Chants Democratic: New York City and the Rise of the American Working Class, 1788-1850 (Galaxy Books)

Rating:
Summary: Don't bother
Review: I read this book a few years ago as part of my Master's degree program in American History. It's the most impenetrable gobbledygook I've ever read; a great example of how too much history is being written for other PhDs, though I doubt if any PhD other than Wilentz understands it. Don't waste your time unless you need further proof that Wilentz in more interested in political grandstanding than writing good history.

Rating:
Summary: Don't bother
Review: I read this book a few years ago as part of my Master's degree program in American History. It's the most impenetrable gobbledygook I've ever read; a great example of how too much history is being written for other PhDs, though I doubt if any PhD other than Wilentz understands it. Don't waste your time unless you need further proof that Wilentz in more interested in political grandstanding than writing good history.

Rating:
Summary: If You Want to Understand Am. Labor History
Review: The other contributor must not be very serious about the study of history. You will find this book on every 19th-Century U.S. PhD reading list from Columbia to Okla. State U. If you want to understand Am. labor history, antebellum history, class stratification, free v. slave labor, this is one of the most valuable books you can read. It's not for casual reading, but if you're SERIOUS about understanding American history it's for you.

Rating:
Summary: If You Want to Understand Am. Labor History
Review: The other contributor must not be very serious about the study of history. You will find this book on every 19th-Century U.S. PhD reading list from Columbia to Okla. State U. If you want to understand Am. labor history, antebellum history, class stratification, free v. slave labor, this is one of the most valuable books you can read. It's not for casual reading, but if you're SERIOUS about understanding American history it's for you.

Rating:
Summary: The trivial elevated to the status of the epochal.
Review: This book's topic lends itself to a desultory journal article. My graduate seminar professor insisted that we read the book, and I was a dutiful soldier. Having read it, I can only say that it seems to me to be far less interesting/illuminating than he supposed. The last thirty years have witnessed the appearance of a profusion of books about obscure people, and reading this one will remind you why it was that those people's stories formerly were obscure.