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The literature on the Republican party, party realignment, and politics during the Civil War era is vast and growing. Much of the literature focuses on the causes and character of the sectional conflict and the ways sectionalism, the war, and its aftermath affected American political life and culture. Much of the work devoted to the Republican party properly situates the story within the context of the sectional struggles that gave birth to the party and the war and Reconstruction that remade it. Scholars have devoted much less attention to the life cycle of the first generation of the party and Republicanism—the principal concerns of this book. This select bibliography offers the essential works on the genesis and growth of the Republican party for consideration, with the emphasis on books and on recent work, which the dictates of space require. It does so with the understanding that many important works on particular figures, campaigns, state and local party development and politics, party management, and political process generally also invite review. In the absence of any comprehensive bibliography on the Republican party and politics in the mid-nineteenth century, this select bibliography then also serves as a guide, listing the critical recent works as a way to point to the issues already engaged and, by implication at least, to point to concerns needful of study. Useful general histories of the party include Robert A. Rutland, The Republicans : From Lincoln to Bush (1996), which devotes five chapters to the party’s first twenty-five years; and George H. Mayer, The Republican Party, 1854–1964 (1964), which remains standard. For biographies of Republican leaders, see the listing of “Biographical and Related Works,” in James M. McPherson, Ordeal by Fire: The Civil War and Reconstruction (rev. ed., 1992), a book that also offers an excellent history and analysis of the turbulent times. For the long view on party formation and practices and the character of politics in the Civil War era, see Joel H. Silbey, The American Political Nation, 1838–1893 (1991); Richard L. McCormick, The Party Period and Public Policy from the Age of Jackson to the Progressive Era (1986); the essays by Ronald P. Formisano , Michael F. Holt, and Joel H. Silbey especially in Byron E. Shafer and Anthony J. Badger, eds., Contesting Democracy: Substance and Structure in American Political History, 1775–2000 (2001); and the essays in “Round Table: Alternatives to the Party System in the ‘Party Period,’” Journal of American History 86 (1999), especially Ronald Formisano, “The ‘Party Period’ Revisited” (93–120), Select Bibliography 188 Select Bibliography Mark Voss-Hubbard, “The ‘Third Party Tradition’ Reconsidered: Third Parties and American Public Life, 1830–1900” (121–50), and Michael F. Holt, “The Primacy of Party Reasserted” (151–57). Useful in understanding the reconfiguration of the party system in the Civil War era are Paul Kleppner, The Third Electoral System, 1853–1892: Parties, Voters, and Political Cultures (1979); and the essays in Lloyd Ambrosius, ed., A Crisis of Republicanism: American Politics During the Civil War Era (1990). On elections and party positions, see Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., and Fred L. Israel, eds., The History of American Presidential Elections (4 vols., 1971), vol. 1, for essays on particular elections; Donald B. Johnson, ed., National Party Platforms , vol. 1, 1840–1956 (rev. ed., 1978); Joel H. Silbey, ed., The American Party Battle: Election Campaign Pamphlets, 1828–1876, vol. 2, 1854–1876 (1999); W. Dean Burnham, Presidential Ballots, 1836–1892 (1955). For voting patterns, see, for example, the essays in Frederick C. Luebke, ed., Ethnic Voters and the Election of Lincoln (1971), especially on the German vote in 1860; and Paul Kleppner, The Cross of Culture: A Social Analysis of Midwestern Politics, 1850–1890 (rev. ed., 1970), on ethnoreligious loyalties superseding class interests in voting behavior. For the material culture and imagery of campaigning, see Roger A. Fischer, Tippecanoe and Trinkets Too: The Material Culture of American Presidential Campaigns, 1828–1984 (1988); and Keith Melder, Hail to the Candidate: Presidential Campaigns from Banners to Broadcasts (1992). Several recent works probe the civic life and political culture of the period, with attention to the place of the new Republican party in the changing world of politics, citizenship, and civic obligations. Pertinent among them are Glenn C. Altschuler and Stuart M. Blumin, Rude Republic: Americans and Their Politics in the Nineteenth Century (2000); Michael Schudson, The Good Citizen: A History of American Civic Life (1998); Mary P. Ryan, Women in Public: Between Banners...

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