The Politicos, 1865-1896

by Matthew Josephson

Out of print for decades, The Politicos , Matthew Josephson’s sequel to his instant classic, The Robber Barons , is even more resonant indeed, cautionary a historical account today than it was when first published seventy years ago. Written during the most desperate time in twentieth-century America, this biting chronicle of the Gilded Age confirmed in most Americans minds why they had voted overwhelmingly for FDR and had embraced the New Deal’s reforms. In his insightful introduction to this volume, Michael Kazin notes that Josephson was able to convince readers living through the worst of the Great Depression that the roots of their calamity could be traced to the power and greed so notorious at the end of the last century. The eminent American historians Richard Hofstadter and C. Vann Woodward both lauded Josephson’s book. Hofstadter called it by far the most illuminating book on the politics of the entire period, while Woodward described it as masterly. For a contemporary reader, however, what is most disturbing about Josephson’s work is how closely it seems to be related to the alarming facts of American life in the first decade of the twenty-first century. At a time when income inequality in the United States is by every measure the worst it has been since the Great Depression, it is clear why Thomas Frank writes that The Politicos is "the volume of history with the most to teach us about the present."

Genres: History, Politics, Nonfiction

720 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1938

Reviews

[Lisa of Troy]

A Book Owned by F. Scott Fitzgerald: https://static-prod.lib.princeton.edu...

[Max · Rating 5 out of 5]

Josephson does an excellent job at explaining the party dynamics in American politics from the end of the civil war to McKinley’s election in 1896. He shows how the parties evolved from being patronage machines during Ulysses Grant’s presidency to centralized bureaucracies directly in service to the robber barons. He also explains the ways that popular discontent against capitalism manifested politically, largely through the Populist Party and their infiltration of the Democratic Party in the 1890s, which can serve as an interesting comparison to the attempts of socialists today to use the Democratic Party line to take office (even if the populists were not exactly socialists). Ultimately, this book does an excellent job at showing how the government changed over this period of time, and how access to government truly relied on privileged access to political parties, which casts some doubt on the validity of the American government as a democracy.

[Bruce Carlson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun way to learn about the Gilded Age, the Bearded Forgotten Presidents from a fellow writing 40 some-odd years later, during the Great Depression. Many books on Gilded Age politics suffer from boring writing b/c the authors are a century removed and see the subject objectively. Josephson is close enough to care. These men matter. Some, because they caused the problems he saw in his day. Some, because they drove the course of America. Others because they were good politicians. Good detail on the political battles and the high-stakes of post-Civil war politics. Get ready to be looking up some names, as you'll need to. Some of the key names didn't survive as household names. We don't talk about Chauncey Depew, Roscoe Conkling or Thomas Platt or Alonzo Cornell too much, but they all played a role.

Hear about the Half-Breed / Stalwart battle, and the Democrats "loyal opposition." and eventual Grover Cleveland regnums. The lowly position of the reformers most of the time, whose ideas were stolen by the more influential parties and factions.

Since he has hindsight, and he knows what's coming (and he didn't get to see the nation yet turn the corner at time of writing), he is fairly critical of the whole time, but not in a way that makes the writing less informative.

[Mills College Library]

973.8 J83p 2007