The literature of the current generation treating the Jacksonian period of American history suggests persuasively that although the citizenry of that time enjoyed widespread consensus about many important matters, many remained about which there was profound disagreement. American life abounded in antithetical and unresolved issues: tensions between pastoral and urbane, the unrequited yearning for a simpler way of life in a time when Americans were beginning to embrace more complex modes of economic, political, and social life; the conflict between an exuberant, secular American optimism about the promise of life and the often hysterical anxiety of the religious over a ripeness of sin and the approaching destruction of the wicked and the end of the world. And the slavery dilemma began to shake American society in the 1830–1850 generation. The idea of counter culture in early nineteenth century America should be considered against the background of such cultural tensions.
