Representative Americans: The Romantics [Paperback]

Norman K. Risjord (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0742520838 | ISBN-13: 978-0742520837 | Publication Date: November 15, 2001

Like the preceeding books in The Representative Americans series, The Romantics makes history human by putting tissue on the skeletal framework of names and dates. Risjord uses a biographical approach to make the past more concrete and vivid, to recover a heritage that todayOs reader can feel and experience. The Romantics treats people whose principal contributions fell in the first half of the nineteenth century, though several of those studied lived into the Civil War era and beyond. While certain individuals may be unfamiliar to readers_the slaves Prince and Fed, Free Frank, a black farmer of Kentucky and Illinois, and the OLowell Girls,O Lucy Lacom and Sarah Bagley_the majority of the figures studied in The Romantics are well known. Andrew Jackson and John Quincy Adams carry the political story at the beginning of the era; John C. Fremont bears that burden at the end of the time period. The heart of the volume introduces some of the leading literary and cultural figures of the age_Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller, Nathaniel Hawthorne_as well as some of the voices of reform_Horace Mann, Frances Wright, Catharine Beecher, and Theodore and Angelina Grimke Weld. Tying it all together is the prevailing spirit of American Romanticism.

Editorial Reviews

Review

An outstanding book by an outstanding scholar. Professor Risjord continues to produce sound scholarship in clear, muscular prose, useful to the educated layman as well as the experienced scholar. These Representative Americans volumes are especially appropriate for college classes where readers know the bare bones but not the nuances and ironies and complications of their nation's history. The Romantics hits the high spots--a few political leaders and a good many more intellectual leaders and mavericks--but it also examines unknown, ordinary folk, who are as 'representative' as the big shots in their own way. Indeed, the adventures of free blacks, slaves, factory girls, and mountain men dramatically remind the reader that history includes everyone. Above all, Risjord pictures flesh and blood men and women. The famous are given their official due in a lively fashion and also shown to be all too human with their full share of foibles. The obscure are skillfully drawn from the shadows and granted their full humanity too. Overall, this is a fine book, wide-ranging but easy to follow, enlightening, even academic, but also downright entertaining. (F. N. Boney )

There is much to praise in this fine book. The rich tapestry woven by Norman Risjord as he moves from frontier warrior Andrew Jackson to Lowell mill worker Lucy Larcom reminds us how turbulent, yet also how optimistic, antebellum society truly was. Students in particular will find this a most entertaining and insightful study. (Egerton, Douglas R. )

Once again Norman Risjord has succeeded in capturing the spirit of an era through biography. These portraits of 'representative Americans' are vivid, compelling, and above all, human. (Lynn Hudson Parsons )

With great literary facility, and drawing on his deep knowledge of U.S. history in the early national period, Norman Risjord offers a wonderful selection of biographical essays vividly evoking the lives of prominent and obscure Americans. While amply achieving Risjord's goal of 'making history human,' Representative Americans: The Romantics also offers an informed and enticing introduction to this entire era of American history. (Paul Boyer )

Norman Risjord has written a most unique, and fascinating study of the Jacksonian era. By contrasting biographies of important individuals in the separate fields of politics, literature and reform he has brought a new vigor to the study of the ante-bellum period. The work demonstrates his unusual command of the age and it is superbly written. It is a splendid introduction to this dynamic and exciting era. (Robert V. Remini )

The book is stylishly written and neatly compartmentalized and ultimately succeeds in conveying a real flavor of the issues that dominated the lives of Americans at this time, warts and all. (History, The Historical Association And Blackwell Publishers )

About the Author

Norman K. Risjord is emeritus professor of history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where he taught for over three decades. He is the author of Chesapeake Politics, 1781-1800 and Jefferson's America, 1760-1815. He is general editor of the American Profiles series for Madison House.

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers (November 15, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0742520838
• ISBN-13: 978-0742520837
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,592,162 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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5.0 out of 5 stars Representative Americans: The Romantics, February 3, 2009

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This review is from: Representative Americans: The Romantics (Paperback)

The book arrived in a timely manner and was in good condition.
I recommend this book and all of the Representative Americans books, they are a very interesting way to learn the history of the US. The author is wonderful in the way he describes in detail the characters that made this country what it is today.