Chants Democratic, by Sean Wilentz examined the emergence of New York's working class during the Jacksonian era and essentially revealed artisanal republicanism. Wilentz offered a unique perspective in his historical analysis of the social and political histories of labor from 1788 to 1850. Wilentz emphasized the importance of republican ideology in the creation of a working class that was instrumental in a pre-industrial New York. The author highlighted its significance in both political and social histories of the early 19th century by incorporating political ideologies and union descriptions. He further integrated these insights by articulating the social conditions of work and life of petty masters, laborers, and artisans to show their respective importance for the creation of working-class scruples. Chants Democratic reiterated not only the formation of the working class in America, but also illuminated the changes within this new social class by exploring how the pre-war population of New York began to live and think. Wilentz argued that the completion of the Erie Canal and the Market Revolutions of the nineteenth century, along with a strong republican ideology, altered the class consciousness of New York's artisans during the Jacksonian period. (pp. 14 and 25) The preindustrial revolutions of the 1800s provided many employment opportunities for masters, laborers, and laborers; however, the transformation of a merchant capitalist economy allowed many bosses to subdivide labor. (pp. 113) Work for others caused a fracture in the structure of the ancient artisan class. Masters no longer needed to take on apprentices as they hired separate tradesmen for... half the paper... and the movements, relating to the rise of the working class, led to an over-analysis of the evidence within the pages of Democratic Songs. At times Wilentz's scrutiny of labor unions and many other pretentious accounts of the Jacksonian era caused the author's prose to muddy the reader. Instead of the mess of evidence, provided by Wilentz to give application to his arguments on the rise of the working class; the main thesis was lost. This leads to Chants Democratic being a major obstacle for the basic student, but it is an excellent source for those engaged in research on the rise of a working class in American history. Works Cited Wilentz, Sean. Democratic Songs: New York City and the Rise of the American Working Class, 1788-1850. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004. xvii + 396 pp. Index, appendix, bibliographical essay, illustrations