State Theory

Since Victoria Woodhull launched her symbolic bid for the presidency in 1872, dozens of women have sought the presidency over the past 150 years. Their quest began long before women won the vote, and it unfolded over decades when a woman's pursuit of any higher political office was met with prejudice, mockery, and hostility. Even after women started voting in 1920, they remained shut out of rooms where presidential candidacies were often born.

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.

After the Battle of Fort Sumter made clear that there would be war between the North and South, support for both the Union and Confederacy rose. Two days after the surrender of the fort, President Abraham Lincoln issued a call-to-arms asking for 75,000 volunteers, a request that would rely on Northern states to organize and train their men.

Nixon - loathed or admired, the name recalls one of the most extraordinary political survivors in American history. Author Jonathan Aitken interviewed the legendary politician and was granted unprecedented access to his private documents to root out answers to many questions. Why didn't he burn the Watergate tapes? What were his relationships with John F. Kennedy, Dwight Eisenhower, and Henry Kissinger?

The series weaves together more than 50 first-person interviews with an unprecedented collection of archival sound: a rare recording of the 1964 trial that resulted in Mandela's life sentence; a visit between Mandela and his family secretly taped by a prison guard; marching songs of guerilla soldiers; government propaganda films; and pirate radio broadcasts from the African National Congress (ANC).

Sandwiched between the Revolution and the Civil War, the War of 1812 is one of America’s forgotten conflicts, and the stalemated nature of the war (which resolved virtually none of either side’s war aims) has also ensured that it is often given merely a cursory overview. Under President Thomas Jefferson (1801-1809) and James Madison (1809-1817), the United States tried to steer a course that would keep it from being drawn into the European war and defend its neutrality on the high seas.

In 1787, delegates from the recently independent 13 colonies met in Philadelphia to try to forge a new, stronger constitution. That summer, the representatives ironed out a document that had pluses and minuses for all involved, a point noted by Ben Franklin in explaining why he assented to it at the end of the process.

You might know Ulysses S. Grant as a Civil War hero and as the 18th president of the United States, but we will introduce you to the heart and soul of the man who brought freedom and equality to a troubled America. Within this book, you'll discover how Grant motivated and inspired a nation to rise above the dark days of slavery and financial ruin and search their hearts for justice for all. You'll battle with Grant and his men at Vicksburg, and be there when General Lee surrenders at Appomattox.

Honor's Voice provides a revealing look at how Abraham Lincoln became the 16th president of the United States and one of the greatest men of his time. Douglas Wilson traces the development of this great leader from an insecure country boy full of ambition to schoolboy, storekeeper, riverboat man, and, finally, politician. The author returns to original sources, including friends and acquaintances in the Illinois of the 1830s and '40s and exposes truths about Lincoln never before revealed.

The larger-than-life image Abraham Lincoln projects across the screen of American history owes much to his role as the Great Emancipator during the Civil War. Yet this noble aspect of Lincoln's identity is precisely the dimension that some historians have cast into doubt. Redeeming the Great Emancipator enumerates Lincoln's antislavery credentials, showing that a deeply held belief in the God-given rights of all people steeled the president in his commitment to emancipation and his hope for racial reconciliation.

As the oldest political party in the United States, the Democratic Party has been one of the nation's major political parties for over 150 years, and diverse men and ideas have fallen under its tent since the 19th century. Today the Democrats are generally viewed as proponents of a strong, centralized federal government, and yet the forerunner of the modern party was none other than Thomas Jefferson, the man most associated with states' rights and limited government.

Step right up and take a front-row seat at the most colorful spectacle in the world: American politics! Yanks at Odds: A Brit's Irreverent Guide to Healing the American Political Divide by Bryan Sutherland offers a delightfully irreverent yet incisive exploration of the American political divide. Sutherland serves up a hearty helping of wit, wisdom, and warm British humor as he navigates the sometimes baffling, often tumultuous world of American politics.

As a journalist in Australia, Annie Osborn edited the woman's pages of The Age and The Leader: a weekly journal of news, politics, literature, and art in Melbourne. She also wrote regularly for the Presbyterian journal, The Messenger, and for the Australian Christian World. Her political pamphlet "Women and the State" was published in 1919.

On a December night in 1773, in an iconic act of civil disobedience, American colonists dressed as Native Americans boarded a merchant ship laden with tea. They tossed the tea into the Boston Harbor in protest of taxation without representation. Their motivation at the time was not one of a battle for independence; rather, they sought what they viewed as their constitutional right to representation in the British Parliament.

Han pasado casi 150 años de su muerte y todavía se usa una riqueza de apelativos para referirse a Antonio López de Santa Anna, presidente de México en once ocasiones. Hoy, la mayoría de sus compatriotas lo considera el traidor más grande de la historia. No siempre fue así. De hecho, cuando él vivía no hubo político o general más reverenciado, necesario y famoso en México - aunque en intervalos también el más odiado - que el General Santa Anna.

The American Revolution is replete with seminal moments that every American learns in school, from the "shot heard 'round the world" to the Declaration of Independence, but the events that led up to the fighting at Lexington and Concord were borne out of 10 years of division between the British and their American colonies over everything from colonial representation in governments to taxation, the nature of searches, and the quartering of British regulars in private houses.

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, or Mahatma Gandhi as he is more popularly known, is widely considered the father of India, the preeminent leader of the Indian struggle against British imperialism, and one of the most influential minds of the 20th century, Gandhi emerged to become one of the greatest advocates of peace and nonviolent resistance that the world has known. Gandhi became one of those rare leaders who preached through his own practices, motivating millions of people to follow his principles of freedom and peace.

The history of African-Americans has been complicated and controversial. While some will fight against racism, others deny the severity of it throughout the ages. Whether or not the issue is as serious as it used to be, is a separate topic for debate. In this guide, you will not listen much about opinions but about facts. Society has come a long way since the inauguration of slavery and suppression of the minority in the United States.

In today’s modern world, every political regime - even the most authoritarian or repressive - describes itself as democracy or a democratic people’s republic. The concept of rule by the people and on behalf of the people has come to be accepted as the norm. Very few would overtly espouse the cause of dictatorship, absolute monarchy, or oligarchy as the most desirable political system upon which to base the government of any country.

Common Sense is a pamphlet written by Thomas Paine in 1775-76 that inspired people in the Thirteen Colonies to declare and fight for independence from Great Britain in the summer of 1776. In clear, simple language, it explained the advantages of and the need for immediate independence. It was published anonymously on January 10, 1776, at the beginning of the American Revolution and became an immediate sensation.