and bureaucracy they are very much alive, and still unsettled. It is
fashionable to avoid the era's politics with the comforting view that
no basic issues divided the parties, but politics was an ever-present,
vivid, and meaningful reality to that whole generation. Men believed
fervently that wide differences separated Republicans and Democrats.
We ought to do them the justice of examining the proposition, and
any close study of the problem reveals fundamental and important
party differences. Broadly speaking, the Republicans spoke for the
emerging businessman-skilled labor-prosperous farmer coalition that
triumphed in 1896. They believed in federal economic subsidy, and a
workable amount of regulation for the national interest. Democrats,
however, clung doggedly to ancient ideals of local rule -- negative
government that protected alleged individualism -- and never under-
stood the changes that covered America after the Civil War.

This book has two major purposes: (1) to detail and unify the events
of national politics between 1877 and 1896, the years that produced a
working national party system; and (2) to show how parties differed,
and how each met the major issues of the time. This is not a thesis
book, though the theme of an emerging national party system helps
unify the narrative. Party politics developed a coherent national form
and direction in this period. This helped to unify the United States by
providing an overriding symbolic loyalty, material rewards, and a
stake in government for millions of people. At the conclusion of the
Civil War, the country was still a collection of regions, ethnic groups,
and clashing local loyalties. At century's end, economic development,
diplomacy, and the emergence of a national party system all worked
toward national unity. Government activity in the twentieth century
could not have grown without that foundation.

The book develops in a cumulative, analytical narrative. I try to
avoid distracting authorial interruptions, hoping my viewpoint emerges
from the narrative as the events themselves develop. The book is
obviously not a history of the period, and concentrates on national
politics. I discuss some important laws that reflected deeper currents
of thought, and deal with foreign policy and economics only as they
impinged directly on politics. The bibliography cites pertinent works
covering these problems. Of necessity, I have shortened my treatment
of many famous incidents and issues like pension legislation, the
Pullman Strike, and Populism, especially where adequate secondary
literature is available. The book is essentially a view of politics at the
top, and from the top. This necessitates a good deal of attention to

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