Synopses & Reviews
Much of late-nineteenth-century American politics was parade and pageant. Voters crowded the polls, and their votes made a real difference on policy. In
Party Games, Mark Wahlgren Summers tells the full story and admires much of the political carnival, but he adds a cautionary note about the dark recesses: vote-buying, election-rigging, blackguarding, news suppression, and violence.
Summers also points out that hardball politics and third-party challenges helped make the parties more responsive. Ballyhoo did not replace government action. In order to maintain power, major parties not only rigged the system but also gave dissidents part of what they wanted. The persistence of a two-party system, Summers concludes, resulted from its adaptability, as well as its ruthlessness. Even the reform of political abuses was shaped to fit the needs of the real owners of the political system--the politicians themselves.
Review
"With impressive research . . . Summers effectively links [Gilded age politics] into a coherent political universe, illuminated by interesting and often obscure vignettes. . . . An important and provocative book that commands attention and will reward reading."
Journal of Southern History
Review
"Perceptively illuminates. . . . Creative and wide-ranging. . . . Places black men at the center of their own self-construction and should not be overlooked in any consideration of African American and masculinity studies."
American Studies
Review
"A welcome addition to Gilded Age political historiography. . . . Challenges accepted historiography and provides a lively account of the professionals who dominated US politics at the end of the nineteenth-century."
Canadian Journal of History/Annales canadiennes d'histoire
Review
Summers examines the American political system of the late nineteenth century with a behind-the-scenes look at the poll taxes, rigged elections, and other electoral shenanigans designed to bring large numbers of voters to the polls but still keep power in the hands of major partisan players.
Review
"With acerbic wit and an incomparable grasp of period detail, Summers paints a picture of U.S democracy's late nineteenth-century style."
American Historical Review "With impressive research . . . Summers effectively links [Gilded age politics] into a coherent political universe, illuminated by interesting and often obscure vignettes. . . . An important and provocative book that commands attention and will reward reading."
Journal of Southern History "Perceptively illuminates. . . . Creative and wide-ranging. . . . Places black men at the center of their own self-construction and should not be overlooked in any consideration of African American and masculinity studies."
American Studies "A welcome addition to Gilded Age political historiography. . . . Challenges accepted historiography and provides a lively account of the professionals who dominated US politics at the end of the nineteenth-century."
Canadian Journal of History/Annales canadiennes d'histoire Summers examines the American political system of the late nineteenth century with a behind-the-scenes look at the poll taxes, rigged elections, and other electoral shenanigans designed to bring large numbers of voters to the polls but still keep power in the hands of major partisan players.
About the Author
Mark Wahlgren Summers is Thomas D. Clark Professor of History at the University of Kentucky. He is author of many books, including The Press Gang: Newspapers and Politics, 1865-1878 and Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion: The Making of a President, 1884.