In general, I think they're fantastic works by well-respected scholars.

Like any giant synthesis, these works will shape an argument to the scholar's views. And of course, like all scholarship, those views presented are shaped by the times in which the works was written, the extant historiography, the historian's own worldview, and a slew of other factors.

For example, looking at Howe, he is speaking to the older view advanced by Sellers, et al (and robustly maintained today by, among many others, Sean Wilentz) that the Jacksonian period should be seen as a 'market revolution,' where the change from a more agrarian economy to a more liberally-based market economy was brought about by a sort of corporate-government cooperation in infrastructure expansion. Sellers argues that this economic growth was counter to the semi-subsistence existence of many communities. In Sellers' view, Jackson's victory was a result of a sort of proto-populist uprising against this corporatist turn.

Howe sees the growth of infrastructure and American capitalism as rooted in the work of John Quincy Adams. JQA fostered a lot of internal improvement and communications changes (see John Larson, Internal Improvement) and Howe sees these changes as an expansion of liberty, as an enabler of economic growth, and as a driving force behind the expansion of the country. Jackson was not a democratic hero so much as he was the lucky recipient of votes from people who hadn't really been able to vote before -- all because of JQA's internal improvements.

As you can see, two very different approaches. Sellers' view, while published ~1990, is a product of the more-radical 60s, that capitalism is more-or-less bad, and that without gov't support, it would have either not existed or would have been quite different than we know today. Howe's view is a much more conservative take, arguing that capitalism is much more natural than imposed and that gov't and industry can and should work together in order to foster economic growth. This is quite clearly a product of more recent days.

Short story made interminably long, yes, read the Oxford books. They are really good. But pay attention to what you're reading. There is no "gospel truth" when it comes to historiography, only interpretations shaped by many things.

u/nyaaaa · 1 point r/todayilearned

265 upvotes for so much misinformation is sad.

The ceasing of lending was before 1835

> Despite initiating a widespread financial crisis – threatening to reach 1819 levels – the BUS pursued this tight credit policy to coerce Congress to resume the fight for the central bank’s rechartering.

>In hopes of extorting a rescue of the Bank, Biddle induced a short-lived financial crisis that was initially blamed on Jackson's executive action. By 1834, a general backlash against Biddle's tactics developed, ending the panic and all recharter efforts were abandoned.

The "pet" banks, were already state pet banks, they got money that was in the "national" bank.

>The roots of the Panic began in 1833 when Jackson withdrew federal money from the Second Bank of the United States. Jackson transferred these federal monies to state pet banks who speculated the money by making easy loans and chartering under-capitalized banks. In 1836 Jackson gave state banks more money and launched a second speculation frenzy.

And because of those speculations, land was only purchasable by specie (Gold, Silver), which resulted in banks stocks of those things to dimish resulting in

>To make matters worse the banks ceased to pay in specie such

So we learn, while the "national bank" was bad, the "state" banks were not better.

If you want to read

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_War

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panic_of_1837

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_bankruptcies_in_the_1840s

or if you are really interested

http://www.amazon.com/The-Rise-American-Democracy-Jefferson/dp/0393329216

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