New Books for Fall & Winter 2017

UNIVERSITY PRESS OF KANSAS NEW BOOKS FOR FALL & WINTER 2017 Recent Awards American Serengeti: The Last Varmints and Victims: Predator Big Animals of the Great Plains Control in the American West by by Dan Flores is the winner of Frank Van Nuys is the Caroline the Western Heritage Award for Bancroft History Prize Honor Nonfiction from the National book. Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum. 352 pages Cloth ISBN 978-0-7006-2131-6, $29.95 Ebook ISBN 978-0-7006-2168-2, $29.95 222 pages Paper ISBN 978-0-7006-2466-9, $19.95 Ebook ISBN 978-0-7006-2228-3, $19.95 Working the Land: The Stories of Battleground Alaska: Fighting Ranch and Farm Women in the Federal Power in America’s Last Modern American West by Wilderness by Stephen Haycox Sandra K. Schackel is the winner is the winner of the James H. of the Western History Associa- Drucker Historian of the Year tion Gordon Bakken Award of from the Alaska Historical Merit for outstanding service to Society. the field of western history. 272 pages 176 pages Cloth ISBN 978-0-7006-2215-3, $27.95 Cloth ISBN 978-0-7006-1780-7, $24.95 Ebook ISBN 978-0-7006-2273-3, $27.95 The One-Party Presidential Contest: Adams, Jackson, and 1824’s Five-Horse Race by Stopping the Panzers: The Donald Ratcliffe is the winner Untold Story of D-Day by Marc of the Richard E. Neustadt Prize Milner is the winner of the of the American Politics Group. U.S. Commission on Military History’s Brigadier General James L. Collins Jr. Book Prize. It is also the winner of the Lasky Prize in American 400 pages Political History. Paper ISBN 978-0-7006-2524-6, $26.95 Ebook ISBN 978-0-7006-2049-4, $26.95 368 pages Cloth ISBN 978-0-7006-2130-9, $34.95 Ebook ISBN 978-0-7006-2159-0, $34.95 Cover photograph: Ria Rebein. See Headlights on the Prairie, page 25. University Press of Kansas www.kansaspress.ku.edu US HISTORY | PRESIDENCY STUDIES NEW BOOKS The Presidency of Ulysses S. Grant Charles W. Calhoun s controversial in politics as he was “A magnificent contribution in the military, Ulysses S. Grant to the study of the Grant A(1822–1885) was an embattled presidency. It is beautifully president, enormously popular with the written and the most American people, yet the target of unrelent- thorough study of the Grant ing censure by political enemies. For the administrations.” first time in almost a century, this book by MICHAEL F. HOLT, AUTHOR OF BY the distinguished historian Charles W. ONE VOTE: THE DISPUTED PRESIDENTIAL Calhoun examines Grant’s administration ELECTION OF 1876 in depth, offering a fresh look at the eighteenth president’s policies and actions “Calhoun’s new book demon- during his two terms in office (1869–1877). strates just how important a Most biographers focus on Grant’s president this quiet man military career, giving less attention to the significant and complex questions that was. Well researched and marked his presidential terms. These well written, this book is a concerns, the issues of politics and must-read for scholars and governance, are at the core of this book. others interested in gaining As a political historian with a vast accurate insight into a major knowledge of nineteenth-century America American leader.” and an extensive array of original sources JOHN F. MARSZALEK, GILES at his command, Calhoun approaches reform. It also offers a straightforward DISTINGUISHED PROFESSOR EMERITUS Grant’s presidency not as an incongruous examination of the scandals associated OF HISTORY AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR or inconsequential sequel to his military with the period, highlighting the OF THE ULYSSES S. GRANT career but instead as the polestar of “embattled” nature of Grant’s presidency PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY, MISSISSIPPI STATE UNIVERSITY American public life during a crucial and the deep antagonism that marked decade in the nation’s political develop- his relations with key critics such as ment. He explores Grant’s leadership style Charles Sumner, Henry Adams, and and traces his contributions to the office Benjamin Bristow. In sum, this book is a of the president, including creating a long-overdue re-evaluation of a pivotal White House staff, employing modern presidency in America’s political history. technology to promote the mobility of the presidency, and developing strong ties Charles W. Calhoun, Thomas Harriot with congressional leaders to enhance College Distinguished Professor of History executive influence over legislation. Emeritus at East Carolina University, is The Presidency of Ulysses S. Grant the author of many books, including provides a detailed discussion of the Conceiving a New Republic: The Republican administration’s endeavors in a variety of Party and the Southern Question, 1869–1900 OCTOBER 728 pages, 24 illustrations, 6 x 9 areas—Reconstruction and civil rights, and Minority Victory: Gilded Age Politics American Presidency Series economic policy, the Peace