Presents a biography of James Buchanan's niece who was the White House hostess during her uncle's presidency, helped create the National Gallery of Art, and started the first pediatrics hospital.
Biographical directory of the United States Congress, 1774-1989 : the Continental Congress, September 5, 1774, to October 21, 1788, and the Congress of the United States, from the First through the One Hundredth Congresses, March 4, 1789, to January 3, 1989, inclusive
"Compiled and edited under the direction of the Joint Committee on Printing, Congress of the United States ... Bruce A. Ragsdale, editor in chief ... Kathryn Allamong Jacob, editor in chief"--P. v.
Rev. ed. of: Biographical directory of the American Congress, 1774-1971.
The 1850s saw in America the breakdown of the Jacksonian party system in the North and the emergence of a new sectional party--the Republicans--that succeeded the Whigs in the nation's two-party system. This monumental work uses demographic, voting, and other statistical analysis as well as the more traditional methods and sources of political history to trace the realignment of American politics in the 1850s and the birth of the Republican party. Gienapp powerfully demonstrates that the organization of the Republican party was a difficult, complex, and lengthy process and explains why, even after an inauspicious beginning, it ultimately became a potent political force. The study also reveals the crucial role of ethnocultural factors in the collapse of the second party system and thoroughly analyzes the struggle between nativism and antislavery for political dominance in the North. The volume concludes with the decisive triumph of the Republican party over the rival American party in the 1856 presidential election. Far-reaching in scope yet detailed in analysis, this is the definitive work on the formation of the Republican party in antebellum America. ... Publisher descri[ption.
African American resources at Lancaster County Historical Society
The author, Eric Foner, is an American historian. He writes extensively on American political history, the history of freedom, the early history of the Republican Party, African American biography, Reconstruction, and historiography, and has been a member of the faculty at the Columbia University Department of History since 1982. [wikipedia]
Contents
Chapters: The world the war made -- Rehearsals for reconstruction -- The meaning of freedom -- Ambiguities of labor -- The failure of presidential reconstruction -- The making of radical reconstruction -- Blueprints for a Republican south -- Reconstruction : political and economic -- The challenge of enforcement -- The reconstruction of the north -- The politics of depression -- Redemption and after
Summary
"Reconstruction chronicles the way in which Americans-black and white-responded to the unprecedented changes unleashed by the war and the end of slavery. It addresses the ways in which the emancipated slaves' quest for economic autonomy and equal citizenship shaped the political agenda of Reconstruction; the remodeling of Southern society and the place of planters, merchants, and small farmers within it; the evolution of racial attitudes and patterns of race relations; and the emergence of a national state possessing vastly expanded authority and committed, for a time, to the principle of equal rights for all Americans." [from the publisher]
"The hand that penned the original parchments of the Constitution belonged not to one of the Founding fathers who signed it, nor to any of their prominent contemporaries. It belonged to the little-known Revolutionary War veteran named Jacob Shallus, the son of a German immigrant. This volume, the first biography of Shallus ever published, tells his fascinating story in the context of Revolutionary era Philadelphia, 1749-1796. Appendixes provide information about Shallus' son Francis---who himself was a noted engraver---and a brief history of the travel and preservation of the Constitution are included." [from Amazon.com]
