American Political History a Very Short Introduction by Donald Critchlow

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

American Political History A Very Short Introduction By Donald Critchlow Questions for Thought and Discussion Are political parties healthy for a democracy? Why did the drafters of the U.S. Constitution fear political parties? In which ways has the electorate expanded over the course of American political history? How has the tone of American politics changed with the expansion of the electorate? Is political campaigning more negative today than it was in the 19th century? Is rhetoric against “elites” stronger today than it was in the 19th century? Has the two-party system worked? Why have some parties failed and others succeeded? Why have third parties emerged? What influence have reform movements exerted on American politics? What role have women played in American politics and reform movements? In which ways can states be seen as laboratories of democracy? How successful is American politics and politicians in solving major issues of the day? Why has interest among voters in politics declined in the 20th century? Is there more distrust of government today than in earlier periods? Is the American political system a model for other countries today? Selected Other Books by Author When Hollywood Was Right: How Movie Moguls, Celebrities, and Big Business Remade American Politics (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013) The Conservative Ascendancy: How the GOP Right Made Political History (Harvard University Press, 2007; University Press of Kansas, 2011 pap.) Phyllis Schlafly and the Republican Right: A Woman’s Crusade (Princeton University Press, 2005) Intended Consequences: Birth Control, Abortion and the Federal Government in Modern America (Oxford University Press, 1999; paperback edition, 2001) Further Reading Jack N. Rokove, Original Meanings: Politics and Ideas of the Making of the Constitution (New York, 1997). Daniel Walker Howe, What Has God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815-1848 (New York, 2007) Eric Foner, Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877 (New York, 1988). Morton Keller, America’s Three Regimes: A New Political History (New York, 2009) Michael E. McGerr, The Decline of Popular Politics: The American North, 1865-1928 (New York, 1988) Lewis Chesler, Godfrey Hodgson, and Bruce Page, American Melodrama: The Presidential Campaign of 1968 (New York, 1969) .

Copy Link

Recommended publications

Antinuclear Politics, Atomic Culture, and Reagan Era Foreign Policy
Selling the Second Cold War: Antinuclear Cultural Activism and Reagan Era Foreign Policy A dissertation presented to the faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences of Ohio University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy William M. Knoblauch March 2012 © 2012 William M. Knoblauch. All Rights Reserved. 2 This dissertation titled Selling the Second Cold War: Antinuclear Cultural Activism and Reagan Era Foreign Policy by WILLIAM M. KNOBLAUCH has been approved for the Department of History and the College of Arts and Sciences by __________________________________ Chester J. Pach Associate Professor of History __________________________________ Howard Dewald Dean, College of Arts and Sciences 3 ABSTRACT KNOBLAUCH, WILLIAM M., Ph.D., March 2012, History Selling the Second Cold War: Antinuclear Cultural Activism and Reagan Era Foreign Policy Director of Dissertation: Chester J. Pach This dissertation examines how 1980s antinuclear activists utilized popular culture to criticize the Reagan administration’s arms buildup. The 1970s and the era of détente marked a decade-long nadir for American antinuclear activism. Ronald Reagan’s rise to the presidency in 1981 helped to usher in the “Second Cold War,” a period of reignited Cold War animosities that rekindled atomic anxiety. As the arms race escalated, antinuclear activism surged. Alongside grassroots movements, such as the nuclear freeze campaign, a unique group of antinuclear activists—including publishers, authors, directors, musicians, scientists, and celebrities—challenged Reagan’s military buildup in American mass media and popular culture. These activists included Fate of the Earth author Jonathan Schell, Day After director Nicholas Meyer, and “nuclear winter” scientific-spokesperson Carl Sagan.
