The Panic of 1819: The First Great Depression

by Andrew H. Browning

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780826223104
Publisher:	University of Missouri Press
Publication date:	02/28/2024
Series:	Studies in Constitutional Democracy
Pages:	452
Sales rank:	596,702
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

Andrew H. Browning was educated at Princeton and the University of Virginia. He has taught history in Washington, D.C., Honolulu, and Portland, Oregon.
 

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction 3

Chapter 1 The Legacy of Napoleon: Embargo, War, and Peace 17

Chapter 2 Three Revolutions: Market, Transportation, Corporation 49

Chapter 3 Volcano Weather 75

Chapter 4 Alabama Fever: "I Must Go West and Plant" 103

Chapter 5 Bank Expansion: "Frothy Bubbles" 127

Chapter 6 Bank Contraction: "The Axe Must Be Applied to the Root of the Evil" 157

Chapter 7 Hard Times in the East: "A Long Continuation of Distress" 183

Chapter 8 Hard Times in the West: "Reflections Which Almost Unmans Me" 217

Chapter 9 Relief? 251

Chapter 10 The Politics of Corruption and the Corruption of Politics 281

Chapter 11 A House Dividing: The Panic of 1819 and the Growth of Sectionalism 321

Notes 361

Bibliography 395

Index 425

Editorial Reviews

"The title of Mr. Browning's fine and formidable history only hints at its scope. "The Panic of 1819" is, in fact, a political, social and financial history of the U.S., before, during and after America's first great depression."—Wall Street Journal

“A serious work on a vital topic.”—Daniel S. Dupre, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, author of Alabama’s Frontiers and the Rise of the Old South

"Andrew Browning has written a lively and thoroughly-researched account of economic conditions in the decades surrounding the Panic of 1819. As the first comprehensive, book-length consideration of the panic in over fifty years, it is rich and absolutely first rate."—William J. Hausman, Chancellor Professor of Economics, College of William & Mary, author of Global Electrification: Multinational Enterprise and International Finance in the History of Light and Power, 1878-2007


“This is an excellent book on a neglected episode of American economic and financial history—the Panic of 1819—and also on American political and social history in general during, roughly, the first three decades of the nineteenth century.”—Richard Sylla, New York University, author of The American Capital Market, 1846-1914: A Study of the Effects of Public Policy on Economic Management

"The Panic of 1819 is a book that no historian of the early republic can afford to miss." —Missouri Historical Review

"Andrew H. Browning's book [The Panic of 1819] holds up a distant mirror, and allows us to see what happened to our politics in the aftermath of 1819." —Paul Conlin, MAAA, FSA, Senior Actuarial Director at Aetna

"This new book does a remarkable job in analyzing the complexities of trade, finance, politics, and business that led to [the Panic's] devastating impact." —Book Bit for WTBF-AM/FM in Troy, Alaska

"An impressive amount of historical content and knowledge of the policy positions of the key movers and shakers of the antebellum era went into The Panic of 1819, a quality for which Browning should be commended. He successfully ties together a complex set of domestic and international factors to explain this exciting material with smooth prose and skilled narration. To add, the author has an eye for arresting passages and humorous anecdotes. This book is sure to elicit lively discussions of the political and economic history of the early republic."— Stephen Campbell, The Economic Historian

"Andrew Browning has given us a masterful study of an often overlooked economic crisis and has rightfully subtitled his work 'The First Great Depression.'"—Clyde Haulman, EH.net

"Utilizing an extensive array of contemporary sources, Andrew H. Browning masterfully recreates the events and chronology of the new nation's first great depression, the Panic of 1819."—The Journal of Economic History

From the Publisher