Working Class in American History
William A. A. Carsey and the Shaping of American Reform Politics
- 208 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
Working Class in American History
William A. A. Carsey and the Shaping of American Reform Politics
About This Book
Confidence man and canny operative, charlatan and manipulator--William A. A. Carsey emerged from the shadow of Tammany Hall to build a career undermining working-class political organizations on behalf of the Democratic Party. Mark A. Lause's biography of Carsey takes readers inside the bare-knuckle era of Gilded Age politics. An astroturfing trailblazer and master of dirty tricks, Carsey fit perfectly into a Democratic Party that based much of its post-Civil War revival on shattering third parties and gathering up the pieces. Lause provides an in-depth look at Carsey's tactics and successes against the backdrop of enormous changes in political life. As Carsey used a carefully crafted public persona to burrow into unsuspecting organizations, the forces he represented worked to create a political system that turned voters into disengaged civic consumers and cemented America's ever-fractious two-party system.
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Table of contents
- Cover Page
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Prologue. Carseyâs Paternities: The Son of the Streets and the Odysseys of Father Columbia
- 1 Paper Party Power Broker: The Entrepreneurial Roots of Labor Reform Insurgency
- 2 Independents and Partisan Pantomimes: The Dilemma of Third Parties under a Two-Party System
- 3 Counterfeiting Class: The Secret Society Tradition and the Deep Origins of the American Federation of Labor
- 4 Monopolizing Antimonopolism: Ben Butler and the Preemption of Insurgency
- 5 The Path through Populism: From Henry George to William Jennings Bryan
- Epilogue. Carseyâs Progeny: The Forgotten Grandfather of American Progressivism and the Political Unmaking of an American Working Class
- Notes
- Index