Republican Party (United States), history/Bibliography

The literature on the History of the Republican Party is very large. This is a guide to the best resources. For the party as of 2007 see U.S. Republican Party

Secondary Sources

Surveys

• American National Biography (20 volumes, 1999) covers all politicians no longer alive; online at many academic libraries.
• Burnham, Walter Dean, ed. Critical Elections and the Mainsprings of American Politics. 1970. statistical analysis by leading political scientist
• Batchelor, John Calvin. "Ain't You Glad You Joined the Republicans?" A Short History of the GOP. 1996. 399 pp. well-written popular history, well illustrated
• Congressional Quarterly's Guide to U.S. Elections (4th ed 2003) 1600pp, vast compilation of data, esp., since 1945
• Gould, Lewis. Grand Old Party: A History of the Republicans (2003), the best scholarly overview.
• Jensen, Richard. Grass Roots Politics: Parties, Issues, and Voters, 1854-1983 (1983) online edition
• Kleppner, Paul, et al. The Evolution of American Electoral Systems (1983), applies party systems model
• MacNeil, Neil. Forge of Democracy: The House of Representatives (1963) popular history
• Mayer, George H. The Republican Party, 1854-1966. 2nd ed. (1967), narrative.
• Rutland, Robert Allen. The Republicans: From Lincoln to Bush (1996) popular narrative
• Shafer, Byron E. and Anthony J. Badger, eds. Contesting Democracy: Substance and Structure in American Political History, 1775-2000 (2001), long essays by specialists on each time period:
  • includes: "'To One or Another of These Parties Every Man Belongs;": 1820–1865 by Joel H. Silbey; "Change and Continuity in the Party Period: 1835–1885" by Michael F. Holt; "The Transformation of American Politics: 1865–1910" by Peter H. Argersinger; "Democracy, Republicanism, and Efficiency: 1885–1930" by Richard Jensen; "The Limits of Federal Power and Social Policy: 1910–1955" by Anthony J. Badger; "The Rise of Rights and Rights Consciousness: 1930–1980" by James T. Patterson; and "Economic Growth, Issue Evolution, and Divided Government: 1955–2000" by Byron E. Shafer
• Schlesinger, Arthur Meier, Jr. ed. History of American Presidential Elections, 1789-2000 (various multivolume editions, latest is 2001). For each election includes good scholarly history and selection of primary document. Essays on the most important election are reprinted in Schlesinger, The Coming to Power: Critical presidential elections in American history (1972)

Third Party System: 1854 to 1900

• Abbott, Richard H. For Free Press and Equal Rights: Republican Newspapers in the Reconstruction South. U. of Georgia Press, 2004. 296 pp.
• Baggett, James Alex. The Scalawags: Southern Dissenters in the Civil War and Reconstruction. Louisiana State U. Press, 2003. 323 pp.
• Calhoun, Charles W. Conceiving a New Republic: The Republican Party and the Southern Question, 1869-1900. U. Press of Kansas, 2006. 347 pp
• Dearing, Mary. Veterans in Politics: The Story of the GAR 1952.

In 1860 men voted by taking a paper ballot from a party worker and depositing it in a glass jar; GOP ballot, Massachusetts

