Affairs of State: Public Life in Late Nineteenth-Century America

Morton Keller

Published by Harvard University Press 1977

Affairs of State

Public Life in Late Nineteenth-Century America

Morton Keller

https://doi.org/10.4159/harvard.9780674181885

Overview
Contents

About this book

This first modern history of American public life after the Civil War is a work of magisterial sweep and sophisticated insight. It will be the standard work on the era for many years to come.

Integrating political, legal, and administrative history on a scale not previously attempted, Morton Keller examines crosscurrents in American institutions during a key transitional period in American history—a period that began with the end of a bloody civil war and ended with the beginning of massive industrialization. At the same time, he vividly captures the energy and optimism of a young country about to burst into the twentieth century.

Keller begins by reviewing the twin legacies of the Civil War: a strengthened belief in an active national government and a vigorous drive toward civil equality. He moves on to the postwar years when centralizing and reformist tendencies were evident everywhere, not only in the Reconstructed South but also in a renewed North. After the 1880s, however, the pendulum began to swing back, and Americans faced the social and economic upheavals of the last decades of the nineteenth century with deeply divided views—an uncertainty that persists in our own day.

Author / Editor information

Keller Morton :

Morton Keller received his M.A. and Ph.D. in History from Harvard University, and is author of numerous books and articles, including In Defense of Yesterday: James M. Beck and the Politics of Conservatism and The Art and Politics of Thomas Nast. He has also edited books on the New Deal and the age of Theodore Roosevelt. Mr. Keller is currently Samuel J. and Augusta Spector Professor of History at Brandeis University.

Reviews

A masterly and insightful analysis of the public life of Americans in the post-Civil War era.

Keller's purpose is to evoke the complex character of America's public experience; its electoral politics, political thought, legal doctrines, and judicial behavior; its public policies; and the scope and reach of national, state, and local institutions...This is a remarkable book. There is nothing quite like it anywhere else...Keller has given new dimension to the politics of the last third of the nineteenth century.

Absolutely first-class--broadly informed, beautifully written, by all odds the best history of modern American politics that is presently available. An indispensable book.

In this major new history, the author explores the changes caused by the Civil War and the impact of politics, law, and government upon the new social and economic order...In a highly original chapter defining the new status of groups in the industrialized nation, Professor Keller discusses the barriers to women's rights; how old assumptions of black racial inferiority were bolstered by scientific racism; the forced movement for Indian assimilation, and the fluid relationships of families and marriage.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Preface Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	vii
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
Tables Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xii
CHAPTER 1. The Weight of the War Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
PART ONE. The Postwar Polity 1865-1880
CHAPTER 2. The Politics of Reconstruction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	37
CHAPTER 3. Postwar Governance Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	85
CHAPTER 4. The Quest for a Good Society Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	122
CHAPTER 5. The Political Economy of Postwar America Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	162
CHAPTER 6. The Southern Experience Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	197
CHAPTER 7. The Triumph of Organizational Politics Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	238
PART TWO. The Industrial Polity 1880–1900
CHAPTER 8. Governance in an Industrial Age Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	289
CHAPTER 9. The Province of the Law Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	343
CHAPTER 10. The Political Economy of Industrialism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	371
CHAPTER 11. The Structure of Economic Regulation Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	409
CHAPTER 12. The Shock of Social Change: The Definition of Status Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	439
CHAPTER 13. The Shock of Social Change: The Control of Behavior Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	473
CHAPTER 14. The Politics of an Industrial Society Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	522
CHAPTER 15. The Crisis of the Nineties Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	565
CHAPTER 16. The Twentieth Century Polity Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	588
ABBREVIATIONS, INDEX
Abbreviations Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	603
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	607

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Copyright year: 1977
Edition: Reprint 2014
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Front matter: 9
- Main content: 631
Illustrations
- Tables: 7
- Other: 7 tables
Keywords: HISTORY / United States / General; United States -- History -- 1865-1898.; United States, 1865-1900

eBook

Published: October 1, 2013
ISBN: 9780674181885

Hardcover

Published: February 5, 1977
ISBN: 9780674181878