The Republic Reborn
The Republic Reborn: War and the Making of Liberal America, 1790-1820 examines the War of 1812 as a catalyst in the larger transformation of the United States from a “republican” to a “liberal” society. The book argues that a younger generation of Jeffersonian “war hawks” took the lead in promoting various aspects of this change—an entrepreneurial economy of competition, a liberal political structure and ideology, and an individualist culture of self-interest and self-control. In so doing they built the foundation of 19th -century market society and Victorian culture.
Winner of the National Historical Society book prize for the best book in American history by a new author.
A runner-up for the John Hope Franklin Prize from the American Studies Association for the best book in American Studies
The Romance of Real Life
The Romance of Real Life: Charles Brockden Brown and the Origins of American Culture explores the life and legacy of the man often described as “the father of the American novel.”
Ranging from his literary efforts as a writer of gothic novels who embodied the romantic prototype of the writer to his social commentary on the vagaries of a growing market society, it presents a fresh portrait of Brown as a key figure in advancing the idea that culture itself is a civilizing force to restrain restless liberal individualism.
Steven Watts 
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