Angels in the Machinery Gender in American Party Politics from the Civil War to the Progressive Era

by Edwards, Rebecca

• ISBN13: 9780195116953
• ISBN10: 019511695X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1997-11-27
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Angels in the Machinery offers a sweeping analysis of the centrality of gender to politics in the United States from the days of the Whigs to the early twentieth century. Author Rebecca Edwards shows that women in the U.S. participated actively and influentially as Republicans, Democrats, and leaders of third-party movements like Prohibitionism and Populism decades before they won the right to vote, and in the process, transformed forever the ideology of American party politics. Using cartoons, speeches, party platforms, news accounts, and campaign memorabilia, she offers a compelling explanation of why family values, womens political activities, and even candidates sex lives remain hot-button issues in politics to this day.

Author Biography

Rebecca Edwards is Assistant Professor of History at Vassar College.

Table of Contents

Chronology of Key Elections and Other Events	xi
Introduction	3	(9)
1 The Political Crucible of the Civil War	12	(27)
2 Suffragists, Prohibitionists, and Republicans	39	(20)
3 Democrats and Domestic Economics	59	(16)
4 The Gospel of St. Republican	75	(16)
5 Populism	91	(20)
6 Redemption	111	(22)
7 New Parameters of Power	133	(17)
8 Progressives and Protection, 1897-1912	150	(17)
Epilogue	167	(4)
Notes	171	(42)
Selected References	213	(8)
Index	221