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• Author/Creator:Zakaras, Alex, 1976- author.
  
• Title:The Roots of American Individualism : Political Myth in the Age of Jackson / Alex Zakaras
  
• ISBN:9780691226309
  9780691226323
  9780691226316
  
• Publication:Oxford : Princeton University Press, [2022]
  
• Manufacture: Baltimore, Md. : Project MUSE, 2022
  
• Copyright notice date: ©[2022]
  
• Physical Description:1 online resource.
  
• Links:Online book
  

• Yale Holdings

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  • Location:Yale Internet Resource
    Information about Off Campus Access
    
    
  • Call Number: None
    
  • Status:No information available 
  • Notes: Online resource
    

   
• Local Notes:Access is available to the Yale community.
  
• Notes:Description based on print version record.
  
• Access and use:Access restricted by licensing agreement.
• Summary:A panoramic history of American individualism from its nineteenth-century origins to today's divided public squareIndividualism is a defining feature of American public life. Its influence is pervasive today, with liberals and conservatives alike promising to expand personal freedom and defend individual rights against unwanted intrusion, be it from big government, big corporations, or intolerant majorities. The Roots of American Individualism traces the origins of individualist ideas to the turbulent political controversies of the Jacksonian era (1820-1850) and explores their enduring influence on American politics and culture.Alex Zakaras plunges readers into the spirited and rancorous political debates of Andrew Jackson's America, drawing on the stump speeches, newspaper editorials, magazine articles, and sermons that captivated mass audiences and shaped partisan identities. He shows how these debates popularized three powerful myths that celebrated the young nation as an exceptional land of liberty: the myth of the independent proprietor, the myth of the rights-bearer, and the myth of the self-made man.The Roots of American Individualism reveals how generations of politicians, pundits, and provocateurs have invoked these myths for competing political purposes. Time and again, the myths were used to determine who would enjoy equal rights and freedoms and who would not. They also conjured up heavily idealized, apolitical visions of social harmony and boundless opportunity, typically centered on the free market, that have distorted American political thought to this day.
  
• Variant and related titles:Project MUSE complete collection 2022.
  
• Format:Book
• Series:Book collections on Project MUSE.
  
• Contents:Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- 1 Introduction -- 2 Foundational Myths -- Part I. The independent proprietor -- 3 Republican Origins -- 4 Jacksonian Independence -- 5 Democracy -- Part II. The rights-bearer -- 6 Producers' Rights -- 7 The Free Market -- 8 Rights against Slavery -- Part III. The self-made man -- 9 Freedom in the Conservative Mind -- Part IV. Aftermath -- 10 Industrialization -- 11 Conclusions -- Appendix: On the Meaning(s) of Individualism -- Notes -- Index
  
• Subjects:Jackson, Andrew, 1767-1845.
  Individualism--United States.
  Democracy--United States.
  United States--Politics and government--1815-1861.
  
• Also listed under:Project Muse. distributor