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This bibliography identifies major secondary readings for the politics of the Gilded Age and also comments very briefly on major historiograhical patterns. Vincent P. DeSantis, _The Gilded Age, 1877-1896_ (1973), presents a bibliography of major primary and secondary sources, up to the time of its publication. DeSantis lists more than 200 autobiographies and biographies as of 1973, and more have appeared since. Space does not permit listing them here.
There is much of interest in the work of two contemporary observers: James Bryce, _The American Commonwealth_ (1888), and Moisei Ostrogorski, _Democracy and the Organization of Political Parties_, v. 2, _The United States_ (1902). The eight volumes of James Ford Rhodes's _History of the United States from the Compromise of 1850 to the McKinley-Bryan Campaign of 1896_ (1920) contain a great deal of information. Two recent overviews are H. Wayne Morgan, _From Hayes to McKinley: National Party Politics, 1877-1896_ (1969), and Morton Keller, _Affairs of State: Public Life in Late Nineteenth Century America_ (1977); Morgan includes an extensive bibliography. Morgan also edited _The Gilded Age: A Reappraisal_ (1963, 1970), which has several useful essays. See also Richard L. McCormick, "Public Life in Industrial America, 1877-1917," in _The New American History_, ed. Eric Foner (1990).
The "new political history" emerged in the 1960s and 1970s, prompted by the work of political scientists on voting behavior. The influential essays of Samuel P. Hays are collected in _American Political History as Social History_ (1980); see also Ronald P. Formisano, "The Invention of the Ethnocultural Interpretation," _American Historical Review_ 99 (1994): 453-477. Among important monographs are Frederick C. Luebke, _Immigrants and Politics: The Germans of Nebraska, 1880- 1900_ (1969); Richard Jensen, _The Winning of the Midwest: Social and Political Conflict, 1888-1896_ (1971); Samuel T. McSeveney, _The Politics of Depression: Political Behavior in the Northeast, 1893-1896_ (1972); J. Morgan Kousser, _The Shaping of Southern Politics: Suffrage Restriction and the Establishment of the One-Party South, 1880-1910_ (1974); Melvyn Hammarberg, _The Indiana Voter: The Historical Dynamics of Party Allegiance during the 1870's_ (1977); and Richard L. McCormick, _From Realignment to Reform: Political Change in New York State, 1893-1910_ (1979). Paul Kleppner's work is important and extensive: _The Cross of Culture: A Social Analysis of Midwestern Politics, 1850-1900_ (1970), _The Third Electoral System, 1853-1892: Voters, Parties, and Political Cultures_ (1979), _The Evolution of American Electoral Systems_ (1981), _Who Voted? The Dynamics of Electoral Turnout, 1870-1980_ (1982), and _Continuity and Change in Electoral Politics, 1893-1928_ (1987). On party loyalty, see William Claggett and John Van Wingen, "The 'Onward March of Party Decomposition' in the American Electorate," _Social Science History_ 17 (1993): 37-70. Regarding turnout, see Peter H. Argersinger, "New Perspectives on Election Fraud in the Gilded Age," _Political Science Quarterly_ 100 (1985-86): 669-687; Walter Dean Burnham, "Those High Nineteenth-Century American Voting Turnouts: Fact or Fiction?" _Journal of Interdisciplinary History_ 16 (1986): 613-644. Three recent works deserve care- ful attention: Michael McGerr, _The Decline of Popular Politics: The American North, 1865-1928_ (1986); Richard L. McCormick, _The Party Period and Public Policy: American Politics from the Age of Jackson to the Progressive Era_ (1986); and Peter H. Arger- singer, _Structure, Process, and Party: Essays in American Political History_ (1992).
Many contributors to the "new political history" presented their work in relation to party systems and critical realignments. For these concepts, see Walter Dean Burnham, _Critical Elections and the Mainsprings of American Politics_ (1970); Joel Budgor et al., "The 1896 Election and Congressional Modernization," _Social Science History_ 5 (1981): 53-90; William Claggett, ed., "Walter Dean Burnham and the Dynamics of American Politics" _Social Science History_ 10 (1986): 205-314; David W. Brady, _Critical Elections and Congressional Policy Making_ (1988).
