"This new abridgement of the original 1838 edition offers a view of Jacksonian America. Here are Martineau's condemnation of slavery and her championship of abolition and women's rights; her incisive portraits of Jackson, Clay, Calhoun, Webster, Garrison, Emerson, and the Beechers; her observations of American schools, asylums, colleges, and prisons; and her eyewitness accounts of a presidential assassination attempt, a lynch mob, a slave auction, a Quaker wedding, and a Harvard commencement.

Historian Daniel Feller, author of The Jacksonian Promise, introduces the narrative, identifies the major characters, and provides an index for easy use."--BOOK JACKET.