Research Catalog

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

Title
The age of acrimony : how Americans fought to fix their democracy, 1865-1915 / Jon Grinspan.
Author
Grinspan, Jon
Publication
  • New York, NY : Bloomsbury Publishing, 2021.
  • ©2021

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StatusFormatAccessCall NumberItem Location
TextUse in library JFE 21-7791Schwarzman Building - Milstein Division Room 121

Details

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 and restraint came from can we understand what is happening to our democracy today. The Age of Acrimony charts the rise and fall of nineteenth-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 reinvent itself. --
Alternative Title
How Americans fought to fix their democracy, 1865-1915
Subjects
Genre/Form
  • Biographies.
  • History.
Bibliography (note)
  • Includes bibliographical references (pages 279-356) and index.
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".
Call Number
JFE 21-7791
ISBN
  • 9781635574623
  • 1635574625
LCCN
  • 2020053954
  • 40030620665
OCLC
1151069519
Author
Grinspan, Jon, author.
Title
The age of acrimony : how Americans fought to fix their democracy, 1865-1915 / Jon Grinspan.
Publisher
New York, NY : Bloomsbury Publishing, 2021.
Copyright Date
©2021
Type of Content
text
Type of Medium
unmediated
Type of Carrier
volume
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 279-356) and index.
Local Note
EXAMINES POLITICS/VOTER PARTICIPATION NEAR END OF 19TH C., & HOW IT SET STAGE FOR 20TH C. POLITICS.
Chronological Term
1800-1933
Other Form:
Online version: Grinspan, Jon, The age of acrimony New York : Bloomsbury Publishing, 2021. 9781635574630 (DLC) 2020053955
Other Standard Identifier
40030620665
Research Call Number
JFE 21-7791
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