Cover map courtesy of the Lancaster County Planning Commission.
Summary
Includes profiles of the boroughs and townships within Lancaster County. Profiles contain addresses, populations, office hours, meeting times, brief histories, and descriptions.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 287-310) and index.
Summary
Although the United States has always portrayed itself as a sanctuary for the world's victim's of poverty and oppression, anti-immigrant movements have enjoyed remarkable success throughout American history. None attained greater prominence than the Order of the Star Spangled Banner, a fraternal order referred to most commonly as the Know Nothing party. Vowing to reduce the political influence of immigrants and Catholics, the Know Nothings burst onto the American political scene in 1854, and by the end of the following year they had elected eight governors, more than one hundred congressmen, and thousands of other local officials including the mayors of Boston, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Chicago. After their initial successes, the Know Nothings attempted to increase their appeal by converting their network of lodges into a conventional political organization, which they christened the "American Party." Recently, historians have pointed to the Know Nothings' success as evidence that ethnic and religious issues mattered more to nineteenth-century voters than better-known national issues such as slavery. In this important book, however, Anbinder argues that the Know Nothings' phenomenal success was inextricably linked to the firm stance their northern members took against the extension of slavery. Most Know Nothings, he asserts, saw slavery and Catholicism as interconnected evils that should be fought in tandem. Although the Know Nothings certainly were bigots, their party provided an early outlet for the anti-slavery sentiment that eventually led to the Civil War. Anbinder's study presents the first comprehensive history of America's most successful anti-immigrant movement, as well as a major reinterpretation of the political crisis that led to the Civil War.
editor, Robert G. Crist ; contributors, Roland M. Baumann, Rodger C. Henderson, Owen S. Ireland.
Place of Publication
University Park, Pa
Publisher
Pennsylvania Historical Association,
Date of Publication
1990.
Physical Description
viii, 93 p. : ill. ; 23 cm.
Series
Pennsylvania history studies ;
Notes
Includes bibliographical references.
Summary
"Enter into the contentious debates over the ratification of the U.S. Constitution, and learn Pennsylvania's role in shaping the first ten amendments to the document, the Bill of Rights." [from the publisher]
