Sean Wilentz

The towering figure who remade American politics the champion of the ordinary citizen and the scourge of entrenched privilege The Founding Fathers espoused a republican government, but they were distrustful of the common people, having designed a constitutional system that would temper popular passions. But as the revolutionary generation passed from the scene in the 1820s, a new movement, based on the principle of broader democracy, gathered force and united behind Andrew Jackson, the charismatic general who had defeated the British at New Orleans and who embodied the hopes of ordinary Americans. Raising his voice against the artificial inequalities fostered by birth, station, monied power, and political privilege, Jackson brought American politics into a new age. Sean Wilentz, one of America's leading historians of the nineteenth century, recounts the fiery career of this larger-than-life figure, a man whose high ideals were matched in equal measure by his failures and moral blind spots, a man who is remembered for the accomplishments of his eight years in office and for the bitter enemies he made. It was in Jackson's time that the great conflicts of American politics urban versus rural, federal versus state, free versus slave crystallized, and Jackson was not shy about taking a vigorous stand. It was under Jackson that modern American politics began, and his legacy continues to inform our debates to the present day."

Liberties - A Journal of Culture and Politics features new essays and poetry from some of today’s best writers and artists, along with introducing new talent, to inspire and impact the intellectual and creative lifeblood of culture and politics. This inaugural issue of Liberties includes: Michael Ignatieff on liberalism and the environment; Laura Kipnis cheers transgression; David Grossman on literature and peace; Ramachandra Guha on the Indian tragedy; Thomas Chatterton Williams on the real James Baldwin; Mark Lilla on the power of indifference; Helen Vendler on Yeats' The Second Coming; Sean Wilentz on abolition and American origins; Adam Zagajeweski on Gustav Mahler; James Wolcott on America’s modern Jacobins; Andrea Marcolongo on how language defines us; Eli Lake on the birth of American unexceptionalism; Sally Satel on the riddle of addiction; Moshe Halbertal on creating a democratic Jewish state; David Thomson on the wonder of Terrence Malick; Julius Margolin’s memoir confronting hatred; Clara Collier on plague literature; Shawn McCreesh’s personal look at a youthful community of addiction; new poetry from the most recent winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, Louise Glück, Joshua Bennett, and Hannah Sullivan; and, Leon Wieseltier (editor) and Celeste Marcus (managing editor).

En vigtig del af bogen vies til Bob Dylans møde med Allen Ginsberg og Beatgenerationen, og forfatteren har herefter fokus på de store koncerter i 60’erne og 70’erne og indspilningerne af alle de kendte albums fra denne periode, især Blonde on Blonde. Mens 80’ernes Dylan ikke fylder meget i bogen, dækkes de vigtigste plader fra 90’erne og frem, hvor Dylan fornyer sig i vedvarende dialog med den dybe amerikanske folktradition. I den Oscarnominerede biopic A Complete Unknown med Timothée Chalamet i hovedrollen zoomes der ind på 60’ernes Greenwich Village, hvor den unge Bob Dylan finder sig selv i mødet med Woody Guthrie og Pete Seegers. Historikeren Sean Wilentz forsøger med denne bog at grave et spadestik dybere i den amerikanske kulturhistorie. Han fremhæver blandt andet, hvorledes populærmusikikonet Aaron Coplands omgang med den amerikanske folkemusik i 1940’erne gødede jorden for den type sange, som den særdeles originale Dylan tyve år senere bragte ind i verden.

