The Whiskey Rebellion: Frontier Epilogue to the American Revolution

Rating:
Summary: A Battle for the Meaning of the American Revolution
Review: In October of 1794, President Washington sent an army nearly 13,000 strong across the Allegheny Mountains into the frontier regions of Western Pennsylvania to suppress a popular uprising against the federal government. This event marked the greatest internal crisis of Washington's administration, and the most significant crisis of disunion to the United States prior to the Civil War. This significance of this event, both at the time, and to the continuing debate about the meaning of America, has often been overlooked or forgotten in popular histories. Thomas Slaughter's book goes a long way toward correcting that oversight.
The Whiskey Rebellion was a reaction against an excise tax place on spirits, and shared much in common with the similar tax revolt against the Stamp Act that ignited the flames of the American Revolution. Indeed, the Whiskey rebels saw themselves as upholding the spirit of the Revolution, and believed that the leaders of the federal government had abandoned those principles in favor of personal gain.
Slaughter does an outstanding job of telling each side of the story without a strong bias toward either side. He paints the rebellion as a massive failure to communicate between the parties involved. The conflict illustrated a deep divide between the East and the West of the country, setting urban against rural interests, localist ideologies against nationalist, and of course, all the familiar divisions that are inherent in class and economic differences. Slaughter describes the federal government and its supporters as having "generally shared a Hobbesian-type fear of anarchy as the starting point for their consideration," while he says that the Whiskey Rebels and their friends "took a more Lockeian-type stance," believing "that protection of liberty, not the maintenance of order, was the principal task of government." The federal government emphasized the power of the Constitution, while the Whiskey Rebels emphasized the much more radical Declaration of Independence.
The Whiskey Rebellion was a turning point in America's history. It showed the central government's willingness and ability to enforce its laws even at great distance from it center of power. It was a midwife to the birth of true political parties that emerged in the following years. And it set the parameters of the great political debate of just what the meaning of the American Revolution and what it means to be an American really is, a debate that continues along remarkably similar lines to this day.
This book will be of particular interest to those interested in the early Republic and the Washington Administration, the career of Alexander Hamilton, the Federalist - Anti-Federalist question, or the early American frontier. It is well written, well reasoned, and highly recommended.


Rating:
Summary: An excellent portrayal of the events of the rebellion.
Review: This book was well documented and portrayed wonderfully the life of the frontiersmen and how they viewed the "oppression" of the Easterners. However, it equally balances the view of the Easterners toward their perceptions and interpretations of the actions of the frontiersmen. It offers the student of history a very balanced view of what took place two hundred years ago on the western Pennsylvania frontier in a very readable form. Slaughter always manages to give both sides to each issue and interprets the events thusly. Unfortunately, the one issue the author failed to cover was the impact of the frontier church in the shaping of events. Surely with the 2nd Great Awakening on the frontier's horizon this would have implications. The final compliment to the author is that I truly appreciated his stories that started each chapter. These real-life events vividly portray life as it was on the frontier; a hard and sometimes terrifying life. It is this strug! gle of life that we owe our forefathers respect that is deserving of applause. Slaughter did this for these people.

Rating:
Summary: An excellent portrayal of the events of the rebellion.
Review: This book was well documented and portrayed wonderfully the life of the frontiersmen and how they viewed the "oppression" of the Easterners. However, it equally balances the view of the Easterners toward their perceptions and interpretations of the actions of the frontiersmen. It offers the student of history a very balanced view of what took place two hundred years ago on the western Pennsylvania frontier in a very readable form. Slaughter always manages to give both sides to each issue and interprets the events thusly. Unfortunately, the one issue the author failed to cover was the impact of the frontier church in the shaping of events. Surely with the 2nd Great Awakening on the frontier's horizon this would have implications. The final compliment to the author is that I truly appreciated his stories that started each chapter. These real-life events vividly portray life as it was on the frontier; a hard and sometimes terrifying life. It is this strug! gle of life that we owe our forefathers respect that is deserving of applause. Slaughter did this for these people.

Rating:
Summary: A less common view of George Washington
Review: When I began reading this book, I thought it was going to be a straight forward narrative on the decisions made by Washington and Hamilton in the 1790s regarding the rebellion that was rising in the Western territory of the U.S. However, what I didn't expect, was a view of George Washington that, to me, seemed much more realistic than most American's are comfortable believing of our first President. Washington is often seen as an "untouchable" in the eyes of the American people, but this book will show you that no President is without his mistakes and mishaps. Washington might have been a genious on the battlefield, but no battle could prepare him to make the decisions that the executive has to make in times of insurrection. Just as Abraham Lincoln had to make crucial, and often unpopular, decisions regarding the Southern States and their insurrection against the North, so Washington found himself facing unpopular outcomes to decisions to uphold the law regarding the excise of Alcohol (a tax that many Westerners viewed as being hypocritical of our government, making it no better than the British taxes of the 1760s-1770s).

This book offers interesting insight into the first revolts against the American government since its founding. However, I give this book 3 stars for a few specific reasons:

1. No book, no matter how incredible, deserves 5 stars. To say something is excellent is to say that there is no room for improvement, and that is just physically imposible with a history book.

2. The narrative of this book is entertaining at some points, and completely boring at others. I found my mind drifting off as I read certain passages, and asking the question "wait, what's going on here?" Thus, there are moments that require a re-reading to fully comprehend what is going on.

If you are looking for a very intellectual view of the politics and social attitude of the Washington administration, then you'll probably enjoy this book. However, if you are looking for a quick over-view of President Washington, or the revolutionary era, I recomend an alternative book. Perhaps a biography on Washington or one of his contemporaries.