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Andrew Jackson vs. Henry Clay: Democracy and Development in Antebellum America. By Harry L. Watson. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 1997. 240 pp., $35.00 cloth; 240 pp., $10.75 paper.
Harry L. Watson's Andrew Jackson vs. Henry Clay: Democracy and Development in Antebellum America combines an introductory overview with primary documents examining national politics in the first half of the nineteenth century. The volume includes 118 pages of text and analysis, followed by edited versions of twenty-five primary documents spanning the years from Jackson's involvement with the Tennessee militia in 1812 to Clay's remarks on the Compromise of 1850. The work is an intriguing and mostly successful effort to introduce the political issues of early nineteenth-century America, and it includes discussion of issues relevant to scholars of the presidency.
The book opens with an overview of the Jacksonian era, outlining the period's social, economic, and political issues. This gives way to several chapters reviewing the principals' early careers, focussing on Jackson's military leadership and Clay's development of political ties and legislative skills. This consumes the text's first half; the second half reviews national political affairs from 1824 to 1850. The analysis in the text is supported by reference to the primary documents, which comprise the remainder of the volume. Accompanying the documents are introductory notes, which include questions designed to guide students as they read the selections. The book includes a helpful bibliography and a chronology of events.
Watson's text is a clear, well-written synopsis of the era's issues, although...