From Bloody Shirt to Full Dinner Pail: The Transformation of Politics and Governance in the Gilded Age - Hardcover

Charles W. Calhoun is Thomas Harriot College Distinguished Professor of History at East Carolina University. A former National Endowment for the Humanities fellow, he is the author of, most recently, Minority Victory: Gilded Age Politics and the Front Porch Campaign of 1888 and Benjamin Harrison, in Holt’s American Presidents series.

“[A] long-overdue and sorely needed overview of American politics from the end of the Civil War through the beginning of the 20th century . . . The author’s inviting prose and steely knowledge of his subject remind us that the political compromises and executive decisions forged during the latter half of the 19th century have come to define the most central tenets of modern American politics . . . Lucid and illuminating.” —Kirkus Reviews “In this impressively succinct and insightful book, Charles W. Calhoun makes a compelling case both for the importance of Gilded Age politics and for the significant political transitions that occurred during that era. Altogether, a splendid performance.” —Michael F. Holt, author of The Fate of Their Country “Calhoun has distilled a lifetime of research in Gilded Age politics into a succinct and engrossing book, demonstrating convincingly that the interlude between Reconstruction and Progressivism was far from inconsequential. There was a two decade struggle between the nationally oriented Republican Party, willing to use federal power and presidential leadership to enforce civil rights and to achieve economic prosperity, and the laissez-faire, states rights Democratic Party, that ended with Republicans as the dominant majority. That victory presaged the Progressive Era.” —Ari Hoogenboom, Professor Emeritus, Brooklyn College “In our time, the scope, cost, effectiveness, and integrity of government have again become stormy public issues. Despite all the loose parallels drawn by some present-day writers, the Gilded Age is gone, and we do not live in a new one. Yet in this accessible narrative of national politics during the late nineteenth century, the respected historian Charles W. Calhoun offers clear and convincing analysis of a period whose political divisions and issues are now manifestly relevant, and one that has never deserved its exceptionally low reputation.” —Alan Lessoff, Professor of History, Illinois State University, and editor of Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era “At last, a succinct, perceptive and well-written account of national politics from Grant to McKinley. Charles W. Calhoun’s engaging book delivers a comprehensive account of presidents, parties, and policies during the Gilded Age.” —Jean Baker, Professor of History, Goucher College