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In this provocative reinterpretation of American politics before the Civil War, Joel Silbey argues that local issues, ethnic and religious considerations, and the power of the national political parties were even more important than slavery in animating the political life of the era. He traces the tensions that divided the nation in this critical period and offers intriguing explanations for how and why they developed. These essays significantly contribute to the existing perspectives on the Civil War and also pave the way for new approaches to understanding a vital time in American history.
Was slavery really the most significant issue in American politics just before the Civil War? No, says Joel Silbey in this provocative revisionist work. Using the insights of the new political history (to which he has been a major contributor), Silbey shows how local issues, ethnic and religious attitudes, and, most important, the power and persistence of national political parties were actually the key elements animating the political life of the era. Silbey argues that ethnocultural factors and partisanship not only gave shape and substance to the period's political conflicts but also affected the coming of the Civil War in direct and crucial ways. Pointing to the fervor and seriousness with which the people of the period embraced the parties, he contends that parties both delayed and worked against the flowering and growth of sectional influences and for a long time frustrated the demands of sectional spokesmen, both North and South. These same elements, he says, also affected the way Northerners and Southerners understood each other and contributed to the growth of the Republican party as well as to the South's decision to secede from the Union. The book thus provides a very different framework for understanding one of the most critical periods in our nation's political development, a time when many long-standing customs and political institutions first took shape. Offering fresh insights into a dramatic and fascinating era, Silbey's iconoclastic perspective will both affect the way historians view the period hereafter and suggest an agenda for future research. About the Author Joel H. Silbey is Professor of American History at Cornell University. His previous books include The Shrine of Party, The Transformation of American Politics, and A Respectable Majority.
Captivating disgruntled voters, third parties have often complicated the American political scene. In the years before the Civil War, third-party politics took the form of the Know Nothings, who mistrusted established parties and gave voice to anti-government sentiment. Originating about 1850 as a nativist fraternal order, the Know Nothing movement soon spread throughout the industrial North. In Beyond Party, Mark Voss-Hubbard draws on local sources in three different states where the movement was especially strong to uncover its social roots and establish its relationship to actual public policy issues. Focusing on the 1852 ten hour movement in Essex County, Massachusetts, the pro-temperance and anti-Catholic agitation in and around Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, and the movement to restrict immigrants' voting rights and overthrow "corrupt parties and politicians" in New London County, Connecticut, he shows that these places shared many of the social problems that occurred throughout the North—the consolidation of capitalist agriculture and industry, the arrival of Irish and German Catholic immigrants, and the changing fortunes of many established political leaders. Voss-Hubbard applies the insights of social history and social movement theory to politics in arguing that we need to understand Know Nothing rhetoric and activism as part of a wider tradition of American suspicion of "politics as usual"—even though, of course, this antipartyism served agendas that included those of self-interested figures seeking to accumulate power.
The author has championed the cause of ecological literacy in higher education, helping to establish and shape the field of ecological design, and working to raise awareness of the threats to future generations posed by humanity's current unsustainable trajectory.This volume brings together his most important works.
This is a detailed analysis and description of a unique era in American political history, one in which political parties were the dominant dynamic force at work structuring and directing the political world.
American democracy is in deep crisis. But what do we do about it? That depends on how we understand the current threat.In Breaking the Two-Party Doom Loop, Lee Drutman argues that we now have, for the first time in American history, a genuine two-party system, with two fully-sorted, truly national parties, divided over the character of the nation. And it's a disaster. It's a party system fundamentally at odds withour anti-majoritarian, compromise-oriented governing institutions. It threatens the very foundations of fairness and shared values on which our democracy depends.Deftly weaving together history, democratic theory, and cutting-edge political science research, Drutman tells the story of how American politics became so toxic and why the country is now trapped in a doom loop of escalating two-party warfare from which there is only one escape: increase the numberof parties through electoral reform. As he shows, American politics was once stable because the two parties held within them multiple factions, which made it possible to assemble flexible majorities and kept the climate of political combat from overheating. But as conservative Southern Democrats andliberal Northeastern Republicans disappeared, partisan conflict flattened and pulled apart. Once the parties became fully nationalized - a long-germinating process that culminated in 2010 - toxic partisanship took over completely. With the two parties divided over competing visions of nationalidentity, Democrats and Republicans no longer see each other as opponents, but as enemies. And the more the conflict escalates, the shakier our democracy feels.Breaking the Two-Party Doom Loop makes a compelling case for large scale electoral reform - importantly, reform not requiring a constitutional amendment - that would give America more parties, making American democracy more representative, more responsive, and ultimately more stable.
The ex-Navy SEAL and pro-wrestler who is now Governor of Minnesota delivers this powerful follow-up to his smash bestseller "I Ain't Got Time to Bleed". Taking on the hot-button issues few politicians dare touch, he lays out a resounding indictment of our creeping national cynicism, irresponsible media, and a political system that rewards mediocrity. Includes a new chapter.
This book is the first to place the contemporary debate over media bias in historical context, illustrating how partisan bias in the American media has built political parties, set the stage for several wars, and even contributed to the rise and fall of U.S. presidents. The author discusses the rise of the unprecedented post-World War II model of objective journalism and explains why this model is breaking down under the challenge of a new generation of technology-driven partisan media alternatives.