Sellers has a clear distaste for capitalism and its effects on the United States. While rich with examples of the effect the rise and success of the free market had on America, Sellers seems to overlook the positive impact the market revolution had.
The Market Revolution seems heavily influenced by Marxist ideals and an inherent distrust of the bourgeoisie (middle class) and elite classes in America. At times the book is a little tedious, with much attention paid to evidence and arguments that only peripherally support the author’s argument.
From the beginning, one can see that Sellers has an idealized view of life in early America before the capitalist market began taking hold on the country. Sellers states “the subsistence culture fostered family obligation, communal cooperation, and reproduction over generations of a modest comfort” while “The market fostered individualism and competitive pursuit of wealth by open-ended production of commodity values that could be accumulated as money.”
Family structure was also impacted by the changing market “Sons had to compete for elusive manhood in the market rather than grow into secure manhood by replicating fathers.”
Cultural Changes During the Market Revolution
The market, according to sellers, pervaded every facet of life in the growing America. The capitalist transformation was “passing from a use-value world permeated by familial/communal ties and God’s everyday presence to a market world that takes the competitive ego for human nature and rationality for revelation.”
The author suggests that even religion was changed by the market to fit its goals as “many needed fantasies of selflessness and exercises in benevolence to sanction their pursuit of capitalist wealth.”
Capitalist Market’s Effect on the Legal System
Sellers takes a negative view of the lawyers, and to a lesser extent the judges who shaped the legal system emerging during the market revolution. The legal system was formed in favor of capitalist elites, to the detriment of the lower, or farming classes. “The adversary system trained legal advocates to practice and to preach the market’s emerging ethic – that the unbridled pursuit of self-interest is in the ultimate interest of all.” Further, “Adversary advocacy freed the bar, before most occupations, from traditional norms of truth and equity, noting that “in the courts, the lawyer’s technical expertise could not be democratically challenged.”
Andrew Jackson, James Monroe and the Market Revolution
Sellers believes that Democracy in America was saved by Andrew Jackson. By “asserting pre-market values against all respectable opinion, Jackson mustered democracy to defend patriarchal independence, equality and therefore honor, against an activist capitalist state.” Unfortunately, according to Sellers, after the panic of 1819 when currency devalued dramatically the decisive blow was dealt to conventional democracy in America. By federally sanctioning the building of roads and canals, James Monroe had “made the decision that placed the federal government fully at the service of the republic’s capitalist destiny.”
Sellers has a wealth of information about America during this period. The changes he discusses in economy, politics, and culture occurred. Whether the changes were negative, and whether they are all attributable solely to the market revolution depends on context. For adherents to the Marxist theory that all history is born of class struggle, this book will serve to reinforce those preconceived notions, yet this book still as value for those with a more flexible view of history. Sellers’ research is thorough, although some of his arguments are presented in a strict Marxist voice.
The Market Revolution: Jacksonian America: 1815 – 1846. By Charles Sellers
ISBN 9780195089202, Oxford University Press, 1994, $23.95, pp 512
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