The Era of Good Feelings

Summary

Dangerfield charts the American republic in the years after the War of 1812, when the collapse of the Federalist party left James Monroe presiding over a deceptively calm one party stretch. He argues that beneath the surface harmony ran fierce tensions over slavery, banking, tariffs, and westward expansion that would reshape national politics. The book remains a vivid account of how the so called age of consensus actually planted the seeds of later sectional conflict.