[Show full text]
Swiss and American Republicanism in the 'Age of Revolution' and Beyond
City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works Dissertations and Theses City College of New York 2014 A Practical Alternative; Swiss and American Republicanism in the 'Age of Revolution' and Beyond Alexander Gambaccini CUNY City College How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/cc_etds_theses/302 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] A Practical Alternative: Swiss and American Republicanism in the 'Age of Revolution' and Beyond By Alexander Gambaccini Adviser: Professor Gregory Downs Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts of the City College of the City University of New York 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS Section 1. Introduction ............................................................................................3 1.1 Background ...........................................................................................3 1.2 Historiographical Overview ................................................................11 1.3 Objectives, Methodology and Presentation ........................................12 Section 2. Daniel-Henri Druey and American Democracy: Lessons in Republican Government ...............................................................................................15 2.1 Introduction .........................................................................................15
[Show full text]
Delay, Cal CV
Brian DeLay University of California 3229 Dwinelle Hall Berkeley, CA 94720-2550 http://history.berkeley.edu/people/brian-delay [email protected] ACADEMIC POSITIONS - Associate Professor of History, University of California, Berkeley: Fall 2010 - Present - Assistant Professor of History, University of California, Berkeley: Fall 2009 – Spring 2010 - Assistant Professor of History, University of Colorado, Boulder: Fall 2004 – Spring 2009 - Lecturer in History, Harvard University: Spring 2004 EDUCATION -Ph.D., Harvard University, Cambridge, MA: March, 2004 -MA, Harvard University: June, 1998 -B.A., University of Colorado, Boulder, summa cum laude: December, 1994 PUBLICATIONS AND RESEARCH Refereed Publications • “Indian Polities, Empire, and Nineteenth-Century American Foreign Relations” Diplomatic History 39:5 (December 2015), 927-42. • “Watson and the Shark,” chapter in Brooke Blower and Mark Philip Bradley, eds., The Familiar Made Strange: American Icons and Artifacts after the Transnational Turn (Ithica: Cornell University Press, 2015). • “Blood Talk: Violence and Belonging in the Navajo-New Mexican Borderland,” in Juliana Barr and Edward Countryman, eds., Contested Spaces of Early America, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2014, pp. 229-256. • Editor, North American Borderlands. Routledge, 2012. • War of a Thousand Deserts: Indian Raids and the U.S.-Mexican War. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008 [paperback, 2009]. • “The Wider World of the Handsome Man: Southern Plains Indians Invade Mexico, 1830-1846,” Journal of the Early Republic 27 (March, 2007), 83-113 • “Independent Indians and the U.S.-Mexican War,” American Historical Review 112 (Feb., 2007), 35-68. Other Publications: • “How the U.S. Government Created and Coddled the Arms Industry,” The Conversation, October 2017 • “How Not to Arm a State: American Guns and the Crisis Of Governance In Mexico, Nineteenth and Twenty-First Centuries” [24th Annual W.P.
[Show full text]
Lindsay—Spring 2015 (Initial Syllabus)
American Legal History Seminar—Lindsay—Spring 2015 (initial syllabus) LIBERTY, EQUALITY & CITIZENSHIP IN UNITED STATES HISTORY (American Legal History Seminar: Law 864—512) Professor Lindsay Course Overview In a formal, legal sense, “citizenship” refers to the set of rights and obligations that a person acquires by virtue of his or her membership in a political community. As an object of political and cultural discourse, however, the concept of citizenship is often freighted with a much broader set of questions: What does it mean to be American? What are the indices of full membership in the American polity? Who can satisfy the conditions of full membership at a given moment in history, and who cannot? To what kinds of rights and opportunities is a citizen entitled? In this Seminar, we will examine how the meaning of American citizenship has been transformed between the nation’s founding and the middle of the twentieth century. We will consider how both the content of, and criteria for admission to, full citizenship have evolved in relation to profound upheavals in American life and labor, and the gradual, if halting, ascendency of racial and gender egalitarianism. In doing so, we will place particular emphasis on two foundational, yet perpetually contested and remarkably protean, elements of American civic identity: “liberty” and “equality.” Class Meetings: Wednesday, 6:15-9:00 p.m., in AL 109 Office Hours: Tuesday, 2:00-4:00, and by appointment, in AL 513 Course Materials Required Text: ERIC FONER, THE STORY OF AMERICAN FREEDOM (1998) [available at the UB Bookstore] Additional required readings will be posted on TWEN.
