Age of Reagan is a groundbreaking chronicle of America's political history since the fall of Nixon.

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584

Publisher

Harper Collins

Published Date

ISBN 10

0060744812

ISBN 13

9780060744816

No Property in Man

Slavery and Antislavery at the Nation’s Founding, With a New Preface

By: Sean Wilentz

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No Property in Man

Slavery and Antislavery at the Nation’s Founding, With a New Preface

By: Sean Wilentz

“Wilentz brings a lifetime of learning and a mastery of political history to this brilliant book.” —David W. Blight, author of Frederick Douglass A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice A Foreign Affairs Best Book of the Year Americans revere the Constitution even as they argue fiercely over its original toleration of slavery. In this essential reconsideration of the creation and legacy of our nation’s founding document, Sean Wilentz reveals the tortured compromises that led the Founders to abide slavery without legitimizing it, a deliberate ambiguity that fractured the nation seventy years later. Contesting the Southern proslavery version of the Constitution, Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass pointed to the framers’ refusal to validate what they called “property in man.” No Property in Man has opened a fresh debate about the political and legal struggles over slavery that began during the Revolution and concluded with the Civil War. It drives straight to the heart of the single most contentious issue in all of American history. “Revealing and passionately argued...[Wilentz] insists that because the framers did not sanction slavery as a matter of principle, the antislavery legacy of the Constitution has been...‘misconstrued’ for over 200 years.” —Khalil Gibran Muhammad, New York Times “Wilentz’s careful and insightful analysis helps us understand how Americans who hated slavery, such as Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass, could come to see the Constitution as an ally in their struggle.” —Eric Foner

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369

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Harvard University Press

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ISBN 10

0674241428

ISBN 13

9780674241428

Chants Democratic

New York City and the Rise of the American Working Class, 1788-1850

By: Sean Wilentz

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Chants Democratic

New York City and the Rise of the American Working Class, 1788-1850

By: Sean Wilentz

Since its publication in 1984, Chants Democratic has endured as a classic narrative on labor and the rise of American democracy. In it, Sean Wilentz explores the dramatic social and intellectual changes that accompanied early industrialization in New York. He provides a panoramic chronicle of New York City's labor strife, social movements, and political turmoil in the eras of Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson. Twenty years after its initial publication, Wilentz has added a new preface that takes stock of his own thinking, then and now, about New York City and the rise of the American working class.

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481

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Oxford University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0198038917

ISBN 13

9780198038917

Working-Class America

Essays on Labor, Community, and American Society

By: Michael H Frisch,Daniel J Walkowitz

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Working-Class America

Essays on Labor, Community, and American Society

By: Michael H Frisch,Daniel J Walkowitz

At the time of its original publication, Working-Class America represented the new labor history par excellence. A roster of noteworthy scholars in the field contribute original essays written during a pivotal time in the nation's history and within the discipline. Moving beyond historical-sociological analyses, the authors take readers inside the lives of the real men and women behind the statistics. The result is a classic collection focused on the human dimensions of the field, one valuable not only as a resource for historiography but as a snapshot of workers and their concerns in the 1980s.

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338

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University of Illinois Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0252054628

ISBN 13

9780252054624

David Walker's Appeal

By: David Walker

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David Walker's Appeal

By: David Walker

David Walker's Appeal is a landmark work of American history and letters, the most radical piece of writing by an African American in the nineteenth century. Startling in its intensity, unrelenting in its attacks on slavery and white racism, it alarmed Southern slaveholders, inspired Northern abolitionists, and hastened the sectional conflicts that led to the Civil War. In this new edition of the Appeal, the distinguished historian Sean Wilentz draws on a generation of innovative research to throw fresh light on Walker's life and ideas--and their enduring importance.

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118

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Macmillan

Published Date

ISBN 10

0809015811

ISBN 13

9780809015818

Book's by Sean Wilentz Professor of History Princeton University

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