BOB DYLAN: MIXING UP THE MEDICINE is an unprecedented glimpse into the creative life of one of America’s most groundbreaking, influential and enduring artists. 'The Dylan Center in Tulsa offers a read as endlessly fascinating, as vital to the American story, as its subject himself... Whether you have inhaled this kind of information for decades, as I have, or you’re a neophyte who only knows him as the author of Blowin’ in the Wind or Like a Rolling Stone, Bob Dylan: Mixing Up the Medicine may fill you with as much surprise and delight as I got from it.' -The Guardian 'Mixing Up the Medicine, the first publication from the Bob Dylan Center in Tulsa, brings the reader closer to the Dylan godhead than perhaps any publication since Chronicles. - Vanity Fair's 'Our 20 Favorite Books of 2023' Several years ago, a treasure trove containing some 6,000 original Bob Dylan manuscripts was revealed to exist. Their destination? Tulsa, Oklahoma. The documents, as essential as they are intriguing—draft lyrics, notebooks, and diverse ephemera— comprise one of the most important cultural archives in the modern world. Along with countless still and moving images and thousands of hours of riveting studio and live recordings, this priceless collection now resides at The Bob Dylan Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, just steps away from the archival home of Dylan’s early hero, Woody Guthrie. Nearly all the materials preserved at The Bob Dylan Center are unique, previously unavailable, and, in many cases, even previously unknown. As the official publication of The Bob Dylan Center, BOB DYLAN: MIXING UP THE MEDICINE is the first wide-angle look at the Dylan archive, a book that promises to be of vast interest to both the Nobel Laureate’s many musical fans as well as a broader cultural audience. Edited by Mark Davidson and Parker Fishel, BOB DYLAN: MIXING UP THE MEDICINE focuses a close look at the full scope of Dylan’s working life, particularly from the dynamic perspective of his ongoing and shifting creative processes—his earliest home recordings in the mid-1950s right up through Rough and Rowdy Ways (2020), his most recent studio recording, and into the present day. The centerpiece of BOB DYLAN: MIXING UP THE MEDICINE is a carefully curated selection of over 600 images including never-before-circulated draft lyrics, writings, photographs, drawings and other ephemera from the Dylan archive. With an introductory essay by Sean Wilentz and epilogue by Douglas Brinkley, the book features a surprising range of distinguished writers, artists and musicians, including Joy Harjo, Greil Marcus, Michael Ondaatje, Gregory Pardlo, Amanda Petrusich, Tom Piazza, Lee Ranaldo, Alex Ross, Ed Ruscha, Lucy Sante, Greg Tate and many others. After experiencing the collection firsthand in Tulsa, each of the authors was asked to select a single item that beguiled or inspired them. The resulting essays, written specifically for this volume, shed new light on not only Dylan’s creative process, but also their own. 'BOB DYLAN: MIXING UP THE MEDICINE is the magnum opus every Bob Dylan fan has been waiting for since the 60s and will be a landmark publication for the ages.‘A lavishly illustrated collection of archival treasures… The artifacts here are full of history… Luminous.’ – New York Times Book Review ‘The bible for Dylanologists around the world.’ – Le Monde ‘This first major book publication by the Dylan Archive makes a large part of the books published about Dylan superfluous.’ – Die Welt ‘A feast. This tour de force takes you page by page through the many decades of Dylan World.’ – Todd Freston, founder of MTV BOOK OF THE YEAR ‘This book of treasures is a catalogue of beautiful ephemera that functions as a living memorial to its subject, while also illustrating the depths of Dylan’s creativity.’ – Uncut ‘If there is anything new to be discovered about Bob Dylan, you can probably find it in The Bob Dylan Centre… Now the Bob Dylan Centre is publishing its first book, essentially the archive in miniature: Bob Dylan: Mixing up the Medicine. It is a 608-page tome examining over 1000 images and objects culled from the collection by archivists and curators Mark Davidson and Parker Fishel.’ - The Telegraph

“A Meteor of Intelligent Substance”“Something was Missing in our Culture, and Here It Is”"Liberties is THE place to be. Change starts in the mind." Liberties, a journal of Culture and Politics, is essential reading for those engaged in the cultural and political issues and causes of our time. Liberties features serious, independent, stylish, and controversial essays by significant writers and leaders throughout the world; new poetry; and, introduces the next generation of writers and voices to inspire and impact the intellectual and creative lifeblood of today’s culture and politics. This issue of Liberties includes: new work from Nobel Prize winner Mario Vargas Llosa; drawings by Leonard Cohen published for the first time; Mamtimin Ala’s essay on China’s genocide of the Uyghurs; Jaroslaw Anders’ analysis of the crisis in Belarus; Cass R. Sunstein on liberalism inebriated; Richard Thompson Ford on what slavery does and does not explain; Sean Wilentz on the historical strategy of the Republican Party; Benjamin Moser writes about translation as a form of tourism in literary life; Jonathan Zimmerman on the scandal of college teaching; Mark Lilla on cults of innocence and their victims; Helen Vendler on Adrienne Rich; Holly Brewer on race and enlightenment; David Thomson asks, What shall we watch now?; Celeste Marcus (managing editor) on the legend of Alice Neel; Leon Wieseltier (editor) on Zionism’s beautiful stubbornness of survival; and new poetry from Ange Mlinko and Shaul Tchernikhovsky, translated by Robert Alter.

