A Young People's History of the United States

The “Other Civil War” that the chapter name references was the “struggle between classes” (153) within the US throughout the mid-19th century. The first subsection describes “the myth of ‘Jacksonian Democracy’” (154), an idea that attributes credit to Andrew Jackson’s presidency for a growth of the body politic to include workers and farmers. That expansion was a ploy to get votes and give people only a little of what they wanted, aligning “farmers who owned their land, better-paid laborers, and urban office workers [who] were paid just enough” (154) with the upper classes. Left out entirely were the poorest people in society, as well as women and people of color.

Also expanding but controlled by a select few was industrial capitalism. Big businesses formed and controlled new industries, especially because developing the West in the American vision required “canals, railroads […], the telegraph,” (156), and other technologies and innovations. While these businesses prospered, poor people experienced miserable living and working conditions.

Fueled by anger, poor people expressed their frustration in many ways, ranging from “unorganized uprisings against the rich” to “demonstrations and strikes against the bankers, land speculators, landlords, and merchants who controlled the economy” (157).