Certainly the best book yet written about the emergence of New York City's working class and a major contribution to American working-class history.
The New Republic
[Chants Democratic] is nothing less than a scholarly epic...it has no equal in breadth of subject, grace of style or acuity of interpretation.
The Nation
A great leap forward in both American social and American political history....Wilentz has written the statement on Jacksonian New York.
Journal of American History
Chants Democratic is a remarkable book that will quickly establish itself in the historiography and exert a powerful influence on the future direction of social, labor, and political history.
Journal of Interdisciplinary History