The Market Revolution in America: Liberty, Ambition, and the Eclipse of the Common Good

‘Historians have long debated the significance of the Market Revolution that transformed the United States in the early nineteenth century from a loose collection of households and regions into an integrated industrial nation-state. Now John Larson has synthesized a generation of scholarship into a lively narrative that captures the energy of this all-encompassing revolution as well as its often unanticipated social, economic and ecological costs. No one has more expertly shown us how the Market Revolution actually unfolded or more astutely located its importance in the history of the United States as a whole.’ Andrew Cayton, Miami University and and co-author (with Fred Anderson) of The Dominion of War: Empire and Liberty in North America, 1500–2000.

‘John Larson brilliantly captures Americans’ profound ambivalence about the emergence of modern capitalism in The Market Revolution in America. Learned and lucid, Larson’s superb book puts our contemporary confusion into timely historical perspective: it deserves a wide readership.’ Peter S. Onuf, University of Virginia, author of Jefferson’s Empire: The Language of American Nationhood

‘A succinct, clearly written, and timely account of the origins of American capitalism.’ Gordon Wood, Brown University