Contesting Democracy: Substance and Structure in American Political History, 1775-2000 - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0700611398 ISBN 13: 9780700611393

Publisher: University Press of Kansas, 2001

Synopsis

In this statement about the state of the discipline, prominent scholars address and critique the entire sweep of American political history. Exemplifying the revitalizing power of the ""new political history"" and its renewed emphasis on large ""P"" politics, these writers have combined to produce an illuminating synthesis of the most recent work in the field. Focusing upon both the major policy issues in the politics of each period (substance) and the major social forces shaping politics (structure), these essays chronicle and evaluate the evolution of American politics and society over two and a quarter centuries. In the process, they reflect their authors' collective commitment to a dynamic field of intellectual inquiry, while simultaneously highlighting key interpretive disputes within it.

About this title

Review

"In a series of essays covering the transformation of politics and the growth of the national state over two hundred-plus years, Contesting Democracy is a sober study of a circus, and a good thing, too. People with ringside seats smell the sawdust and can tell the performing elephants from the trained jackasses, but, for a full view of the big picture, it helps to get beyond the big tent. Byron E. Shafer and Anthrony J. Badger's collection gives a necessary perspective on what, for many years, was America's greatest participatory sport."--Journal of American History

"A major publishing event in American political history. The flowering of the 'new' political history in the 1970s was followed by a generation of scholarship stressing grassroots non-electoral social movements, masculinized politics and gendered social policies, 'whiteness' studies, the mediating role of civil society, and comparative state-building. Here a parade of leading scholars examines how this research has reshaped our understanding of two centuries of American self-government."--Hugh Davis Graham, author of Civil Rights and the Presidency

"A lively collection of essays that synthesizes what we know about American politics and public policy. Even while disagreeing with each other, the authors develop new ideas about American politics and point to what we don't yet know. A terrific volume."--Paula Baker, author of Moral Frameworks of Public Life

Edition details

• Publisher: University Press of Kansas
• Publication date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0700611398
• ISBN 13: 9780700611393
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 288
• Editor: Shafer Byron E., Badger Anthony J.