[Show full text]
APUSH (2016-17) APUSH: Summer Reading Assignment Mr
Name APUSH (2016-17) APUSH: Summer Reading Assignment Mr. Hess ± [email protected] Reading is fundamental for passing this course. Read everything including charts, maps, picture captions, etc. Following directions is just as important. As there are many aspects to this summer assignment, please read these directions carefully and contact me with questions. You can never ask too many questions! Please feel free to contact me via email over the summer. I will always try to respond within 24 hours. Part 1 ± Chapter Outlines & Identifications Read chapters 1-3 of the American Pageant, 16th edition. Outline the chapters while you read. Highlight each of the attached identifications in your outline. Focusing on IDs is vital for doing well in this course. Learning what to include in an outline and what to leave out is also a vital skill. The list of the IDs can be found at the end of this packet. When outlining, you should consider the following: 1. Read for true understanding. Do NOT just copy lines from the textbook. Do NOT copy the entire chapter in outline form. Put the textbook into your own words to show true understanding of and engagement with the text. An example of writing in your own voice might be making fun of someone you find to be ridiculous or giving a heroic nickname to someone you find to be heroic. Make sure your voice is clear in your outline 2. Read and outline for true significance. Consider and explain the significance of each ID. Consider: why did the authors include this information? As you outline, consider whether each ID is important or extremely important.
[Show full text]
Reviewing the Oxford History of the United States
Journal of American Studies, 45 (2011), 3, 407–441 f Cambridge University Press 2011 doi:10.1017/S0021875811000508 America the Good, America the Brave, America the Free: Reviewing the Oxford History of the United States TREVOR BURNARD Robert Middlekauff, The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763–1789 (rev. ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005). Gordon S. Wood, Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789–1815 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009). Daniel Walker Howe, What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815–1848 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007). James M. McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988). David M. Kennedy, Freedom from Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929–1945 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999). James T. Patterson, Grand Expectations: The United States, 1945–1974 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996). James T. Patterson, Restless Giant: The United States from Watergate to Bush v. Gore (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005). George C. Herring, From Colony to Superpower: U.S. Foreign Relations since 1776 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008). INTRODUCTION With the publication of Gordon S. Wood’s Empire of Liberty, the Oxford History of the United States, first envisioned nearly fifty years ago, has finally reached the two-thirds mark. Seven of its eleven chronological volumes and one thematic volume are now published. This essay reviews these eight works. It would be best to wait until all twelve volumes are published but, given the glacial progress of the series, who can wait that long? The first volume, Middlekauff’s narrative of the American Revolution, was published in my final year as an undergraduate.
[Show full text]
2013 OAH Annual Meeting ◆ San Francisco, California | 1 T Attractions in Attractions in San Francisco San Francisco
welcome here are few cities in the United States where members of the OAH prefer to meet more than the City by the Bay. San Francisco as a conference Tcity or as a tourist destination is hard to beat—it has something for every visitor. Our 2013 program, likewise, has something for every OAH conferee. The program committee, so ably cochaired by Tom Guglielmo and Erika Lee, assembled sessions, panels, workshops, and plenaries that link to nearly every subfield of American history. A large number link directly to the conference theme of “Entangled Histories,” which explores the complexities, intersections, and tensions that characterize so much of US history. Although we cannot promise ideal California weather in April, we can promise an engaging and rich intellectual experience. Plenary sessions, featuring an outstanding cast of colleagues, will consider two different topics. The first, titled “Freedom Struggles”—in commemoration of the Emancipation Proclamation signed by President Abraham Lincoln 150 years ago—will address benchmark Linda A. Cicero / Stanford News Service developments in the long history of Americans’ pursuit of equality. A second plenary will focus on the topic of “corporations in American life,” a subject of enormous importance to the history of industrial capitalism in the United States. It is a topic with a contemporary resonance that matches its historical significance. Both plenary sessions reflect “entangled histories,” the first about race, in knowledge about the area; a bus tour of the Mission ideologies of difference, and power, and the other about District’s world-famous murals; or a must-see tour of the wealth, class, and power.
