"The best book yet written about the emergence of New York City's working class and a major contribution
to American working-class history."
--The New Republic
"Chants Democratic has no equal in breadth of subject, grace of style or acuity of interpretation."
--The Nation
"Wilentz has written the statement on Jacksonian New York.... A great leap forward in both American social
and American political history."
--Journal of American History
"A remarkable book that will quickly establish itself in the historiography and exert a powerful influence
on the future direction of social, labor, and political history."
--Journal of Interdisciplinary History
Publisher Web Site, December, 2004
Summary
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.
