"An astute analysis of today's political chaos showing that the current period of disruptive change is part of a recurring pattern in American politics"--

"Readers may know that the Democratic and Republican Parties are the two main political parties in the United States now, but that hasn't always been the case! Plus, the parties have changed quite a bit over time. This informative volume helps readers learn about key facts, individuals, and events involved in the history of political parties in the United States. Accessible text helps struggling readers understand this central part of the upper elementary...

This is the first book dealing with any period in American history which attempts to describe and analyze national politics through studying voting patterns in state legislatures. During the 1780s two relatively stable legislative parties" emerged in every state, and each state possessed common characteristics. Main labels these parties "localists" and "cosmopolitans" and show how such issues as funding of debts, paper money, and land prices provided...

Presents advice for how the Republican and Democratic parties can recapture lost ground in terms of connecting with the real values of the American people, in an analysis that covers race issues, economics, and unions.

A timely analysis of the power and limits of political parties-and the lessons of the Civil War and the New Deal in the Age of Trump. American voters have long been familiar with the phenomenon of the presidential frontrunner. In 2008, it was Hillary Clinton. In 1844, it was Martin Van Buren. And in neither election did the prominent Democrat win the party's nomination. Insurgent candidates went on to win the nomination and the presidency, plunging...

"Argues that Progressive Era reforms had the counterintuitive effect of weakening political parties and their role in representative government"--

"The United States has the most programmatic party system in the world: it has, that is, parties that compete with each other on the basis of differing policy positions. While this may seem obvious today, in our world where Republicans and Democrats seem to hold opposite opinions on every conceivable policy, this was not always the case. When the parties began competing with each other in 1856, they ran on a system of clientelism (the provision of...

"In this character-driven narrative history, Aram Goudsouzian portrays the key transformations that played out over that dramatic year. It was the last 'old politics' campaign, where political machines and party bosses determined the major nominees, even as the 'new politics' of grassroots participation powered primary elections. It was an election that showed how candidates from both the Left and Right could seize on 'hot-button' issues to alter...

"What brought about the Civil War? Leading historian Michael F. Holt offers a disturbingly contemporary answer: partisan politics. In this book, Holt demonstrates that secession and war did not arise from two irreconcilable economies any more than from moral objections to slavery: short-sighted politicians were to blame. Rarely looking beyond the next election, the dominant political parties used the emotionally charged and largely chimerical issue...

Analyzes the widening gap between politicians, including lobbyists and consultants, and the American mainstream, and discusses the rise in populist movements that threatens to drive the two-party system to its collapse.