Description
Book SynopsisLooking at Americans and their politics, this book argues for a more complex understanding of the "space" occupied by politics in nineteenth-century American society and culture. It explores a wide range of political actions and attitudes.
Trade Review"This book is one of the most significant (and certainly most original) studies of American political history to appear in the last twenty years... [The authors] have written an original, thought-provoking, and persuasive book... [A] path-breaking study."--Tyler Anbinder, American Historical Review "This is a genuine paradigm-shifting book about the nature of political participation in the nineteenth-century United States... The aftermath of this book should be a deep rethinking of popular political participation in the United States."--Philip J. Ethington, The Journal of American History "Rude Republic is an interesting and at times entertaining book... The historical details are often fascinating."--Paul Giles, Times Literary Supplement "This book offers an impressive in-depth analysis of politics and society in America's first experience with democratic self-rule."--Library Journal "A rich and entertaining study."--Publishers Weekly "A substantial, valuable study."--Kirkus Reviews
Table of ContentsList of Illustrations ix Acknowledgments xi Introduction. The View from Clifford's Window 3 Chapter 1. Political Innovation and Popular Response in Jack Downing's America 14 Chapter 2. The Maturing Party System: The Rude Republic and Its Discontents 47 Chapter 3. Political Men: Patterns and Meanings of Political Activism in Antebellum America 87 Chapter 4. A World beyond Politics 119 Chapter 5. Civil Crisis and the Developing State 152 Chapter 6. People and Politics: The Urbanization of Political Consciousness 184 Chapter 7. Leviathan: Parties and Political Life in Post-Civil War America 217 Chapter 8. An Excess and a Dearth of Democracy: Patronage, Voting, and Political Engagement in the Gilded Age and Beyond 252 Notes 275 Index 305