For Republicans, Clifton K. Yearley, _The Money Machines: The Breakdown and Reform of Governmental and Party Finance in the North, 1860-1920_ (1970); Robert D. Marcus, _Grand Old Party: Political Structure in the Gilded Age, 1880-1896_ (1971); Allan Peskin, "Who Were the Stalwarts? Who Were Their Rivals? Republican Factions in the Gilded Age," _Political Science Quarterly_ 99 (1984-85): 703-716; Robert S. Salisbury, "The Republican Party and Positive Government: 1860-1890," _Mid-America_ 68 (1986): 15-32; and William E. Gienapp, _The Origins of the Republican Party, 1852-1856_ (1987). On the GOP and the South, see Vincent P. De Santis, _Republicans Face the Southern Question: The New Departure Years, 1877-1897_ (1959); Stanley P. Hirshson, _Farewell to the Bloody Shirt: Northern Republicans and the Southern Negro, 1877-1893_ (1962); and Richard H. Abbott, _The Republican Party and the South, 1855- 1877: The First Southern Strategy_ (1986).
For Democrats, see Horace S. Merrill, _Bourbon Democracy of the Middle West, 1865-1896_ (1953); Robert Kelley's treatment of Tilden in his _The Transatlantic Persuasion: The Liberal-Demo- cratic Mind in the Age of Gladstone_ (1969); Lawrence Grossman, _The Democratic Party and the Negro: Northern and National Politics, 1868-92_ (1976); Robert Kelley, "The Democracy of Tilden and Cleveland," and Robert W. Cherny, "The Democratic Party in the Era of William Jennings Bryan," in _Democrats and the American Idea_, ed. P. Kovler (1992).
For African Americans and politics, in addition to the works already noted, see Bess Beatty, _A Revolution Gone Backward: The Black Response to National Politics, 1876-1896_ (1987); Lawanda Cox, "From Emancipation to Segregation: National Policy and Southern Blacks," in John Boles and Evelyn Thomas Nolen, eds., _Interpreting Southern History_ (1987); and recent biographies of Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, and W.E.B. DuBois.
Many of the voting studies address ethnicity centrally. For the APA in politics, see Donald L. Kinzer, _An Episode in Anti- Catholicism: The American Protective Association_ (1964).
For women and politics, see Suzanne Lebsock, "Women and American Politics, 1880-1920," in _Women, Politics, and Change_, ed. Louise A. Tilly and P. Gurin (1990); and Paula Baker, "The Domestication of Politics: Women and American Political Society, 1780-1920," _American Historical Review_ 89 (1984): 620-647. Important works include Elizabeth Cady Stanton et al., eds., _History of Woman Suffrage_ (1881-1922); Allen F. Davis, _Spear- heads for Reform: The Social Settlements and the Progressive Movement, 1890-1914_ (1967); Eleanor Flexner, _Century of Strug- gle: The Woman's Rights Movement in the United States_, rev. ed. (1975); Nancy F. Cott, _The Grounding of Modern Feminism_ (1987); Kathryn Kish Sklar, _Florence Kelley and the Nation's Work_, v. 1, _The Rise of Women's Political Culture, 1830-1900_ (1995).
For labor, labor policies, and labor parties, see David Montgomery, _Beyond Equality: Labor and the Radical Republicans, 1862-1872_ (1967); Alexander Saxton, _The Indispensable Enemy: Labor and the Anti-Chinese Movement in California_ (1971); Leon Fink, _Workingmen's Democracy: The Knights of Labor and American Politics_ (1983); Gwendolyn Mink, _Old Labor and New Immigrants in American Political Development: Union, Party, and State, 1875-1920_ (1986); Richard Ostreicher, "Urban Working-Class Political Behavior and Theories of American Electoral Politics," _Journal of American History_ 74 (1988): 1257-1286; Montgomery, _Citizen Worker: The Experience of Workers in the United States with Democracy and the Free Market during the Nineteenth Century_ (1993); Melvyn Dubofsky, _The State and Labor in Modern America_ (1994).
Mugwumps are treated in John M. Dobson, _Politics in the Gilded Age: A New Perspective on Reform_ (1972); and John G. Sproat, _"The Best Men": Liberal Reformers in the Gilded Age_ (1968; 1982).
