Joel H. Silbey is President White Professor of History at Cornell University. Martin Van Buren and the Emergence of Popular Politics is his thirteenth book.

• Chapter 1: The Tavern Keeper's Son: The Making of a Politician, 1782–1812Chapter 2: "The Partisan Leader" I: Master of the State, 1812–1821Chapter 3: "The Partisan Leader" II: The Senator From New York, 1821–1828Chapter 4: The Seats of the Mighty, 1828–1832Chapter 5: The Democracy's Heir Apparent, 1832–1836Chapter 6: At the Summit: The Eighth President of the United States, 1837–1841Chapter 7: "The People Could Not Be Rallied for Van Buren"Chapter 8: The Partisan Leader at Bay, 1841–1847Chapter 9: "The Most Fallen Man I Have Ever Known": The Party Leader Becomes a Political Rebel—For a Time, 1848–1852Chapter 10: Political Afterlife, 1852–1862Chapter 11: "The Honors of Their Statesman"Suggested Reading

In Martin Van Buren and the Emergence of American Popular Politics, Joel Silbey draws on his deep knowledge of the Jacksonian era to produce an excellent study of one of the most important political leaders of the early nineteenth century. Silbey's deft analysis of Van Buren's public career, spanning some four decades, highlights his many contributions to the formation of the Democratic party and the development of the second party system. Clearly written, this concise biography offers a sure-handed introduction to the emergence of the American democratic system in the years after 1815.