Kevin Byrne

As one group of scholars has noted, the market revolution in the first half of the nineteenth century marked "the most fundamental change American communities ever experienced . . . ." The articles in this month's Magazine lend support to that bold claim and demonstrate that the study of this phenomenon goes well beyond the history of finance or economics. Like most subjects of historical inquiry, the market revolution was anything but monolithic. Its impact on U.S. society was deep and pervasive, and fully to appreciate its consequences requires an examination of multiple perspectives. The articles and lesson plans in this issue successfully employ that exact approach.

Certainly, one symbol of the market revolution's economic impact was the rise of Wall Street, and New York City more generally, as a center of finance and banking in the young republic. Our cover provides a glimpse of this prospering avenue in 1847, some of its buildings employing classical architecture in order to evoke a sense of gravitas. But other symbols of a much different sort abound and would be equally appropriate: new factories along streams and rivers in New England, squatter cabins in the trans-Appalachian west, small commercial centers burgeoning along trade routes, flatboats carrying goods down river, railroads beginning to liberate mass transportation from its dependence on waterways, engravings of flourishing entrepreneurs, and early photographs of mill girls. As Guest Editor John Lauritz Larson is careful to note in his insightful Foreword, however, the growth implied by all these symbols had negative as well as positive consequences for hundreds of thousands of individuals of all sorts and statuses.

Larson and the authors he has assembled link their multiple perspectives on the market revolution by employing the concept of "liberty." It is a timely approach, given our society's current emphasis on free markets and expanding democracy, ideas central to this nineteenth-century transition. These articles examine market revolution as a series of complementary perspectives: liberty as pioneering, as innovation, as exploitation, and as contradiction--the last referring to the intertwined relationship that meant freedom for some and slavery for others. Readers will notice that an entrepreneurial spirit influenced craftsmen in Philadelphia and settlers in the trans-Appalachian west as surely as it affected factory owners in Lowell, Massachusetts, clockmakers in Connecticut, and steamship promoters such as Robert Fulton. Nor was the South immune to the attitudes and impulses that helped form this development, for slavery (North and South) was woven into the economic fabric of the early United States. As Larson points out, what was "progress" for some was excruciating for others, such as Native Americans whose lands settlers coveted or individuals who experienced rapid transformation in the workplace.

The first lesson plan in this issue builds on that complexity. Its format is unusual, as it is four lesson plans rolled into one, in a sense. The authors suggest that you invite students to study pertinent documents and immerse themselves in a series of "dilemmas" that confronted individuals as the market revolution disrupted traditional economic and social conventions. These dilemmas examine perspectives (there's that word again) of four groups wrestling with adjustment to the new systems: journeymen, mill girls, squatters, and, yes, slaveholders. By their very nature, these dilemmas seek to introduce students to the complexity of life at a time when the rules of the "game" were murky and fluid. The second lesson plan takes the notion of "game" even farther, suggesting a way to involve students in the often frustrating and highly uncertain world of land purchases and banking in the early nineteenth century. At the heart of the game stands the Bank of the United States, the dreaded B.U.S.

Robert Fulton's letter to a potential financier, a document that comes to us courtesy of the Gilder Lehrman Collection, connects perfectly to the market revolution theme. An entrepreneur seeking funding to construct a steamboat, Fulton embodies the spirit of innovation as his letter reminds us of the necessity of banks and investors to transform ideas into reality. Richard Sylla's introduction places Fulton's communication into the context of the "transportation revolution," itself a key component of the larger market revolution at work in the land.

The Civil War provides a convenient line of demarcation between the market revolution of the first half of the century and the rapid industrialization that forcefully shaped the second half. It is fitting to have an article that turns our attention to that conflict, much as the war commanded the attention of citizens in 1861. History teacher Kevin Levin has contributed an article containing suggestions for enlivening the study of the Civil War, paying particular attention to the question of where to find readings that contain scholarship at once rigorous and accessible for a high school audience. His suggestions, particularly the articles from North & South magazine, are likely to apply as well to many students at the college, community college, and university levels.

This issue of the Magazine concludes with article by Suzanne Sinke, from our "America on the World Stage" series, bringing us into the twentieth century by examining the theme of migration in U.S. history. Although her article pays particular attention to the last one hundred years, Sinke takes readers on an intellectual journey investigating factors that influenced people to cross national boundaries into--and sometimes out of--the United States from pre-revolutionary days to the present. She ends her analysis with a snapshot of the state of current efforts and directions in the field. As with all the articles in this series, hers demonstrates that a nuanced understanding of U.S. history requires that teachers look beyond the borders of the nation.

• • • 

My thanks to all readers who spoke with me about the OAH Magazine of History at the Annual Meeting in San José. It was a pleasure to meet you and listen to your observations and concerns. Happily, there seems to be a great deal of positive feeling about this publication, but we always welcome suggestions for improvement. We also appreciate the financial support of readers and members, and would like to acknowledge the generous gift of Charles L. Booth which will help ensure the future publication of the Magazine. 

--Kevin Byrne