The Decline of Popular Politics: The American North, 1865-1928

by Michael E. McGerr

Book Overview

In the 1984 presidential election, only half of the eligible electorate exercised its right to vote. Why does politics no longer excite many--of not most Americans?
Michael McGerr attributes the decline in voting in the American North to the transformation of political style after the Civil War. The Decline of Popular Politics vividly recreates a vanished world of democratic ritual and charts its disappearance in the rapid change of industrial...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0195054245
• ISBN13: 9780195054248
• Release Date: May 1988
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Length: 322 Pages
• Weight: 0.84 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.4" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

Accounting for the increasing boredom

Imagine being bored with what is going to happen to you. What does it take to bore people to death with the very means by which they can change their circumstances for the better? McGerr details the gradual development of what essential amounts to the boredom of an increasing number of Americans with the political system. He contrasts what turn out to be significant shifts in emphasis in the way we do politics especially from after the civil war that shows voter apathy is not something new. He does this in a way that avoids being boring itself. He does all the footwork and research and develops the narrative nicely.