Michael Zakim. Ready-Made Democracy: A History of Men's Dress in the American Republic, 1760-1860. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003. x + 296 pp. ISBN 0-226-97793-5, $30.00 (cloth).

Michael Zakim’s Ready-Made Democracy positions men’sclothing manufacturers at the heart of the democratic and capitalistictransformations that engulfed the United States between itsfounding and the mid-nineteenth century. He argues that thehistory of the men’s suit, embodying as it does a hostof social, economic, and political relationships, presents anunequaled opportunity to observe these changes. Zakim createsa nuanced interpretation that responds to a half century ofhistoriographical debate about the nature of the market revolutionin America.