Affairs of Party
The Political Culture of Northern Democrats in the Mid–Nineteenth Century.
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Affairs of party, Jean Baker asserts, were a central feature of public life in nineteenth-century America. In this book she explores the way in which the Northern Democrats of the mid-eighteen hundreds lived their public lives. She begins with a psychobiographical explanation of how people became Democrats, weighing the importance of such influences as education and family life. She then discusses two major elements that set Democrats apart from members of other political organizations: a modified Republican ideology tailored to the circumstances of the Civil War, and a mordant racism conveyed most strikingly through minstrelsy. Finally, Baker studies the neglected subject of partisan behavior, concentrating on the significance of parades, voting, and other rituals.
In Affairs of Party Jean Baker brings together the three basic components of a political culture—education, thought, and behavior—and provides an understanding of the collective values of Northern Democrats and an insight into the elusive meaning of party experience.
In her new preface, Professor Baker places her book in the context of both recent scholarship and recent political and cultural developments.
“This is a bold and imaginative book, and its reach is wide. There is nothing like it in contemporary political historiography and it will have a major impact on the way American historians think about the politics of the period.”---Joel Sibey, Cornell University
“Baker’s work [is] a welcome complement to studies of 19th-century political culture. . . . Her analysis is both original and provocative.”---Choice