[Show full text]
Brian Delay University of California 3229 Dwinelle Hall Berkeley, CA 94720-2550 [email protected]
Brian DeLay University of California 3229 Dwinelle Hall Berkeley, CA 94720-2550 http://history.berkeley.edu/people/brian-delay [email protected] ACADEMIC POSITIONS - Associate Professor of History, University of California, Berkeley: Fall 2010 - Present - Assistant Professor of History, University of California, Berkeley: Fall 2009 – Spring 2010 - Assistant Professor of History, University of Colorado, Boulder: Fall 2004 – Spring 2009 - Lecturer in History, Harvard University: Spring 2004 EDUCATION -Ph.D., Harvard University, Cambridge, MA: March, 2004 -MA, Harvard University: June, 1998 -B.A., University of Colorado, Boulder, summa cum laude: December, 1994 PUBLICATIONS AND RESEARCH Refereed Publications • “Indian Polities, Empire, and Nineteenth-Century American Foreign Relations” Diplomatic History 39:5 (December 2015), 927-42. • “Watson and the Shark,” chapter in Brooke Blower and Mark Philip Bradley, eds., The Familiar Made Strange: American Icons and Artifacts after the Transnational Turn (Ithica: Cornell University Press, 2015). • “Blood Talk: Violence and Belonging in the Navajo-New Mexican Borderland,” in Juliana Barr and Edward Countryman, eds., Contested Spaces of Early America, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2014, pp. 229-256. • Editor, North American Borderlands. Routledge, 2012. • War of a Thousand Deserts: Indian Raids and the U.S.-Mexican War. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008 [paperback, 2009]. • “The Wider World of the Handsome Man: Southern Plains Indians Invade Mexico, 1830-1846,” Journal of the Early Republic 27 (March, 2007), 83-113 • “Independent Indians and the U.S.-Mexican War,” American Historical Review 112 (Feb., 2007), 35-68. Other Publications: • “How the U.S. Government Created and Coddled the Arms Industry,” The Conversation, October 2017 • “How Not to Arm a State: American Guns and the Crisis Of Governance In Mexico, Nineteenth and Twenty-First Centuries” [24th Annual W.P.
[Show full text]
H-Diplo Roundtables, Vol. XIV, No. 10
2012 H-Diplo Roundtable Editors: Dustin Walcher and Diane Labrosse Roundtable Web/Production Editor: George Fujii H-Diplo Roundtable Review www.h-net.org/~diplo/roundtables Introduction by Dustin Walcher, Southern Oregon Volume XIV, No. 10 (2012) University 3 December 2012 Jay Sexton. The Monroe Doctrine: Empire and Nation in Nineteenth-Century America. New York: Hill & Wang, 2011. ISBN: 9780809071913 (hardcover, $27.00); 9780809069996 (paperback, $16.95). Stable URL: http://www.h-net.org/~diplo/roundtables/PDF/Roundtable-XIV-10.pdf Contents Introduction by Dustin Walcher, Southern Oregon University ................................................ 2 Review by Max M Edling, King’s College London ..................................................................... 7 Review by Daniel Walker Howe, University of California, Los Angeles .................................. 13 Review by Peter Onuf, University of Virginia.......................................................................... 16 Review by Anders Stephanson, Columbia University ............................................................. 20 Author’s Response by Jay Sexton, Corpus Christi College, Oxford ......................................... 48 Copyright © 2012 H-Net: Humanities and Social Sciences Online. H-Net permits the redistribution and reprinting of this work for non-profit, educational purposes, with full and accurate attribution to the author(s), web location, date of publication, H-Diplo, and H-Net: Humanities & Social Sciences Online. For other uses, contact the
[Show full text]
Dr. Henry Ingersoll Bowditch and Violent Abolition
W&M ScholarWorks Undergraduate Honors Theses Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects 5-2011 "The Higher Court of Heaven": Dr. Henry Ingersoll Bowditch and Violent Abolition Daniel Bever College of William and Mary Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wm.edu/honorstheses Part of the History Commons Recommended Citation Bever, Daniel, ""The Higher Court of Heaven": Dr. Henry Ingersoll Bowditch and Violent Abolition" (2011). Undergraduate Honors Theses. Paper 369. https://scholarworks.wm.edu/honorstheses/369 This Honors Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects at W&M ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Undergraduate Honors Theses by an authorized administrator of W&M ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. “THE HIGHER COURT OF HEAVEN”: DR. HENRY INGERSOLL BOWDITCH AND VIOLENT ABOLITION A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the Requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Arts with Honors in History from the College of William and Mary in Virginia, by Daniel A. Bever Accepted for ______________________ _____________________ Director Chandos Brown, Ph.D. _____________________ Melvin Ely, Ph.D. _____________________ Williamsburg, Virginia Christopher Howard, Ph.D. May 2011 i Table of Contents Introduction …………………………………………………………………………............... 1 Chapter 1: National Context: Growing up in a Nation Characterized by Change ……............ 4 Chapter 2: The Local Context: Comparing the Young Lives of Drs. Henry Ingersoll Bowditch and Samuel Gridley Howe …………………………………………………............ 12 Chapter 3: Unitarianism, Boston, and the Bowditch Family ………………………................ 27 Chapter 4: Studies in Paris ……………………………………………………………............ 45 Chapter 5: Pragmatic Justifications: Religion, Civic Duty, Regionalism, and the Resolves of the Committee of Vigilance …………………………………………….................................