Policy for Native and the Front Porch Campaign of 1888, Cloth ISBN 978-0-7006-2484-3, $39.95(t) Americans, foreign policy, and civil service both from Kansas. Ebook ISBN 978-0-7006-2485-0, $39.95 www.kansaspress.ku.edu Fall & Winter 2017 1 NEW BOOKS US HISTORY | POLITICAL SCIENCE | PRESIDENCY STUDIES The Election of 1860 “A Campaign Fraught with Consequences” Michael F. Holt “Michael Holt’s incisive new ecause of its extraordinary conse- the key importance of widespread book demolishes the idea quences and because of Abraham opposition to the Republican Party that Abraham Lincoln’s BLincoln’s place in the American because of its overtly antisouthern victory demonstrated a pantheon, the presidential election of rhetoric and seemingly unstoppable rise national resolve to end 1860 is probably the most studied in our to power in the North after its emergence history. But perhaps for the same reasons, in 1854. Also of critical importance was slavery. Instead, Holt shows historians have focused on the contest of the corruption of the incumbent adminis- that Republicans hammered Lincoln versus Stephen Douglas in the tration of Democrat James Buchanan— away primarily at the northern free states and John Bell versus and a nationwide revulsion toward the scandal-marred record of John C. Breckinridge in the slaveholding party. James Buchanan’s outgoing South. In The Election of 1860 a preeminent Grounding his history in a nuanced Democratic administration scholar of American history disrupts this retelling of the pre-1860 story, Michael F. to carry the Lower North’s familiar narrative with a clearer and more Holt explores the sectional politics that key swing states.” comprehensive account of how the permeated the election and foreshadowed DANIEL W. CROFTS, AUTHOR OF election unfolded and what it was actually the coming Civil War. He brings to light LINCOLN AND THE POLITICS OF about. Most critically, the book counters how the campaigns of the Republican SLAVERY: THE OTHER THIRTEENTH the common interpretation of the election Party and the National (Northern) AMENDMENT AND THE STRUGGLE TO as a referendum on slavery and the Democrats as well as the Constitutional SAVE THE UNION Republican Party’s purported threat to it. (Southern) Democrats and the newly However significantly slavery figured in formed Constitutional Union Party were “Holt’s description and the election, The Election of 1860 reveals not exclusively regional. His attention to analysis of this exceedingly the little-studied role of the Buchanan important election is a administration, and of perceived threats valuable addition to the to the preservation of the Union, clarifies literature of politics, the the true dynamic of the 1860 presidential Civil War, and Abraham election, particularly in its early stages. Lincoln.” Michael F. Holt is Langbourne M. MICHAEL S. GREEN, AUTHOR OF LINCOLN AND THE ELECTION OF 1860 Williams Professor of American History Emeritus, University of Virginia. He is the author of many books, including The Rise and Fall of the American Whig Party, The Political Crisis of the 1850s, and By One Vote: The Disputed Presidential Election of 1876. OCTOBER 272 pages, 7 photographs, 6 x 9 American Presidential Elections Cloth ISBN 978-0-7006-2487-4, $29.95(t) Ebook ISBN 978-0-7006-2488-1, $29.95 2 University Press of Kansas www.kansaspress.ku.edu US HISTORY | POLITICAL SCIENCE | PRESIDENCY STUDIES NEW BOOKS Ambition, Pragmatism, and Party A Political Biography of Gerald R. Ford Scott Kaufman ithin eight turbulent months in making of domestic policy. It also “A splendid biography. Scott 1974 Gerald Ford went from the presents a close look at the 1976 presi- Kaufman has mined the WUS House of Representatives, dential election—emphasizing the archives to capture Gerald where he was the minority leader, to the significance of image in that contest— Ford’s life, providing fresh White House as the country’s first and and the extensive coverage of Ford’s insights and cogent analysis. only unelected president. His unprec- post-presidency. In sum, Ambition, Readers will relish the edented rise to power, after Richard Pragmatism, and Party is the most book’s details and powerful Nixon’s equally unprecedented fall, has comprehensive political biography of narrative drive. This work is garnered the lion’s share of scholarly Gerald Ford and will become the definitive attention devoted to America’s thirty- resource on the thirty-eighth president of crucial to understanding eighth president. But Gerald Ford’s the United States. Ford’s rise to power and (1913–2006) life and career in and out of political career.” Washington spanned nearly the entire Scott Kaufman is chair of the Department YANEK MIECZKOWSKI, AUTHOR OF twentieth century. Ambition, Pragmatism, of History at Francis Marion University, GERALD FORD AND THE CHALLENGES OF and Party captures for the first time the Florence, South Carolina.

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