The Rise and Fall of the American Whig Party: Jacksonian Politics and the Onset of the Civil War

Michael F. Holt

Oxford University Press, May 1, 2003 - History - 1248 pages

Here, Michael F. Holt gives us the only comprehensive history of the Whigs ever written. He offers a panoramic account of the tumultuous antebellum period, a time when a flurry of parties and larger-than-life politicians--Andrew Jackson, John C. Calhoun, Martin Van Buren, and Henry Clay--struggled for control as the U.S. inched towards secession. It was an era when Americans were passionately involved in politics, when local concerns drove national policy, and when momentous political events--like the Annexation of Texas and the Kansas-Nebraska Act--rocked the country. Amid this contentious political activity, the Whig Party continuously strove to unite North and South, emerging as the nation's last great hope to prevent secession.

What people are saying

Review: The Rise and Fall of the American Whig Party: Jacksonian Politics and the Onset of the Civil War

User Review  - Davis - Goodreads

The first 200-300 pages are very good, discussing how the party evolved out of the Madison wing of the Democratic-Republicans after the factious and misnamed "Era of Good Feeling." However, their is ...

Review: The Rise and Fall of the American Whig Party: Jacksonian Politics and the Onset of the Civil War

User Review  - Robert King - Goodreads

helps with understanding the Whig Part

Contents

• Not Fitted to Make Converts: 1
• To Rescue the Government and Public Liberty: 19
• No Opposition Man Can Be Elected President: 33
• We Have Many Recruits in Our Ranks from the Pressure of the Times: 60
• Harrison and Prosperity or Van Buren and Ruin: 89
• The Whig Party Seems Now Totally Broken Up and Dismembered: 122
• Whigs Are in High Spirits: 162
• The Present Administration Are Your Best Recruiting Officers: 208
• The Contest for President Should Be Regarded as a Contest of Principles: 259
• Must Have the Aid of Gunpoivder: 284
• Stimulate Every Whig to Turn Out: 331
• Many Discordant Political Interests to Reconcile: 383
• Patronage Is a Dangerous Element of Power: 414
• The Slavery Excitement Seems Likely to Obliterate Party Lines: 459
• The Long Agony Is Over: 521
• God Save Us from Whig Vice Presidents: 553
• Fillmore Is Precisely the Man for the Occasion: 598
• Webster Is Now Engaged in Strenuous Efforts to Secure the Succession: 635
• Scott Scott Alone Is the Man for the Emergency: 673
• Like Pissing Against the Wind: 726
• Now Is the Time to Start New the Old Issues Are Gone: 765
• This Nebraska Business Will Entirely Denationalize the Whig Party: 804
• The Whig Party as a Party Are Entirely Disbanded: 836
• Confusion Worse Confounded: 879
• Let Then the Whig Party Pass: 909
• The Whig Party Is Dead and Buried: 951
• Notes: 987
• Abbreviations Used in Notes: 1179
• Bibliography: 1181
• Index: 1203

About the author

Michael F. Holt, a leading authority on nineteenth-century American politics, is Langbourne M. Williams Professor of American History at the University of Virginia. He lives in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Rise and Fall of the American Whig Party: Jacksonian Politics and the Onset of the Civil War
• Author: Michael F. Holt
• Edition: illustrated, reprint
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2003
• ISBN: 0195161041, 9780195161045
• Length: 1248 pages
• Subjects: History / United States / 19th Century; History / United States / Civil War Period (1850-1877); Political Science / Political Process / Political Parties