- Paperback: 224 pages
- Publisher: FSG Adult (Aug 19 2011)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0809047942
- ISBN-13: 978-0809047949
- Product Dimensions: 20.9 x 14.1 x 1.4 cm
- Shipping Weight: 227 g
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Product Details |
Product Description
Review
"[A] long-overdue and sorely needed overview of American politics from the end of the Civil War through the beginning of the 20th century . . . The author's inviting prose and steely knowledge of his subject remind us that the political compromises and executive decisions forged during the latter half of the 19th century have come to define the most central tenets of modern American politics . . . Lucid and illuminating." -- Kirkus Reviews
"A smoothly written account of a critical half century in American history . . . With this fine book, Charles Calhoun fills in a puzzling gap in U.S. history." -- Geoffrey Wawro, History Book Club
"In this impressively succinct and insightful book, Charles W. Calhoun makes a compelling case both for the importance of Gilded Age politics and for the significant political transitions that occurred during that era. Altogether, a splendid performance." -- Michael F. Holt, author of The Fate of Their Country
"Calhoun has distilled a lifetime of research in Gilded Age politics into a succinct and engrossing book, demonstrating convincingly that the interlude between Reconstruction and Progressivism was far from inconsequential. There was a two decade struggle between the nationally oriented Republican Party, willing to use federal power and presidential leadership to enforce civil rights and to achieve economic prosperity, and the laissez-faire, states rights Democratic Party, that ended with Republicans as the dominant majority. That victory presaged the Progressive Era." -- Ari Hoogenboom, Professor Emeritus, Brooklyn College
"In our time, the scope, cost, effectiveness, and integrity of government have again become stormy public issues. Despite all the loose parallels drawn by some present-day writers, the Gilded Age is gone, and we do not live in a new one. Yet in this accessible narrative of national politics during the late nineteenth century, the respected historian Charles W. Calhoun offers clear and convincing analysis of a period whose political divisions and issues are now manifestly relevant, and one that has never deserved its exceptionally low reputation." -- Alan Lessoff, Professor of History, Illinois State University, and editor of Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era
"At last, a succinct, perceptive and well-written account of national politics from Grant to McKinley. Charles W. Calhoun's engaging book delivers a comprehensive account of presidents, parties, and policies during the Gilded Age." -- Jean Baker, Professor of History, Goucher College
Book Description
In the wake of civil war, American politics were racially charged and intensely sectionalist, with politicians waving the proverbial bloody shirt and encouraging their constituents, as Republicans did in 1868, to "vote as you shot." By the close of the century, however, burgeoning industrial development and the roller-coaster economy of the postwar decades had shifted the agenda to pocketbook concerns -- the tariff, monetary policy, business regulation.
In From Bloody Shirt to Full Dinner Pail, the historian Charles W. Calhoun provides a brief, elegant overview of the transformation in national governance and its concerns in the Gilded Age. Sweeping from the election of Grant to the death of McKinley in 1901, this narrative history broadly sketches the intense and divided political universe of the period, as well as the colorful characters who inhabited it.
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4.0 out of 5 stars (1 customer review)
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting political survey of overlooked period, Aug 10 2011
By Chris "Bostonian at heart" - Published on Amazon.com
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This review is from: From Bloody Shirt To Full Dinner Pail (Hardcover)
Charles Calhoun's book has a very straightforward purpose -- to provide an overview of the national political scene from about 1868 through 1900. And he does this quite well. The book is a shade under 200 pages, and it contains minimal analysis, even though Calhoun is certainly a capable historian of the Gilded Age. But his goal is to show readers that contrary to popular belief, the Gilded Age wasn't a black hole in politics, that there were serious issues that were hotly debated, from race relations to the role of government and, most notably, economic policy.Calhoun traces the major political issues and fights in Congress and on the campaign trail from the administration of Grant through McKinley's reelection in 1900. He shows that the focus on equitable treatment for southern blacks waned during that period, and by the end of the century, foreign policy, which captured less attention for most of the period, became more significant. Throughout the three-plus decades, the tariff, taxation and monetary policy were of the utmost importance to politicians (William Jennings Bryan was so focused on silver coinage that he essentially took himself out of the 1900 election with his determination to make it a focal point).
The author compares the more activist presidencies of Benjamin Harrison and McKinley to their polar opposites, the two Cleveland administrations. And since the second Cleveland term was such a disaster, followed by a successful McKinley presidency, it paved the way for a reevaluation of the role of government in the everyday lives of citizens, which led to the progressive era.
Calhoun's book makes me interested in learning more about the period, but it at least offered a nice introduction to the era's key political players and the issues they fought for and against. It was an easy read and certainly worth my time.
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