The War of 1812 played a critical role in the emergence of an American 'culture of capitalism.' In the Republic Reborn Steven Watts offers a brilliant new interpretation of the war and the foundation of liberal America. He explores the sweeping changes that took place in America between 1790 and 1820--the growth of an entrepreneurial economy of completion, the development of a liberal political structure and ideology, and the rise of a bourgeois culture of self-interest and self-control.