Affairs of Party : : The Political Culture of Northern Democrats in the Mid–Nineteenth Century. / / Jean H. Baker.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Fordham University Press Complete eBook-Package Pre-2014
• VerfasserIn: Baker, Jean H.,
• Place / Publishing House: New York, NY : : Fordham University Press, , [2022]; ©1998
• Year of Publication: 2022
• Language: English
• Series: The North's Civil War
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (367 p.)

Affairs of party, Jean Baker asserts, were a central feature of public life in nineteenth-century America. In this book she explores the way in which the Northern Democrats of the mid-eighteen hundreds lived their public lives. She begins with a psychobiographical explanation of how people became Democrats, weighing the importance of such influences as education and family life. She then discusses two major elements that set Democrats apart from members of other political organizations: a modified Republican ideology tailored to the circumstances of the Civil War, and a mordant racism conveyed most strikingly through minstrelsy. Finally, Baker studies the neglected subject of partisan behavior, concentrating on the significance of parades, voting, and other rituals. In Affairs of Party Jean Baker brings together the three basic components of a political culture—education, thought, and behavior—and provides an understanding of the collective values of Northern Democrats and an insight into the elusive meaning of party experience. In her new preface, Professor Baker places her book in the context of both recent scholarship and recent political and cultural developments.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preface to the 1998 Edition -- Preface -- Introduction -- PART 1: LEARNING TO BE DEMOCRATS -- 1. Partisan Roots -- 2. Learning to Be Americans: Schooling and Political Culture -- 3. A Sense of Party: George Bancroft, Martin Van Buren, and Samuel Cox -- PART II: THINKING AS DEMOCRATS -- 4. The Revival of Republicanism -- 5. Conservative Naturalism: The Racial Views of Stephen Douglas and the Delaware Bayards -- 6. The Negro Issue: Popular Culture, Racial Attitudes, and Democratic Policy -- PART III: BEHAVING AS DEMOCRATS -- 7. The Meaning of Elections -- 8. Southern Connections and Party Nationalism -- Conclusion: The Democracy as Imitator and Shaper -- Bibliographic Notes -- Index