The Roots of American Individualism: Political Myths in the Age of Jackson.

• Date: 01 December 2022
• Author: Hoff, Samuel B.
• Published date: 01 December 2022
• Author: Hoff, Samuel B.

Zakaras, Alex. The Roots of American Individualism: Political Myths in the Age of Jackson. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2022. X + 418 pages. Hardcover, $31.63.

Alex Zakaras, an associate professor of political science at the University of Vermont, explores how American individualism perpetuated myths that were most prominently manifested in the Jacksonian era. Tapping a variety of sources, he demonstrates that both Democrats and Whigs during the aforementioned period defined their own version of individualism as it pertained to economic, political, social, intellectual, and moral components of society.

Containing a total of eleven chapters, the book is split into four parts. The first two chapters include an Introduction and identification of three foundational myths, all of which sought to express what it meant to be American. Today, we view the Jacksonian period as a critical time for the formation of popular narratives due to its features, which included the advent of mass democracy and economic changes caused by new technologies, infrastructure projects, expanding credit, and increasing demand for products. The myths, which conveyed a utopian vision of America, encompassed that of the independent proprietor, the rights-bearer, and the self-made man.

Part I covers three chapters and explains the independent proprietor myth through which American...