The age of acrimony : how Americans fought to fix their democracy, 1865-1915

Author

Jon Grinspan

Call Number

• 303.484 G868 (CEN)

Browse similar titles by call number

Publication Information

New York, NY : Bloomsbury Publishing, 2021.

Physical Description

xiv, 368 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color) ; 25 cm

Summary

"A raucous history of American democracy at its wildest--and a bold rethinking of the relationship between the people and their politics. Democracy was broken. Or that was what many Americans believed in the decades after the Civil War. Shaken by economic and technological disruption, they sought safety in aggressive, tribal partisanship. The results were the loudest, closest, most violent elections in U.S. history, driven by vibrant campaigns that drew our highest-ever voter turnouts. At the century's end, reformers finally restrained this wild system, trading away participation for civility in the process. The result was a calmer, cleaner democracy, but also a more distant one. Americans' voting rates crashed and never recovered. This is the origin story of the 'normal' politics of the 20th century. Only by exploring where that civility and restraint came from can we understand what is happening to our democracy today. The Age of Acrimony charts the rise and fall of 19th-century America's unruly politics through the lives of a remarkable father-daughter dynasty. The radical congressman William 'Pig Iron' Kelley and his fiery, Progressive daughter Florence Kelley led lives packed with drama, intimately tied to their nation's politics. Through their friendships and feuds, campaigns and crusades, Will and Florie trace the narrative of a democracy in crisis. In telling the tale of what it cost to cool our republic, historian Jon Grinspan reveals our divisive political system's enduring capacity to heal itself"--

Contents

• Part one: Pure democracy, 1865-1877. "The one question of the age is settled" ; "The great American game" ; "The game going on at Washington" ; "I boast of Philadelphia at all times" ; "Swallow it down" ; "If anybody says election to me, I want to fight"
• Part two: The law of everything is competition, 1877-1890. "Bother politics!" ; "When a man works in politics, he should get something out of it" ; "Where do all these cranks come from?" ; "Now we shall have the worst again" ; "A young lady, now in Europe, who bears my name" ; "Reformers who eat roast beef" ; "A man who has been through as much as I have"
• Part three: New weapons of democracy, 1890-1915. "Some changes must occur very soon now" ; "The secret cause" ; "Investigate, agitate, legislate" ; "The right not to vote" ; "It runs in our blood to be leaders".