• DeSantis, Vincent P. Republicans Face the Southern Question: The New Departure Years, 1877-1897 1959.
• Donald, David. Lincoln (1999), standard scholarly biography
• Edwards, Rebecca. Angels in the Machinery: Gender in American Party Politics from the Civil War to the Progressive Era (1997)
• Engs, Robert F., and Randall M. Miller, eds. The Birth of the Grand Old Party: The Republicans' First Generation (2002), summary essays by experts; well illustrated
• Foner, Eric. Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men: The Ideology of the Republican Party Before the Civil War (1970), influential history of ideas and ideology; online edition
• Gienapp, William E. The Origins of the Republican Party, 1852-1856 (1987), quantitative voting studies, by state
• Gienapp, William E. "Nativism and the Creation of a Republican Majority in the North Before the Civil War", Journal of American History 72 (Dec. 1985): 529-59 in JSTOR
• Green, Michael S. Freedom, Union, and Power: Lincoln and His Party during the Civil War. Fordham U. Press, 2004. 400 pp.
• Gustafson, Melanie Susan. Women and the Republican Party, 1854-1924. U. of Illinois Press, 2001. 195 pp.
• Hand, Samuel B. The Star That Set: The Vermont Republican Party, 1854-1974. Lexington Books, 2002. 353 pp.
• Hershock, Martin J. The Paradox of Progress: Economic Change, Individual Enterprise, and Political Culture in Michigan, 1837-1878. Ohio U. Press, 2003. 324 pp.
• Hesseltine, William B. Ulysses S. Grant: Politician (1935) online edition
• Hoogenboom, Ari. Outlawing the Spoils: A History of the Civil Service Reform Movement, 1865-1883. 1968.
• Hoogenboom, Ari. Rutherford B. Hayes: Warrior and President 1995.
• Jensen, Richard. The Winning of the Midwest: Social and Political Conflict, 1888-1896 (1971)
• Jordan, David. Roscoe Conkling of New York: Voice in the Senate 1971.
• Kehl, James A. Boss Rule in the Gilded Age: Matt Quay of Pennsylvania (1981) online edition
• Keller, Morton. Affairs of State: Public Life in Late Nineteenth Century America 1977.
• Kleppner, Paul. The Third Electoral System 1853-1892: Parties, Voters, and Political Cultures (1979), analysis of voting behavior, with emphasis on region, ethnicity, religion and class. online edition
• McKinney, Gordon B. Southern Mountain Republicans, 1865-1900: Politics and the Appalachian Community 1978.
• Marcus, Robert. Grand Old Party: Political Structure in the Gilded Age, 1880-1896 1971.
• Morgan, H. Wayne. From Hayes to McKinley; National Party Politics, 1877-1896 (1969) online edition, good survey of era
• Morgan, H. Wayne. William McKinley and His America 1963.
• Muzzey, David Saville. James G. Blaine: A Political Idol of Other Days 1934.
• Nevins, Allan. Ordeal of the Union 8 vol (1947-77); highly detailed narrative of national politics and Civil War, 1848-65, by leading scholar
• Paludin, Philip. A People's Contest: The Union and the Civil War, 1861-1865 1988.
• Polakoff, Keith Ian. The Politics of Inertia: The Election of 1876 and the End of Reconstruction 1973.
• Rhodes, James Ford. The History of the United States from the Compromise of 1850 8 vol (1932), narrative, 1850-1909
• Richardson, Heather Cox. The Greatest Nation of the Earth: Republican Economic Policies during the Civil War (1997) online edition
• Robinson, William A. Thomas B. Reed, Parliamentarian 1930.
• Silbey, Joel H. The American Political Nation, 1838-1893 (1991)
• Summers, Mark Wahlgren. Rum, Romanism & Rebellion: The Making of a President, 1884 (2000) online edition
• Trefousse, Hans L. Thaddeus Stevens: Nineteenth-Century Egalitarian. U. of North Carolina Press, 1997. 312 pp. online edition
• Van Deusen, Glyndon G. Horace Greeley, Nineteenth-Century Crusader (1953) online edition
• Wang, Xi. The Trial of Democracy: Black Suffrage and Northern Republicans, 1860-1910. U. of Georgia Press, 1997. 411 pp.
• Welch, Richard E. George Frisbie Hoar and the Half Breed Republicans 1971.
• Williams, R. Hal. Years of Decision: American Politics in the 1890s. 1978.

