Others: Third Party Politics from the Nation's Founding to the Rise and Fall of the Greenback-Labor Party, Volume 1

Darcy G. Richardson

iUniverse, 2004 - History - 668 pages

This lively and lucidly written history examines the crucial role third parties have played in shaping our nation's destiny, beginning with the Anti-Masonic Party in the 1820s and concluding with the spectacular rise and disappointing collapse of the Greenback-Labor movement in the mid-1880s-a short-lived entity that gave birth to the dramatic Populist movement of the following decade.

In this sweeping historical chronicle, a marvelous mix of history and biography, the author explains in vivid detail how two antebellum third-party movements-the Free Soil and Know-Nothing parties-provided the spark for the phoenix-like ascendancy of the antislavery Republican Party in the 1850s, culminating in Abraham Lincoln's election to the presidency in 1860.

This copiously rich and brisk narrative also describes how the Know-Nothing Party-the most powerful third-party movement in American history-was ultimately ripped asunder over the issue of slavery.

In the first of a riveting and powerful four-volume series on independent and third-party politics in U.S. history, Darcy Richardson also examines the remarkable and fascinating men and women who took part in those political movements outside the traditional "two-party system" and the extraordinary contributions they made in shaping the course of America's destiny.

Contents

• Early Political Parties: 15
• Quids Workingmen AntiMasons: 48
• The Struggle for Freedom: 83
• Barnburners and Conscience Whigs: 111
• Free Democrats Southern Rights and Native: 148
• Parties in Disarray: 164
• The BrassKnuckle Crusade: 178
• A Fleeting ThreeParty System: 229
• Rising from the Ashes: 272
• The Civil War Years: 330
• The Liberal Republican Movement: 354
• The Prohibition and Labor Reform Parties: 392
• Victoria Woodhull and the Emergence: 410
• The Birth of the Greenback Party: 446
• The Workingmens Party of the United States: 487
• The Iowa Insurgent: 508
• John P St John Beast Butler: 560
• Spoilers: 599
• Selected Bibliography: 633
• Index: 645

Bibliographic information

• Title: Others: Third Party Politics from the Nation's Founding to the Rise and Fall of the Greenback-Labor Party, Volume 1; Others: Third Party Politics from the Nation's Founding to the Rise and Fall of the Greenback-Labor Party, Darcy G. Richardson
• Author: Darcy G. Richardson
• Publisher: iUniverse, 2004
• ISBN: 0595317235, 9780595317233
• Length: 668 pages
• Subjects: History / United States / General; Political Science / History & Theory; Political Science / Political Process / Political Parties