For the prohibitionists, see Jack S. Blocker, Jr., _Retreat from Reform: The Prohibition Movement in the United States, 1890-1913_ (1976); Ruth Bordin, _Woman and Temperance: The Quest for Power and Liberty, 1873-1900_ (1981); Barbara L. Epstein, _The Politics of Domesticity: Women, Evangelism, and Temperance in Nineteenth-century America_ (1981); K. Austin Kerr, _Organized for Prohibition: A New History of the Anti-Saloon League_ (1985); and Richard F. Hamm, _Shaping the Eighteenth Amendment: Temperance Reform, Legal Culture, and the Polity, 1880-1920_ (1995).
The grangers are treated in Solon J. Buck, _The Granger Movement: A Study of Agricultural Organization and Its Political, Economic and Social Manifestation, 1870-1880_ (1913); Thomas A. Woods, _Knights of the Plow: Oliver H. Kelley and the Origins of the Grange in Republican Ideology_ (1991); and Donald B. Marti, _Women of the Grange: Mutuality and Sisterhood in Rural America, 1866-1920_ (1991). On the so-called granger laws, see Lee Benson, _Merchants, Farmers, and Railroads: Railroad Regula- tion and New York Politics, 1850-1887_ (1955); Gabriel Kolko, _Railroads and Regulation, 1877-1916_ (1965); George H. Miller, _Railroads and the Granger Laws_ (1971); and Ari and Olive Hoo- genboom, _A History of the ICC: From Panacea to Palliative_ (1976).
For the secret ballot, see Lionel E. Fredman, _The Australian Ballot_ (1968).
On the tariff, see Frank W. Taussig, _The Tariff History of the United States_, 8th edn. (1931); Tom E. Terrill, _The Tariff, Politics, and American Foreign Policy, 1874-1901_ (1973); G. R. Hawke, "The United States Tariff and Industrial Protection in the Late Nineteenth Century," _Economic History Review_ 28 (1975): 84-99; Joseph F. Kenkel, _Progressives and Protection: The Search for a Tariff Policy, 1866-1936_ (1983); Judith Goldstein, _Ideas, Interests, and American Trade Policy_ (1993); and Joanne Reitano, _The Tariff Question in the Gilded Age: The Great Debate of 1888_ (1994).
On greenbackers, silverites, and monetary policy issues, see Milton Friedman and Anna Jacobson Schwartz, _A Monetary History of the United States, 1867-1960_ (1963); Irwin Unger, _The Green- back Era: A Social and Political History of American Finance, 1865-1879_ (1964); Walter T. K. Nugent, _The Money Question during Reconstruction_ (1967); Nugent, _Money and American Socie- ty, 1865-1880_ (1968); and Allen Weinstein, _Prelude to Populism: Origins of the Silver Issue, 1867-1878_ (1970).
For Indian policy, see the overview and bibliography in Philip Weeks, _Farewell, My Nation: The American Indian and the United States, 1820-1890_ (1990).
On the civil service, see Leonard D. White, _The Republican Era: A Study in Administrative History, 1869-1901_ (1958); Ari Hoogenboom, _Outlawing the Spoils: A History of the Civil Serv- ice Reform Movement, 1865-1883_ (1961).
State politics are given careful attention by Ballard C. Campbell, _Representative Democracy: Public Policy and Midwestern Legislatures in the Late Nineteenth Century_ (1980). The most important works on city politics are in the bibliography in Raymond A. Mohl, _The New City: Urban American in the Industrial Age, 160-1920_ (1985); see also Jon C. Teaford, "Finis for Tweed and Steffens: Rewriting the History of Urban Rule," _Reviews in American History_ 10 (1982): 133-149. There are many important studies treating particular state or cities that space does not permit listing.
