From the Publisher
"It was the year of Nat Turner's slave rebellion, of the launching of Garrison's Liberator, of Tocqueville's visit to the United States, of Cyrus McCormick's invention of the mechanical reaper, and of many other pivotal events. Annus mirabilis, 1831 became the hinge of fate for the future of America, both good and ill. Louis Masur has captured the flavor of this crucial year in this captivating book."—James M. McPherson
Louis Masur has set himself up in a propitious perch astride the end of republican America and the ascendance of that messier thing called democracy. It is as if Alexis de Tocqueville returned and, with all the advantages of historical hindsight, rewrote his classic account of modern America's birth."—Joseph J. Ellis
"Not since Bernard De Voto's Year of Decision, 1846, published almost sixty years ago, have we had such a creative, well-intergrated work about a pivotal and defining moment in the nation's history. 1831 is filled with fresh and little-known information skillfully woven into a more familiar and highly meaningful narrative."—Michael Kammen
David Traxel
Masur skillfully presents the case for 1831 to be recognized as a 12-month period when the course of American society was changed forever . . . He does an excellent job of dealing with the large subjects and with a wide range of characters . . .
— New York Times Book Review
Michael Kammen
. . . 1831 is filled with fresh and little-known information skillfully woven into a more familiar and highly meaningful narrative.
David Traxel
. . . [1831] gives insight into the character of the United States and, also important, entertains with the stories it provides . . . —The New York Times Book Review
James M. McPherson
. . . 1831 became the hinge of fate for the future of America . . . Masur has captured [its] flavor in this captivating book.
Joseph J. Ellis
Louis Masur has set himself up in a propitious perch astride the end of republican America . . .
Publishers Weekly
- Publisher's Weekly
On February 12, 1831, a full eclipse of the sun darkened America's skies. Newspapers nationwide heralded its arrival, and commentators congratulated themselves that the "idle fears and gloomy forebodings"--the past superstitions attached to such events--had been replaced by "pleasing admiration" of the wonders of nature and society's progress in scientific understanding. However, says Masur (Rites of Execution), professor of history at the City University of New York, what unfolded in 1831 belies this chauvinistic claim of America's advancement. Rather, he builds a case that America's future faced inevitable upheaval directly linked to the failure of the founders to resolve two fundamental conflicts: the contradiction between a country founded on the "inalienable rights of man" embracing the cruelty and inhumanity of slavery, and the tension between a federal government intent on preserving the Union and the states' claims of uncontestable sovereignty. Masur draws upon an exceptionally rich array of voices, quoting generously from figures as divergent as slave rebellion leader Nat Turner, abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Andrew Jackson. Masur vividly chronicles the plight of the Cherokee, who despite their willingness to cooperate with the U.S. government, were forced from their homeland and marched west on the infamous Trail of Tears. Tocqueville traveled to the U.S. in 1831, prompting him to write Democracy in America, and as Masur notes, Tocqueville's prescient observations illuminated not only the intractable problems of slavery and race in America but also the extraordinary uniqueness and energy of America's citizens. Masur's accessible and intriguing work, which appeals to a wide and diverse audience interested in American history, raises the year 1831, not necessarily one that stands out in most Americans' minds, above insignificance. Illus. not seen by PW. (Feb.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.
James M. McPherson
"It was the year of Nat Turner's slave rebellion, of the launching of Garrison's Liberator, of Tocqueville's visit to the United States, of Cyrus McCormick's invention of the mechanical reaper, and of many other pivotal events. Annus mirabilis, 1831 became the hinge of fate for the future of America, both good and ill. Louis Masur has captured the flavor of this crucial year in this captivating book."
Michael Kammen
"Not since Bernard De Voto's Year of Decision, 1846, published almost sixty years ago, have we had such a creative, well-intergrated work about a pivotal and defining moment in the nation's history. 1831 is filled with fresh and little-known information skillfully woven into a more familiar and highly meaningful narrative."
Joseph J. Ellis
"Louis Masur has set himself up in a propitious perch astride the end of republican America and the ascendance of that messier thing called democracy. It is as if Alexis de Tocqueville returned and, with all the advantages of historical hindsight, rewrote his classic account of modern America's birth."
Library Journal
Masur (history, CUNY) has done a superb job of creating a richly textured account of a portentous year in American history: 1831 marked the year that the Southern oligarchy quit discussing the possible abolition of slavery and William Lloyd Garrison began his strident demand for abolition of the peculiar institution. The Nullification Crisis and the Indian Removal Act further exacerbated sectional differences. North-South fissures of the body politic also found expression in the battles between the National Republicans and the Democrats. Yet Union sentiment remained strong, and all Americans seemed to share a common drive toward material prosperity. Sadly, sectionalism eventually eclipsed national commonalties and thus fostered the fraternal bloodbath that erupted 30 years later. It is the dichotomy between consensus and conflict that Masur captures through the skillful use of memoirs, letters, diaries, newspapers, and first-person accounts. This is a work of traditional history: a good story grounded in primary sources. Recommended for public and academic libraries.--Jim Doyle, Sara Hightower Regional Lib., Rome, GA Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
Booknews
In February, the shadow of a total eclipse of the sun raced from the Mississippi Delta to Cape Cod. Masur (history, City College of New York) explores the anticipation, the observation, and the excitement it raised at a critical moment in the history of the US. Among the themes he identifies are slavery and abolition, tension between states' rights and national priorities, the competing passions of religion and politics, and the effects of new machinery on the relationship to the land. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
Kirkus Reviews
A history of one year in the United States. In 1831 the republic was going through a rather difficult adolescence. A remnant of the old guard of founders and framers watched as a new generation of leaders took charge of the nation (and took aim at each other). Even as the country expanded and thrived under technological advances in transport and agriculture, cracks in the democratic ideal kept surfacing, widening into fissures that threatened to dissolve the Union. Nat Turner's quixotic rebellion and the publication of the first issue of William Lloyd Garrison's The Liberator raised the problem of slavery to a new level of public consciousness; the expulsion of the Cherokee from Georgia and the defeat of Black Hawk and the Sauk in Illinois belied the democratic system's claim to fairness and benevolence; the Jackson administration was riven by the issue of states' rights; and new evangelical sects emphasizing the moral will of the individual over divine directives (and new labor movements stressing the tensions between the powerful elite and the worker) undermined habits and ideas on which the national identity had appeared to depend. Visiting observers from the Old World (de Tocqueville, Frances Trollope) were fascinated, appalled, and bemused by what they saw. Eschewing a fully expounded argument, Masur (History/CUNY) arranges his slices of historical narrative thematically, the better to illustrate the moral, political, economic, and cultural forces at work in the moment. For the most part the strategy works, but some topics need more background explanation (the connection between the policy issues that divided the Jackson administration and the private scandal that promptedsomany resignations from his cabinet is not clear), while others are sometimes forced into juxtapositions that don't really make sense (from Audubon's vision to the cholera epidemic). Despite the aptness of his idea and the economy of his style, the author has bitten off just a little more than his 200 pages can chew. An intelligent and imaginative historical essay with a few pieces missing.. . . McLean, Adrienne L.McLean, Adrienne L. & David A. CookEds.HEADLINE HOLLYWOOD: A Century of Film Scandal Ed. by David A. Cook Rutgers Univ. (320 pp.) paper Feb. 2001
