In this Book

  • The Democratic Experiment: New Directions in American Political History
  • Book
  • Edited by Meg Jacobs, William J. Novak, & Julian E. Zelizer
  • 2009
  • Published by: Princeton University Press
buy this book Buy This Book in Print
summary

In a series of fascinating essays that explore topics in American politics from the nation's founding to the present day , The Democratic Experiment opens up exciting new avenues for historical research while offering bold claims about the tensions that have animated American public life. Revealing the fierce struggles that have taken place over the role of the federal government and the character of representative democracy, the authors trace the contested and dynamic evolution of the national polity.


The contributors, who represent the leading new voices in the revitalized field of American political history, offer original interpretations of the nation's political past by blending methodological insights from the new institutionalism in the social sciences and studies of political culture. They tackle topics as wide-ranging as the role of personal character of political elites in the Early Republic, to the importance of courts in building a modern regulatory state, to the centrality of local political institutions in the late twentieth century. Placing these essays side by side encourages the asking of new questions about the forces that have shaped American politics over time. An unparalleled example of the new political history in action, this book will be vastly influential in the field.


In addition to the editors, the contributors are Brian Balogh, Sven Beckert, Rebecca Edwards, Joanne B. Freeman, Richard R. John, Ira Katznelson, James T. Kloppenberg, Matthew D. Lassiter, Thomas J. Sugrue, Michael Vorenberg, and Michael Willrich.

Table of Contents

restricted access Download Full Book
  1. Title Page, Copyright Page
  2. pp. i-vi
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. CONTENTS
  2. pp. vii-viii
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. CONTRIBUTORS
  2. pp. ix-xii
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  2. pp. xiii-xvi
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. CHAPTER ONE: The Democratic Experiment: New Directions in American Political History
  2. Meg Jacobs and Julian E. Zelizer
  3. pp. 1-19
  4. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. CHAPTER TWO: Explaining the Unexplainable: The Cultural Context of the Sedition Act
  2. Joanne B. Freeman
  3. pp. 20-49
  4. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. CHAPTER THREE: Affairs of Office: The Executive Departments, the Election of 1828, and the Making of the Democratic Party
  2. Richard R. John
  3. pp. 50-84
  4. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. CHAPTER FOUR: The Legal Transformation of Citizenship in Nineteenth-Century America
  2. William J. Novak
  3. pp. 85-119
  4. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. CHAPTER FIVE: Bringing the Constitution Back In: Amendment, Innovation, and Popular Democracy during the Civil War Era
  2. Michael Vorenberg
  3. pp. 120-145
  4. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. CHAPTER SIX: Democracy in the Age of Capital: Contesting Suffrage Rights in Gilded Age New York
  2. Sven Beckert
  3. pp. 146-174
  4. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. CHAPTER SEVEN: Domesticity versus Manhood Rights: Republicans, Democrats, and “Family Values” Politics, 1856–1896
  2. Rebecca Edwards
  3. pp. 175-197
  4. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. CHAPTER EIGHT: The Case for Courts: Law and Political Development in the Progressive Era
  2. Michael Willrich
  3. pp. 198-221
  4. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. CHAPTER NINE: “Mirrors of Desires”: Interest Groups, Elections, and the Targeted Style in Twentieth-Century America
  2. Brian Balogh
  3. pp. 222-249
  4. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. CHAPTER TEN: Pocketbook Politics: Democracy and the Market in Twentieth-Century America
  2. Meg Jacobs
  3. pp. 250-275
  4. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. CHAPTER ELEVEN: The Uneasy Relationship: Democracy, Taxation, and State Building since the New Deal
  2. Julian E. Zelizer
  3. pp. 276-300
  4. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. CHAPTER TWELVE: All Politics Is Local: The Persistence of Localism in Twentieth-Century America
  2. Thomas J. Sugrue
  3. pp. 301-326
  4. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. CHAPTER THIRTEEN: Suburban Strategies: The Volatile Center in Postwar American Politics
  2. Matthew D. Lassiter
  3. pp. 327-349
  4. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. CHAPTER FOURTEEN From Hartz to Tocqueville: Shifting the Focus from Liberalism to Democracy in America
  2. James T. Kloppenberg
  3. pp. 350-380
  4. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. CHAPTER FIFTEEN The Possibilities of Analytical Political History
  2. Ira Katznelson
  3. pp. 381-400
  4. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. INDEX
  2. pp. 401-421
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
Back To Top

This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. Without cookies your experience may not be seamless.