Presents the history of the New Republic of America in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries through excerpts from documents, letters, journals, and newspaper articles.

Integrating all aspects of life, from politics and law to the economy and culture, "Empire of Liberty" offers a marvelous account of this pivotal era when America took its first unsteady steps as a new and rapidly expanding nation.

Includes essays on events, publications, lifestyles and individuals important to various eras in U.S. history.

The author chronicles the breakdown of Enlightenment values as the elitist and rationalist legacy of Jeffersonianism gave way to the populist and capitalist fervor of the Jacksonian era. Documenting the bewildering political and cultural changes between 1800 and 1830, Matthews demonstrates how the questions raised in all areas of cultural and intellectual life were fundamentally about the nature of the Republic itself.

The California Gold Rush inspired a new American dream-the "dream of instant wealth, won by audacity and good luck." The discovery of gold on the American River in 1848 triggered the most astonishing mass movement of peoples since the Crusades. It drew fortune-seekers from the ends of the earth, accelerated Americas imperial expansion, and exacerbated the tensions that exploded in the Civil War. H.W. Brands tells his epic story from multiple perspectives:...