“Wilentz brings a lifetime of learning and a mastery of political history to this brilliant book.”—David W. Blight, author of Frederick DouglassA New York Times Book Review Editors’ ChoiceA Foreign Affairs Best Book of the YearAmericans revere the Constitution even as they argue fiercely over its original toleration of slavery. In this essential reconsideration of the creation and legacy of our nation’s founding document, Sean Wilentz reveals the tortured compromises that led the Founders to abide slavery without legitimizing it, a deliberate ambiguity that fractured the nation seventy years later. Contesting the Southern proslavery version of the Constitution, Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass pointed to the framers’ refusal to validate what they called “property in man.” No Property in Man has opened a fresh debate about the political and legal struggles over slavery that began during the Revolution and concluded with the Civil War. It drives straight to the heart of the single most contentious issue in all of American history.“Revealing and passionately argued…[Wilentz] insists that because the framers did not sanction slavery as a matter of principle, the antislavery legacy of the Constitution has been…‘misconstrued’ for over 200 years.”—Khalil Gibran Muhammad, New York Times“Wilentz’s careful and insightful analysis helps us understand how Americans who hated slavery, such as Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass, could come to see the Constitution as an ally in their struggle.”—Eric Foner

Sean Wilentz presents two key insights that reveal a much-needed vision of American political history. Firstly, partisanship has almost always been a feature of American history and has made possible its greatest social reforms. Secondly, the recent attention to economic inequality has a long history. From the founders’ generation to the present, America’s egalitarian tradition has appeared and reappeared like an underground river.

Sean Wilentz presents two key insights that reveal a much-needed vision of American political history. Firstly, partisanship has almost always been a feature of American history and has made possible its greatest social reforms. Secondly, the recent attention to economic inequality has a long history. From the founders’ generation to the present, America’s egalitarian tradition has appeared and reappeared like an underground river.

Paul Johnson and Sean Wilentz brilliantly recapture the forgotten story of Matthias the Prophet, imbuing their richly researched account with the dramatic force of a novel. In the hands of Johnson and Wilentz, the strange tale of Matthias opens a fascinating window into the turbulent movements of the religious revival known as the Second Great Awakening--movements that swept up great numbers of evangelical Americans and gave rise to new sects like the Mormons. Into this teeming environment walked a down-and-out carpenter named Robert Matthews, who announced himself as Matthias, prophet of the God of the Jews. His hypnotic personality drew in a cast of unforgettable characters--the meekly devout businessman Elijah Pierson, who once tried to raise his late wife from the dead; the young attractive Christian couple, Benjamin Folger and his wife Ann (who seduced the woman-hating Prophet); and the shrewd ex-slave Isabella Van Wagenen, regarded by some as "the most wicked of the wicked." None was more colorful than the Prophet himself, a bearded, thundering tyrant who gathered his followers into an absolutist household, using their money to buy an elaborate, eccentric wardrobe, and reordering their marital relations. By the time the tensions within the kingdom exploded into a clash with the law, Matthias had become a national scandal. "Written with the sweep and narrative drive of a best seller.... It has sex and sexual depravity, violence, murder, a courtroom drama, a media feeding frenzy, prostitution, lunacy, theft, religion (plenty of that), politics, social commentary, subtle humor, a fascinating if weird cast of characters, and a surprise ending." --Atlantic Monthly "The Kingdom of Matthias is about marginality, fantasy, commerce, sex, and the soul's hunger, and the classically American combustion of all of the above.... A delicious and disturbing book." --Leon Wieseltier "As exciting as a novel...a wonderful book that will keep you up all night." --Katha Pollitt

A unique look at Nobel Prize winner Bob Dylan's place in American cultural history through unprecedented access to Dylan's studio tapes, recording notes, and rare photographs. Sean Wilentz discovered Bob Dylan's music as a teenager growing up in Greenwich Village. Now, almost half a century later, he revisits Dylan's work with the skills of an eminent American historian as well as the passion of a fan. Beginning with Dylan's explosion onto the scene in 1961, Wilentz follows the emerging artist as he develops a body of work unique in America's cultural history. Using his unprecedented access to studio tapes, recording notes, and rare photographs, he places Dylan's music in the context of its time and offers a stunning critical appreciation of Dylan both as a songwriter and performer.

