American Political Party History

American Presidential Parties: Their Relevance to People of African Descent details what American presidents, starting at George Washington and ending at Donald Trump, did and didn't do for Americans of African descent.

The first definitive biography of Mitch McConnell, revealing an intimate look at the personal and political life of one of the most powerful senators in American history. In the long history of American government, few senators have wielded as much power as Kentucky’s Mitch McConnell. That’s...

In this fascinating investigation into the real life inner workings of a post-Trump American government, uncover the odd and eccentric personalities grappling for their own bit of power in D.C. The Big Break investigates how Washington works, and how different kinds of people try to make it work...

The Bharatiya Janata Party is an idea that was seeded into the minds of nationalist Jana Sangh leaders when they began to envision India after Independence. Much like the very core the freedom struggle was built on, they saw India as a demographically, culturally and historically cohesive and...

One of the nation's most acclaimed journalists, the New York Times' Mark Leibovich, presents a blistering, penetrating, controversial--and often hysterical--look at Washington's incestuous "media industrial complex...

From the bestselling author of What's the Matter With Kansas, a scathing look at the standard-bearers of liberal politics -- an audiobook that asks: what's the matter with Democrats? It is a widespread belief among liberals that if only Democrats can continue to dominate national elections, if...

An intimate portrait of the first president of the 20th century The warm and knowing biography traces Roosevelt's involvement in the politics of New York City and New York State, his celebrated, military career, and his ascent to the national political stage. Caricatured through history as the...

From Chris Matthews, former host of MSNBC’s Hardball and NBC’s The Chris Matthews Show, and New York Times bestselling author of Bobby Kennedy, Jack Kennedy, and Tip and the Gipper, comes a definitive work on the lifeblood of America—its enduring spirit. People have often wondered what...

A “moving and lucidly written memoir” (The Wall Street Journal) of the late Senator John McCain from one of his closest and most trusted confidants, friends, and political advisors. More so than almost anyone outside of McCain’s immediate family, Mark Salter had unparalleled access to and...

Historian Sean Wilentz presents two key insights that together reveal a clearer, much-needed vision of American political history. First, partisanship has almost always been a feature of American history and in fact has made possible the nation's greatest social reforms. There is little to be gained from a "postpartisan" political world. Second, the recent attention to economic inequality has a long history. From the founders' generation to the present, America's egalitarian tradition has appeared and reappeared like an underground river.

The 1856 presidential race was the most violent peacetime election in American history. War between proslavery and antislavery settlers raged in Kansas, a congressman shot an Irish immigrant at a Washington hotel, and another congressman beat a US senator senseless on the floor of the Senate. But amid all the violence, the campaign of the new Republican Party, headed by famed explorer John C. Fremont, offered a ray of hope: a major party dedicated to limiting the spread of slavery.

A recent history of the Democratic Party that identifies its chronic errors—the “pathologies” of the New Democratic mindset—and argues urgently against a return to the status quo Why did the Democrats initially abandon their principles, and why haven’t they been able to grasp that they...

The Land of Flickering Lights is a unique contribution to American political writing at this or any other time. Democratic Senator Michael Bennet from Colorado lifts a veil on Congress to reveal, in his words, "through a series of actual stories - about the people, the politics, the motives, the money, the hypocrisy, the stakes, the outcome - the pathological culture of the capitol and the consequences for us all."

The Chief Washington Correspondent for the New York Times presents a richly detailed, news-breaking, and conversation-changing look at the unprecedented political fight to fill the Supreme Court seat made vacant by Antonin Scalia’s death—using it to explain the paralyzing and all but...

Now, do not misunderstand me, America is great. But we are fed up with being over-taxed and over-regulated. We are tired of being told how much salt to put on our food, what kind of cars we can drive, what kinds of guns we can own, what kind of prayers we are allowed to say and where we can say...

In this brilliant historical classic, Dan Sisson argues that Thomas Jefferson thought democratic revolutions would be necessary from time to time to break the grip of autocratic factions on the government. That is how Jefferson saw the election of 1800 - and the lessons for today couldn’t be more obvious. Most historians celebrate Jefferson’s victory over Adams in 1800 as the beginning of the two-party system, but Jefferson would have been horrified by this interpretation.

From the bestselling author of The Promise, the thrilling story of one of the most momentous contests in American history, the Battle Royale between Obama and his enemies from the 2010 midterms through the 2013 inauguration. In The Center Holds, Jonathan Alter provides the first full account of...

With her trademark passion, intelligence, and devastating wit, Huffington Post editor in chief Arianna Huffington tackles the issues that are crucial to this year’s presidential election and, even more so, to the fate of the country. Huffington makes the case that America has been hijacked...

For much of American history, evangelicalism was aligned with progressive political causes: nineteenth-century evangelicals fought for the abolition of slavery, universal suffrage, and public education. But contemporary conservative activists have defaulted on this majestic legacy, embracing instead an agenda virtually indistinguishable from the Republican Party platform.

The 2008 financial crisis crystallized for people around the country the fact that something was wrong. Americans had already been losing faith in elites who had failed to protect them from crisis after crisis and disaster after disaster. After the collapse, we expected someone to have a solution but were inevitably disappointed. Instead, we got high and rising unemployment, foreclosures spiraling out of control, and, as the protest chant went, "banks got bailed out, we got sold out."