Studies in Constitutional Democracy

The First Great Depression

Andrew H. Browning

• Publisher: University of Missouri
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9780826274250
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: World History
• Index: History

The Panic of 1819 tells the story of the first nationwide economic collapse to strike the United States. Much more than a banking crisis or real estate bubble, the Panic was the culmination of an economic wave that rolled through the United States, forming before the War of 1812, cresting with the land and cotton boom of 1818, and crashing just as the nation confronted the crisis over slavery in Missouri.The Panic introduced Americans to the new phenomenon of boom and bust, changed the country's attitudes towards wealth and poverty, spurred the political movement that became Jacksonian Democracy, and helped create the sectional divide that would lead to the Civil War. Although it stands as one of the turning points of American history, few Americans today have heard of the Panic of 1819, with the result that we continue to ignore its lessons—and repeat its mistakes.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Chapter One. The Legacy of Napoleon: Embargo, War, and Peace
• Chapter Two. Three Revolutions: Market, Transportation, Corporation
• Chapter Three. Volcano Weather
• Chapter Four. Alabama Fever: “I Must Go West and Plant”
• Chapter Five. Bank Expansion: “Frothy Bubbles”
• Chapter Six. Bank Contraction: “The Axe Must Be Applied to the Root of the Evil”
• Chapter Seven. Hard Times in the East: “A Long Continuation of Distress”
• Chapter Eight. Hard Times in the West: “Reflections Which Almost Unmans Me”
• Chapter Nine. Relief?
• Chapter Ten. The Politics of Corruption and the Corruption of Politics
• Chapter Eleven. A House Dividing: The Panic of 1819 and the Growth of Sectionalism
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index