The Panic of 1819 is the story of the first nation-wide economic collapse to strike the United States. It was much more than a banking panic or real estate bubble: it was the culmination of an economic wave that rolled through the United States, beginning before the War of 1812, cresting with the land and cotton boom of 1818, and finally crashing just as the country was confronted with the crisis over slavery in Missouri. The Panic introduced Americans to the new phenomenon of boom and bust, changed the country's attitudes towards wealth and poverty, spurred the political movement that became Jacksonian Democracy, and helped create the sectional divide that would lead to the Civil War. It was one of the turning points of American history, yet few Americans today have even heard of it-although we continue to repeat its mistakes, again and again.

1819年的恐慌是第一次袭击美国的全国性经济崩溃。这不仅仅是一场银行业恐慌或房地产泡沫：它是席卷美国的经济浪潮的高潮，始于1812年战争前，1818年土地和棉花繁荣达到顶峰，最后在密苏里州面临奴隶制危机之际崩溃。恐慌使美国人认识到了繁荣和萧条的新现象，改变了这个国家对财富和贫穷的态度，刺激了政治运动，成为了杰克逊式的民主，并帮助制造了导致内战的地区分歧。这是美国历史上的转折点之一，然而今天很少有美国人听说过它，尽管我们一次又一次地重复它的错误。