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The Coming of Democracy

Presidential Campaigning in the Age of Jackson

Mark R Cheathem author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Johns Hopkins University Press

Published:14th Aug '18

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The Coming of Democracy cover

A look at the evolution of presidential campaigning from 1824 to 1840. If you think politics are uncivil now . . .

Winner of the Phi Alpha Theta History Honor Society Best Subsequent Book Award by the Phi Alpha Theta History Honor Society

After the “corrupt bargain” that awarded John Quincy Adams the presidency in 1825, American politics underwent a fundamental shift from deference to participation. This changing tide eventually propelled Andrew Jackson into the White House—twice. But the presidential race that best demonstrated the extent of the changes was that of Martin Van Buren and war hero William Henry Harrison in 1840. Harrison’s campaign was famously marked by sloganeering and spirited rallies.

In The Coming of Democracy, Mark R. Cheathem examines the evolution of presidential campaigning from 1824 to 1840. Addressing the roots of early republic cultural politics—from campaign biographies to songs, political cartoons, and public correspondence between candidates and voters—Cheathem asks the reader to consider why such informal political expressions increased so dramatically during the Jacksonian period. What sounded and looked like mere entertainment, he argues, held important political meaning. The extraordinary voter participation rate—over 80 percent—in the 1840 presidential election indicated that both substantive issues and cultural politics drew Americans into the presidential selection process.

Drawing on period newspapers, diaries, memoirs, and public and private correspondence, The Coming of Democracy is the first book-length treatment to reveal how presidents and presidential candidates used both old and new forms of cultural politics to woo voters and win elections in the Jacksonian era. This book will appeal to anyone interested in US politics, the Jacksonian/antebellum era, or the presidency.

For so slim a volume, there is much to admire. Perfectly balancing evidence with exposition and nicely illustrating the visual texture of the era through images, The Coming of Democracy is a welcomed contribution to the study of American political culture in its formative years.
—Thomas J. Balcerski Jr., Associate professor Eastern Connecticut State University. Author of Bosom Friends: The Intimate World ofJames Buchanan and William Rufus King (2019), New York History

  • Winner of Phi Alpha Theta Book Award 2019 (United States)

ISBN: 9781421425979

Dimensions: 229mm x 152mm x 22mm

Weight: 454g

248 pages