THE ERA OF GOOD FEELINGS

An historical and political perspective on the twelve year period which followed the peace treaty in 1814 to the War of 1812 and which- for all its ""confusion and vigor of aspiration, uncertainty, division and ill will"" was ironically known as the Era of Good Feelings. For the conclusion of the War of 1812, primarily caused by American land hunger and British opposition to American ambition, and the peace which was an acknowledgement of the maturity of the new nation, left an aftermath of mixed issues and no real leadership, and the presidency of Monroe at best personified an interim period. Here, in considerable detail, are the impulses and incidents which figured in the decade that followed; the increase in the velocity of the westward movement; the fervent nationalism of Andrew Jackson and the controversy he provoked; the agrarian South and the question of slavery expressed in the angry argument of the Missouri Debates; the uneasy economy; the relationship with England and Canning's ""flirtation"" with the United States which was frozen by the Monroe Doctrine; the intrigues for the Presidency, and John Quincy Adams' succession- ""an unsuccessful coda"" to the Era of Good Feelings in which a great man, with the right motives, was found in the wrong place at the wrong time..... Based on impressive research, which is subdued in the interest of the handling, this is a far reaching analysis of a particular phase of our historical past, for the more serious reader in this field.