The Birth of Empire: DeWitt Clinton and the American Experience, 1769-1828
240
The Birth of Empire: DeWitt Clinton and the American Experience, 1769-1828
240Hardcover
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Overview
Clinton's greatest achievement was the Erie Canal, the establishment and implementation of which he championed as early as 1810. Construction of the canal began in 1817, and even before it was completed, eight years later, it had brought profound changes—economic, cultural, and social—to the state and the nation. As Evan Cornog illustrates in his detailed and compelling narrative, the Erie Canal hastened the economic expansion of the country, altered its political geography, set an example for activist government, and decisively secured New York City's position as America's foremost metropolis. It was a project unlike anything the Empire State—or the United States—had seen before, and was only the most successful of Clinton's many efforts to implement his view that government should play an active role in the economic and intellectual development of American society.
The Birth of Empire chronicles not only the life of an important political leader but the accomplishments that underlay his success. As mayor of New York City, for example, Clinton was instrumental in the founding of the public-school system. He sponsored countless measures to promote cultural enrichment as well as educational opportunities for New Yorkers, and helped to establish and lead such institutions as the New-York Historical Society, the American Academy of the Arts, and the Literary and Philosophical Society. An amateur scientist of some renown, Clinton also wrote essays on geology, botany, entomology, archaeology, anthropology, and ichthyology.
As shown here, Clinton's career was marked by frequent attempts to integrate his cultural and scientific interests into his identity as a politician, thus projecting the image of a man of wide learning and broad vision, a scholar-statesman of the new republic. Ironically, the political innovations which Clinton set in motion—the refinement of patronage and the spoils system, appeals to immigrant voters, and the professionalization of politics—were precisely what led to the extinction of the scholar-statesman's natural habitat. However visionary, the latter-day philosopher-king would eventually have no place in the modern world. DeWitt Clinton was born into the aristocratic culture of the eighteenth century, yet his achievements and ideas crucially influenced (in ways he did not always anticipate) the growth of the mass society of the nineteenth century.
With this book, Cornog engagingly guides readers through the colorful maze of early nineteenth-century New York politics and society, illustrating both the depth of achievement and breadth of influence of one of its most important leaders. Those who wish to understand the development of American politics, the flowering of a distinctly American cultural life, the progress of the market revolution, and the growth of America's largest city will find many valuable insights in The Birth of Empire.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780195119497 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Oxford University Press |
| Publication date: | 12/03/1998 |
| Pages: | 240 |
| Product dimensions: | 6.30(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.20(d) |
About the Author
Table of Contents
Introduction: Gentlemen of New York1. Political Apprentice2. Political Journeyman3. Clintonians and Burrites4. Mayor Clinton5. Clintonian Culture6. Clintonians and Quids7. New York and the Nation8. Launching the Canal9. Clintonian Intellect10. The Governor11. Resurrection12. The Canal and Its Consequences13. End of a CareerWhat People are Saying About This
Concurrent with the restoration of the Erie Canal, author Evan Cornog gives us a fascinating caravansary of the creation of the canal by its major proponent, Governor DeWitt Clinton. This great work, engineered and excavated by immigrants, opened the State of New York and the West to a host of immigration that transformed this state from an aristocracy to the democracy we now know as the Empire State. Cornog also gives us a vivid and insightful depiction of the Governor who was both a creator and a casualty of that transformation. The portraits of Clinton and his contemporaries; of their colloquies, comments, and anecdotes in the ebb tide of regency; and of the rise of the new republic make this book an invaluable companion on any trip up the Erie. What better escort could we have than Cornog's Governor Clinton--who was courageous and clumsy in politics, and charming and cantankerous, like so many other governors I can recall.'--Hugh L. Carey, Governor of New York State, 1975 to 1983 'As mayor, governor, and senator, and as father of the Erie Canal and a dozen other major institutions and initiatives, DeWitt Clinton is arguably the most important person ever to lead the Empire City and the Empire State. His is a grand story, and in Evan Cornog he has found a grand biographer.
— Columbia University
Cornog's wonderful Birth of Empire not only gives the history of DeWitt Clinton, for 12 years the City's mayor and twice the State's governor, but also paints a marvelous picture of early 19th-century Manhattan. Active sponsor of the Erie Canal, founder of the New-York Historical Society, and devoted supporter of the cultural and industrial growth of city and state, DeWitt Clinton comes alive in this story of the origins of the greatest city in the world.
— Former Mayor of New York City