The Trial of Democracy
The Trial of Democracy

Author: Xi Wang

Publisher: University of Georgia Press

Published: 2012-01-01

Total Pages: 454

ISBN-13: 0820340847

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After the Civil War, Republicans teamed with activist African Americans to protect black voting rights through innovative constitutional reforms--a radical transformation of southern and national political structures. The Trial of Democracy is a comprehensive analysis of both the forces and mechanisms that led to the implementation of black suffrage and the ultimate failure to maintain a stable northern constituency to support enforcement on a permanent basis. The reforms stirred fierce debates over the political and constitutional value of black suffrage, the legitimacy of racial equality, and the proper sharing of power between the state and federal governments. Unlike most studies of Reconstruction, this book follows these issues into the early twentieth century to examine the impact of the constitutional principles and the rise of Jim Crow. Tying constitutional history to party politics, The Trial of Democracy is a vital contribution to both fields.

The Concept of Jacksonian Democracy
The Concept of Jacksonian Democracy

Author: Lee Benson

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2015-03-08

Total Pages: 367

ISBN-13: 1400867266

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Jacksonian Democracy has become almost a commonplace in American history. But in this penetrating analysis of one state-its voting cycles, party makeup, and social, ethnic, and religious patterns-Lee Benson shows that the concept bears little or no relation to New York history during the Jacksonian period. New York voters between 1816 and 1844 did not follow the traditional distinctions between Whigs and Democrats. Ethnic and religious ties were stronger social forces than income, occupation, and environment. Mr. Benson's examination suggests a new theory of American voting behavior and a reconsideration of other local studies during this period. Originally published in 1961. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Republicanism and Liberalism in America and the German States, 1750-1850
Republicanism and Liberalism in America and the German States, 1750-1850

Author: Jürgen Heideking

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2002-04-08

Total Pages: 321

ISBN-13: 0521800668

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Republicanism and Liberalism in America and the German States represents the cooperative effort of a group of American and German scholars to move the historical debate on Republicanism and Liberalism to a new stage. Previously, the relationship between Republican and Liberal ideas, concepts and world views has been discussed in the context of American revolutionary and late eighteenth-century history. While the German states did not experience successful revolutions like those in North America and France, Republican and Liberal ideas and 'language' deeply affected German political thinking and culture, especially in the southern states. The essays published in this book expand the time frame of the debate into the first half of the nineteenth century, applying an innovative and comparative German-American perspective. By systematically studying the similarities and differences in the understanding of Republicanism and Liberalism in the United States and German states, the collection stimulates efforts toward a comprehensive interpretation of political, intellectual and social developments in the 'modernizing' Atlantic world of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Politics and Ideology in the Age of the Civil War
Politics and Ideology in the Age of the Civil War

Author: Eric Foner

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 1980-10-02

Total Pages: 262

ISBN-13: 0199727082

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Insisting that politics and ideology must remain at the forefront of any examination of nineteenth-century America, Foner reasserts the centrality of the Civil War to the people of that period. The first section of this book deals with the causes of the sectional conflict; the second, with the antislavery movement; and a final group of essays treats land and labor after the war. Taken together, Foner's essays work towards reintegrating the social, political, and intellectual history of the nineteenth century.

The California Gold Rush and the Coming of the Civil War
The California Gold Rush and the Coming of the Civil War

Author: Leonard L. Richards

Publisher: Vintage

Published: 2008-02-12

Total Pages: 306

ISBN-13: 0307277577

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Award-winning historian Leonard L. Richards gives us an authoritative and revealing portrait of an overlooked harbinger of the terrible battle that was to come. When gold was discovered at Sutter's Mill in 1848, Americans of all stripes saw the potential for both wealth and power. Among the more calculating were Southern slave owners. By making California a slave state, they could increase the value of their slaves—by 50 percent at least, and maybe much more. They could also gain additional influence in Congress and expand Southern economic clout, abetted by a new transcontinental railroad that would run through the South. Yet, despite their machinations, California entered the union as a free state. Disillusioned Southerners would agitate for even more slave territory, leading to the Kansas-Nebraska Act and, ultimately, to the Civil War itself.

Pathfinder
Pathfinder

Author: Tom Chaffin

Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press

Published: 2014-04-07

Total Pages: 736

ISBN-13: 0806146079

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“The most eloquent, understanding, and yet very candid biography of Frémont that has appeared to date”—Howard R. Lamar, Yale University The career of John Charles Frémont (1813–90) ties together the full breadth of American expansionism from its eighteenth-century origins through its culmination in the Gilded Age. Tom Chaffin's biography demonstrates Frémont's vital importance to the history of American empire, and illuminates his role in shattering long-held myths about the ecology and habitability of the American West. As the most celebrated American explorer and mapper of his time, Frémont stood at the center of the vast federal project of western exploration and conquest. His expeditions between 1838 and 1854 captured the public's imagination, inspired Americans to accept their nation's destiny as a vast continental empire, and earned him his enduring sobriquet, the Pathfinder. But Frémont was more than an explorer. Chaffin's dramatic narrative includes Frémont's varied experiences as an entrepreneur, abolitionist, Civil War general, husband to the remarkable Jessie Benton Frémont, two-time Republican presidential candidate, and Gilded Age aristocrat. This new paperback edition of Pathfinder features a new, additional, updated introduction by the author.