Bücher von Mark Wahlgren Summers

Ordeal of the Reunion: A New History of Reconstruction

Examines one of the dirtiest presidential campaigns in American history. The author suggests that both Democrats and Republicans sensed a political system falling apart, as voters drifted from being affiliated to a specific party to voting according to a candidate's stand on a particular issue.

Press Gang: Newspapers and Politics, 1865-1878

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, the author tells the full story and admires much of the carnival, but adds a cautionary note about the dark recesses: vote-buying, election-rigging, news suppression, and violence.

Reconstruction policy after the US Civil War, observes Mark Wahlgren Summers, was shaped not simply by politics, principles, and prejudices. Also at work were fears To understand Reconstruction, Summers contends, one must understand that the purpose of the North's war was to save the Union with its republican institutions intact.