A brilliantly written and groundbreaking book about Dylan's music â?? now the recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature 2016 â?? and its musical, political and cultural roots in early 20th-century AmericaGrowing up in Greenwich Village in the 1960s Sean Wilentz discovered the music of Bob Dylan as a young teenager.

The past thirty-five years have marked an era of conservatism. Although briefly interrupted in the late 1970s and temporarily reversed in the 1990s, a powerful surge from the right dominated American politics and government from 1974 to 2008. In The Age of Reagan, Sean Wilentz, one of our nation's leading historians, accounts for how a conservative movement once deemed marginal managed to seize power and hold it, and describes the momentous consequences that followed. Vivid, authoritative, and illuminating from start to finish, The Age of Reagan is a groundbreaking chronicle of America's political history since the fall of Nixon.

Acclaimed as the definitive study of the period by one of the greatest American historians, The Rise of American Democracy traces a historical arc from the earliest days of the republic to the opening shots of the Civil War. Ferocious clashes among the Founders over the role of ordinary citizens in a government of "we, the people" were eventually resolved in the triumph of Andrew Jackson. Thereafter, Sean Wilentz shows, a fateful division arose between two starkly opposed democracies—a division contained until the election of Abraham Lincoln sparked its bloody resolution. Winner of the Bancroft Award, shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize, finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, a New York Times 100 Notable Books of 2005 and best book of New York magazine and The Economist.

The Politics of Hope and The Bitter Heritage brings together two important books that bracket the tempestuous politics of 1960s America. In The Politics of Hope, which historian Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., published in 1963 while serving as a special assistant to President Kennedy, Schlesinger defines the liberalism that characterized the Kennedy administration and the optimistic early Sixties. In lively and incisive essays, most of them written between 1956 and 1960, on topics such as the basic differences underlying liberal and conservative politics, the writing of history, and the experience of Communist countries, Schlesinger emphasizes the liberal thinker's responsibility to abide by goals rather than dogma, to learn from history, and to look to the future. Four years later, following Kennedy's assassination and the escalation of America's involvement in Vietnam, Schlesinger's tone changes. In The Bitter Heritage, a brief but penetrating appraisal of the "war that nobody wanted," he recounts America's entry into Vietnam, the history of the war, and its policy implications. The Bitter Heritage concludes with an eloquent and sobering assessment of the war's threat to American democracy and a reflection on the lessons or legacies of the Vietman conflict. With a new foreword by Sean Wilentz, the James Madison Library edition of The Politics of Hope and The Bitter Heritage situates liberalism in the convulsive 1960s--and illuminates the challenges that still face liberalism today.

A political history of how the fledgling American republic developed into a democratic state at the onset of the Civil War offers insight into how historical beliefs about democracy compromised democratic progress, providing coverage of the rivalry between Jeffersonians and Federalists, and identifying the roles of key contributors, including Andrew Jackson, Anti-Masons, and fugitive slaves. Reprint.

Since its publication in 1984, Chants Democratic has endured as a classic narrative on labor and the rise of American democracy. In it, Sean Wilentz explores the dramatic social and intellectual changes that accompanied early industrialization in New York. He provides a panoramic chronicle of New York City's labor strife, social movements, and political turmoil in the eras of Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson. Twenty years after its initial publication, Wilentz has added a new preface that takes stock of his own thinking, then and now, about New York City and the rise of the American working class.

Since its publication in 1984, Chants Democratic has endured as a classic narrative on labor and the rise of American democracy. In it, Sean Wilentz explores the dramatic social and intellectual changes that accompanied early industrialization in New York. He provides a panoramic chronicle of New York City's labor strife, social movements, and political turmoil in the eras of Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson. Twenty years after its initial publication, Wilentz has added a new preface that takes stock of his own thinking, then and now, about New York City and the rise of the American working class.