In this book, Dalzell explores the decision made by the founders of the Boston Manufacturing Company to shift their family resources from trade to manufacturing. Not just an introduction to Francis Cabot Lowell's innovative leadership among New England entrepreneurs, Dalzell also discusses the familial and social concerns that shaped the founding and development of New England's textile industry.

In this collection of essays, early national historians explore various aspects of economic development occurring in the half century after the Revolution. Gilje provides a sort of nuts-and-bolts introductory discussion that students will find useful, and other essays explore shifting economic patterns among craftsmen, women, Northern farmers, and Southern planters.

Hatch views the Second Great Awakening as a genuinely democratic movement in sync with a broader attack on authority running throughout America after 1800. He therefore focuses on popular evangelists like Lorenzo Dow and John Leland rather than moderating figures like Charles Finney.

In this short, nicely written example of the "new social history," Johnson explores the impact of the Erie Canal on the manufacturing sector of Rochester, New York. Early chapters provide a straightforward but interesting description of the structure of work and residence in a traditional local economy. In later chapters, Johnson explores the role played by Charles Finney and revivalism in reconstructing communal ties.

The book is more than a narrow discussion of changing market conditions; instead, Sellers traces the interwoven economic, social, political, and cultural threads of Jacksonian America. Authoritative and elegantly written, readers interested in a comprehensive introduction to the period should begin with this book.