Forth Party System: 1900-1932

• Blum, John Morton The Republican Roosevelt. (1954). essays that examine how TR did politics
• Brands, H.W. Theodore Roosevelt (2001), full biography online edtiion
• Burner, David. Herbert Hoover: A Public Life. (1979).
• Chace, James. 1912: Wilson, Roosevelt, Taft, and Debs - The Election That Changed the Country. (2004). 323 pp.
• Coletta, Paolo Enrico. The Presidency of William Howard Taft (1973), standard survey
• Garraty, John. Henry Cabot Lodge: A Biography 1953
• Gosnell, Harold F. Boss Platt and His New York Machine: A Study of the Political Leadership of Thomas C. Platt, Theodore Roosevelt, and Others (1924)
• Gould, Lewis L. The Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt. (1991), standard survey
• Gustafson, Melanie Susan. Women and the Republican Party, 1854-1924. U. of Illinois Press, 2001. 195 pp. * Harbaugh, William Henry. The Life and Times of Theodore Roosevelt. (1963), full scholarly biography
• Hechler, Kenneth S. Insurgency: Personalities and Politics of the Taft Era (1940)
• Lichtman, Allan J. Prejudice and the Old Politics: The Presidential Election of 1928 (1979). quantitative study of voters
• Morris, Edmund. The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, to 1901 (1979); vol 2: Theodore Rex 1901-1909. (2001); Pulitzer prize; biography.
• Mowry, George. The Era of Theodore Roosevelt and the Birth of Modern America, 1900-1912. (1954) general survey of era; online
• Karen A. J. Miller; Populist Nationalism: Republican Insurgency and American Foreign Policy Making, 1918-1925. Greenwood Press, 1999
• McCoy, Donald, Calvin Coolidge: The Quiet President (1967),
• Mowry, George E. Theodore Roosevelt and the Progressive Movement. (2001) focus on 1912
• Pringle, Henry F. The Life and Times of William Howard Taft: A Biography. 2 vol (1939); Pulitzer prize; the standard biography vol 1 online
• Pringle, Henry F. Theodore Roosevelt: A Biography (1931) online edition
• Sherman, Richard B. The Republican Party and Black America from McKinley to Hoover 1973.
• Smith, Richard Norton. An Uncommon Man: The Triumph of Herbert Hoover, (1987) full-length scholarly biography.
• David Thelen, Robert M. La Follette and the Insurgent Spirit 1976. short interpretive biography
• Unger, Nancy C. Fighting Bob La Follette: The Righteous Reformer (2000), full scale biography

Fifth Party System: 1932 to 1980

• Andrew III, John A. The Other Side of the Sixties: Young Americans for Freedom and the Rise of Conservative Politics, 1997 online edition
• Brennan, Mary C. Turning Right in the Sixties: The Conservative Capture of the GOP (1995) online edition
• Dallek, Matthew. The Right Moment: Ronald Reagan's First Victory and the Decisive Turning Point in American Politics. (2004). Study of 1966 election as governor.
• Firestone, Bernard J. and Alexej Ugrinsky (eds) Gerald R. Ford and the Politics of Post-Watergate America (1992)
• Robert Alan Goldberg's Barry Goldwater (1995),
• Greenberg, David. Nixon's Shadow: The History of an Image (2003). Important study of how Nixon was perceived by media and scholars.
• Greene, John Robert. The Limits of Power: The Nixon and Ford Administrations
• Greene, John Robert. The Presidency of Gerald R. Ford (1995)the major scholarly study
• Hand, Samuel B. The Star That Set: The Vermont Republican Party, 1854-1974. Lexington Books, 2002. 353 pp.
• Hodgson, Godfrey. The World Turned Right Side Up: A History of the Conservative Ascendancy in America (1996). by British journalist
• Hoff, Joan. Nixon Reconsidered (1994); online ediition
• Jensen, Richard. "The Last Party System, 1932-1980," in Paul Kleppner, ed. Evolution of American Electoral Systems (1981)
• Ladd Jr., Everett Carll with Charles D. Hadley. Transformations of the American Party System: Political Coalitions from the New Deal to the 1970s 2nd ed. (1978).
• Mason, Robert. Richard Nixon and the Quest for a New Majority (2004). 289 pp
• Matthews, Jeffrey J. "To Defeat a Maverick: The Goldwater Candidacy Revisited, 1963-1964," Presidential Studies Quarterly, Vol. 27, 1997 online edition
• Morris, Roger. Richard Milhous Nixon: The Rise of an American Politician (1990).
• Pach, Chester J. and Elmo Richardson. Presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower (1991). Standard scholarly survey.
• Parmet, Herbert S. Eisenhower and the American Crusades (1972) online edition
• Parmet, Herbert S. Richard Nixon and His America (1990).
• Patterson, James T. Mr. Republican: A Biography of Robert A. Taft (1972)
• Patterson, James. Congressional Conservatism and the New Deal: The Growth of the Conservative Coalition in Congress, 1933-39 (1967)
• Perlstein, Rick. Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus (2002) well written, broad account of 1964
• Persico, Joseph E. The Imperial Rockefeller: A Biography of Nelson A. Rockefeller, 1982 (The author was a senior aide).
• Reich, Cary. The Life of Nelson A. Rockefeller: Worlds to Conquer, 1908-1958, 1996.
• Reichley, James; Conservatives in an Age of Change: The Nixon and Ford Administrations, Brookings Institution, 1981. online edition
• Reinhard, David W. The Republican Right since 1945 (1983) online edition
• Schuparra, Kurt. Triumph of the Right: The Rise of the California Conservative Movement, 1945-1996. M. E. Sharpe, 1998. 221 pp.
• Shelley II, Mack C. The Permanent Majority: The Conservative Coalition in the United States Congress (1983)
• Smith, J. Brian. John J. Rhodes: Man of the House. Primer, 2005. 380 pp GOP House leader in 1970s
• Smith, Oran P. The Rise of Baptist Republicanism. New York U. Press, 1997. 320 pp.
• Smith, Richard Norton. Thomas E. Dewey and His Times. (1982)
• Sundquist, James L. Dynamics of the Party System: Alignment and Realignment of Political Parties in the United States (1983) online edition
• Weed, Clyde P. "What Happened to the Republicans in the 1930s: Minority Party Dynamics During Political Realignment." Polity 1989 22(1): 5-23. Issn: 0032-3497 Fulltext: in Jstor
• White, Theodore. The Making of the President: 1960 (1961); The Making of the President: 1964 (1965); The Making of the President 1968 (1969) classic narratives
• White, William S. The Taft Story (1954); Pulitzer Prize. online edition
• Wunderlin, Clarence E., Jr. Robert A. Taft: Ideas, Tradition, and Party in US Foreign Policy. Rowman and Littlefield, 2005. 272 pp.

