Rose (history, Pennsylvania State U.) examines the exchange of ideas in the cultural marketplace of in the US in the decades preceding the Civil War. She explores the way Americans debated religion, politics, the economy, and literature, with common languages of discourse revolving around Christianity, democracy, and capitalism. She also considers the ways that the expanding tools of communication, combined with this agreement on the terms of the debate, contributed to the vigorousness of American intellectual exchange. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)