The most thorough account of Grant's troubled presidency remains William B. Hesseltine, _Ulysses S. Grant: Politician_ (1935, 1957, 1967); but see also William S. McFeely, _Grant: A Biography_ (1981). For major policy issues of the Grant years, see Eric Foner, _Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877_ (1988); William Gillette, _Retreat from Reconstruction: 1869-1879_ (1979); Margaret S. Thompson, _The "Spider Web": Congress and Lobbying in the Age of Grant_ (1985); Erik S. Lunde, _Horace Greeley_ (1981); Allan Nevins, _Hamilton Fish: The Inner History of the Grant Administration_, 2 vols., rev. ed. (1957). For the election of 1876 and the Compromise of 1877, the classic study is C. Vann Woodward's _Reunion and Reaction: The Compromise of 1877 and the End of Reconstruction_, rev. edn (1956). For a more recent treatment, see Keith I. Polakoff, _The Politics of Inertia: The Election of 1876 and the End of Reconstruction_ (1973). For the Hayes administration, see Ari Hoogenboom, _Rutherford B. Hayes: Warrior and President_ (1995) and _The Presidency of Rutherford B. Hayes_ (1988). See also Robert V. Bruce, _1877: Year of Violence_ (1959); and Emily Geer, _First Lady: The Life of Lucy Webb Hayes_ (1984). For the Garfield and Arthur administrations, see Allan Peskin, _Garfield: A Biography_ (1978); Thomas C. Reeves, _Gentleman Boss: The Life of Chester Alan Arthur_ (1975); and, especially, Justus D. Doenecke, _The Presidencies of James A. Garfield and Chester A. Arthur_ (1981). The most recent, and most judicious, treatment of Cleveland's presidency is Richard E. Welch, Jr., _The Presidencies of Grover Cleveland_ (1988). Older, highly laudatory biographies include Allan Nevins, _Grover Cleveland: A Study in Courage_ (1933, 1966), and Robert McElroy, _Grover Cleveland: The Man and the Statesman_, 2 vols. (1923); much more critical is Horace S. Merrill, _Bourbon Leader: Grover Cleveland and the Democratic Party_ (1957). See also John F. Marszalek, _Grover Cleveland: A Bibliography_ (1988). For Harrison and the 51st Congress, see Homer E. Socolofsky and Allan B. Spetter, _The Presidency of Benjamin Harrison_ (1987); and Harry J. Sievers, _Benjamin Harrison_, vols. 2-3 (1952-1960). For major policy issues, see B. Franklin Cooling, _Benjamin Franklin Tracy: Father of the Modern American Fighting Navy_ (1973); and William Letwin, _Law and Economic Policy in America: The Evolution of the Sherman Anti-trust Act_ (1965, 1981). For McKinley and his administration, see H. Wayne Morgan, _William McKinley and his America_ (Syracuse, 1963); Lewis L. Gould, "William McKinley and the Expansion of Presidential Power," _Ohio History_ 87 (1978): 5-20; Gould, _The Presidency of William McKinley_ (Lawrence, 1980); and Lewis L. Gould and Craig H. Roell, _William McKinley: A Bibliography_ (Westport, 1988).
The historiography of Populism is a long and at times bitter one, and will be the subject of a separate GAPE Bib. For the 1890s more generally, see George H. Knoles, _The Presidential Campaign and Election of 1892_ (1942); J. Rogers Hollingsworth, _The Whirligig of Politics: The Democracy of Cleveland and Bryan_ (1963); Stanley L. Jones, _The Presidential Election of 1896_ (1964); Paul W. Glad, _McKinley, Bryan, and the People_ (1964); R. Hal Williams, _Years of Decision: American Politics in the 1890s_ (1978); and Carlos Schwantes, _Coxey's Army: An American Odyssey_ (1985).
The "new institutionalism" has developed largely through studies of Gilded Age politics. For an overview, see David B. Robertson, "The Return to History and the New Institutionalism in America," _Social Science History_ 17 (1993): 1- 36. Major works include Richard F. Bensel, _Yankee Leviathan: The Origins of Central State Authority in America, 1859-1877_ (1990); Stephen Skowronek, _Building a New American State: The Expansion of National Administrative Capacities, 1877-1920_ (1982); and Theda Skocpol, _Protecting Soldiers and Mothers: The Political Origins of Social Policy in the United States_ (1992). See also Philip J. Ethington, _The Public City: The Political Construction of Urban Life in San Francisco, 1850-1900_ (1994). Hamm, in _Shaping the Eighteenth Amendment_, argues for addressing the "polity" rather than the "state."
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