1980 - 2000

• Barone, Michael, and Grant Ujifusa, The Almanac of American Politics 2006: The Senators, the Representatives and the Governors: Their Records and Election Results, Their States and Districts (2005) covers all incumbent Congressmen and governors with amazing detail. New edition published every two years since 1975.
• Aistrup, Joseph A. The Southern Strategy Revisited: Republican Top-Down Advancement in the South (1996)
• Barnett, Timothy J. Legislative Learning: The 104th Republican Freshmen in the House. 1998. 333 pp.

• Black, Earl and Black, Merle. The Rise of Southern Republicans. Harvard U. Press, 2002. 442 pp.
• Cannon, Lou. President Reagan: The Role of a Lifetime (2000), online edition
• Critchlow, Donald T. Phyllis Schlafly and Grassroots Conservatism: A Woman's Crusade. Princeton U. Press, 2005. 422 pp.
• Edwards, Lee. The Conservative Revolution: The Movement That Remade America. Free Press, 1999. 391 pp.
• Ehrman, John, The Eighties: America in the Age of Reagan (2005)
• Frum, David. What's Right: The New Conservative Majority and the Remaking of America (1996)
• Germond, Jack W. and Jules Witcover. Blue Smoke & Mirrors: How Reagan Won & Why Carter Lost the Election of 1980. 1981. Detailed journalism.
• Green, John Robert. The Presidency of George Bush. (2000). 1989-1993
• Lamis, Alexander P. ed. Southern Politics in the 1990s (1999)
• Layman, Geoffrey. The Great Divide: Religious and Cultural Conflict in American Party Politics. Columbia University Press. 2001. 435pp.
• Levy, Peter B. Encyclopedia of the Reagan-Bush Years Greenwood Press, 1996 online edition
• Patterson, James T. Restless Giant: The United States from Watergate to Bush vs. Gore. (2005), standard scholarly synthesis.
• Pemberton, William E. Exit with Honor: The Life and Presidency of Ronald Reagan (1998) biography by historian; online edition
• Rae, Nicol C. Conservative Reformers: The Republican Freshmen and the Lessons of the 104th Congress. Sharpe, 1998. 255 pp.
• Reeves, Richard. President Reagan: The Triumph of Imagination (2005) detailed analysis by historian
• Rymph, Catherine. Republican Women: Feminism and Conservatism from Suffrage through the Rise of the New Right. U. of North Carolina Press, 2006. 338 pp.
• Sabato, Larry J. and Bruce Larson. The Party's Just Begun: Shaping Political Parties for America's Future (2001).
• Schaller, Michael and Rising, George. The Republican Ascendancy: American Politics, 1968-2001. Harlan Davidson, 2002. 210 pp.
• Steely, Mel. The Gentleman from Georgia: The Biography of Newt Gingrich. Mercer U. Press, 2000. 431 pp.

