http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0316773433/qid=1067136490/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/103-1265175-8543811?v=glance&s=booksAs has been pointed out by other reviewers, Schlesinger's work is essentially an all-out assault on conservatism in American politics masked as a history of Jacksonian America. Not an attack on the "conservative" position on this or that topic, mind you. Rather, he argues that there is some sort of innate dark side in America - the conservatives - that has consistently and relentlessly tried to deprive society of freedom and liberty at every turn.
Schlesinger twists and bends and stretches American history in his attempt to show how the national saving grace of liberalism has continued in one uninterrupted line from Jefferson to Jackson to Lincoln to Wilson and, finally, to FDR, even though the issues, parties and arguments have changed radically. (Had this book been published in the late- rather the mid-twentieth century, I'm sure the author would have demonstrated the role Johnson, Carter and Clinton played in that continuum.)
Schlesinger saves his most impressive feat of historical casuistry for explaining how and why the Democratic Party wasn't "really" the political party of slavery and oppression. By 1848, in Schlesinger's analysis, the two central parties, Democrat and Whig, existed in name only. All the radical (read "truly liberal") elements of the Jacksonian tradition had joined the Republican Party by 1858 (conveniently allowing them to take credit for the Civil War and destroying American bondage), but were back in the Democratic Party by the time big business usurped the GOP during and after Reconstruction.
With such a contemptuous and sarcastic review, you might be wondering "so why the 4 stars"?
Well, it has been said that the field of economics progresses one funeral at a time - and I would argue the same holds true for the study of history. Whatever this book's faults, Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. is one of the most influential historians of the twentieth century and this book shaped the minds and ideas of a generation of liberal intellectuals, including senior Democratic statesmen. For anyone interested in learning more about Jacksonian America and understanding one popular, albeit controversial, interpretation of its roots in modern American liberalism, this book is essential reading.
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