[Show full text]
The Development of the American Ideal in the Early Republic Andrew S
James Madison University JMU Scholarly Commons Senior Honors Projects, 2010-current Honors College Spring 2016 Identity to be determined: The development of the American ideal in the Early Republic Andrew S. Mills James Madison University Follow this and additional works at: https://commons.lib.jmu.edu/honors201019 Part of the Political History Commons, Social History Commons, and the United States History Commons Recommended Citation Mills, Andrew S., "Identity to be determined: The development of the American ideal in the Early Republic" (2016). Senior Honors Projects, 2010-current. 149. https://commons.lib.jmu.edu/honors201019/149 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Honors College at JMU Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Senior Honors Projects, 2010-current by an authorized administrator of JMU Scholarly Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Identity To Be Determined: The Development of the American Ideal in the Early Republic _______________________ An Honors Program Project Presented to the Faculty of the Undergraduate College of Arts and Letters James Madison University _______________________ by Andrew Steven Mills May 2016 Accepted by the faculty of the Department of History, James Madison University, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Honors Program. FACULTY COMMITTEE: HONORS PROGRAM APPROVAL: Project Advisor: J. Chris Arndt, Ph.D. Bradley R. Newcomer, Ph.D., Associate Dean, College of Arts and Director, Honors Program Letters Reader: P. David Dillard, Ph.D. Associate Professor, History Reader: Alison Sandman, Ph.D. Associate Professor, History Reader: Kevin Hardwick, Ph.D. Associate Professor, History PUBLIC PRESENTATION This work is accepted for presentation, in part or in full, at Phi Alpha Theta Region Conference on March 19, 2016.
[Show full text]
Roundtable Vol X, No. 19
2009 h-diplo H-Diplo Roundtable Reviews www.h-net.org/~diplo/roundtables Volume X, No. 19 (2009) 19 June 2009 George C. Herring. From Colony to Superpower: U. S. Foreign Relations since 1776. Oxford University Press: New York, 2008. 1,056 pp. ISBN: 978-0195078220 (hardback, $35.00). Roundtable Editors: Thomas Maddux and Diane N. Labrosse Roundtable Web Editor: George Fujii Introduction by: Thomas Maddux, California State University, Northridge Reviewers: Jerald A. Combs, Elizabeth Cobbs Hoffman, Howard Jones, and Douglas Little. Author’s Response by George C. Herring, University of Kentucky (Emeritus) Stable URL: http://www.h-net.org/~diplo/roundtables/PDF/Roundtable-X-19.pdf Contents Introduction by Thomas Maddux, California State University, Northridge.............................. 2 Review by Jerald A. Combs, Professor of History Emeritus, San Francisco State University ... 6 Review by Elizabeth Cobbs Hoffman, San Diego State University.......................................... 12 Review by Howard Jones, University of Alabama................................................................... 15 Review by Douglas Little, Clark University .............................................................................. 22 Author’s Response by George C. Herring, Emeritus, University of Kentucky ......................... 28 Copyright © 2009 H-Net: Humanities and Social Sciences Online. H-Net permits the redistribution and reprinting of this work for non-profit, educational purposes, with full and accurate attribution to the author(s), web location, date of publication, H-Diplo, and H-Net: Humanities & Social Sciences Online. For other uses, contact the H-Diplo editorial staff at [email protected]. H-Diplo Roundtable Reviews, Vol. X, No 19 (2009) Introduction by Thomas Maddux, California State University, Northridge eorge Herring’s first book, Aid to Russia, 1941-1946: Strategy, Diplomacy, the Origins of the Cold War, appeared in 1973 in the Contemporary American History Series G edited by William E.
[Show full text]