2000 to present

• Barone, Michael, and Grant Ujifusa, The Almanac of American Politics 2006: The Senators, the Representatives and the Governors: Their Records and Election Results, Their States and Districts (2005) covers all incumbent Congressmen and governors with amazing detail. New edition published every two years since 1975.
• Black, Earl and Merle Black. Divided America: The Ferocious Power Struggle in American Politics (2007)
• Frank, Thomas. What's the Matter with Kansas? How Conservatives Won the Heart of America (2005)
• Lublin, David. The Republican South: Democratization and Partisan Change. Princeton U. Press, 2004. 272 pp.
• Mooney, Chris. The Republican War on Science. Basic Books, 2005. 342 pp.
• Sabato, Larry J. ed. The Sixth Year Itch: The Rise and Fall of the George W. Bush Presidency (2007), in-depth essays by scholars
• Sabato, Larry J. Divided States of America: The Slash and Burn Politics of the 2004 Presidential Election (2005).
• Shafer, Byron and Richard Johnston. The End of Southern Exceptionalism (2006), uses statistical election data & polls to argue GOP growth was primarily a response to economic change
• Taylor, Andrew J. Elephant's Edge: The Republicans as a Ruling Party. Praeger, 2005. 336 pp. academic study of how GOP turned small advantages into power
• Wooldridge, Adrian and John Micklethwait. The Right Nation: Conservative Power in America sophisticated study by two British journalists (2004).

Latino vote

• Barreto, Matt A.; Leal, David L. "Latinos, Military Service, and Support for Bush and Kerry in 2004," American Politics Research (2007) Vol 35 #2, Pages: 224-251 online at SAGE
• Desipio, Louis; Uhlaner, Carole Jean. "Immigrant and Native: Mexican American Presidential Vote Choice Across Immigrant Generations," American Politics Research (2007) Vol 35 #2, Pages: 176-201 online at SAGE
• De La Garza, Rodolfo O.; Cortina, Jeronimo, "Are Latinos Republicans But Just Don’t Know It?: The Latino Vote in the 2000 and 2004 Presidential Elections," American Politics Research (2007) Vol 35 #2, Pages: 202-223 online at SAGE
• Lee, Jongho; Pachon, Harry P. "Leading the Way: An Analysis of the Effect of Religion on the Latino Vote," American Politics Research (2007) Vol 35 #2, Pages: 252-272 online at SAGE
• Nuño, Stephen A. "Latino Mobilization and Vote Choice in the 2000 Presidential Election," American Politics Research (2007) Vol 35 #2, Pages: 273-293 online at SAGE
• Ramírez, Ricardo, "Segmented Mobilization: Latino Nonpartisan Get-Out-the-Vote Efforts in the 2000 General Election." American Politics Research (2007) Vol 35 #2, Pages: 155-175 online at SAGE
• Vigil, Maurilio E. "Hispanics and the 1996 Presidential Election." Latino Studies Journal 1998 9(1): 43-61. Issn: 1066-1344

Primary sources

• Cantril, Hadley and Mildred Strunk, eds. Public Opinion, 1935-1946 (1951), huge compilation of public opinion polls from the United States and elsewhere. online version
• Gallup, George H. ed., The Gallup Poll: Public Opinion, 1935-1971, 3 vol. (1972),
• Schlesinger, Arthur Meier, Jr. ed. History of American Presidential Elections, 1789-2000 (various multivolume editions, latest is 2001). For each election includes brief history and selection of primary documents.
• Taft, Robert A. The Papers of Robert A. Taft. ed. by Clarence E. Wunderlin, Jr.; 3 vol to 1948; Kent State U. Press, (1997-2003) 630pp each.
• The national committees of major parties published a "campaign textbook" every presidential election from about 1856 to about 1932. They were designed for speakers and are jammed with statistics, speeches, summaries of legislation, and documents, with plenty of argumentation. Only large academic libraries have them, but some are online.
  • Democratic National Committee. The Campaign Text Book: Why the People Want a Change. The Republican Party Reviewed... (1876)
  • Republican Campaign Text Book, for 1878]
  • The Republican Campaign Text Book for 1882 by Republican Congressional Committee
  • The Republican Campaign Text Book for 1884
  • The Republican Campaign Text-book for 1888
  • Republican Campaign Text Book, 1894
  • Republican Campaign Text Book, 1896
  • Republican Campaign Text Book, 1898
  • Republican Campaign Textbook, 1902
  • Republican Campaign Text Book, 1904
  • Republican Campaign Textbook, 1906
  • Republican Campaign Text Book, 1908
  • Republican Campaign Text Book, 1912
  • Republican Campaign Text Book, 1916
  • Republican Campaign Text Book, 1920
  • Republican Campaign Text Book, 1924
  • Republican Campaign Text Book, 1928

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