Others: Third-Party Politics From the Nation's Founding to the Rise and Fall of the Greenback-Labor Party

Richardson, Darcy

ISBN 10: 0595317235 / ISBN 13: 9780595317233

Published by iUniverse, 2004

About this Item

Seller Inventory # BSM.15JLS

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Others: Third-Party Politics From the Nation's Founding to the Rise and Fall of the Greenback-Labor Party
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Publication Date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0595317235
• ISBN 13: 9780595317233
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: very_good

About this title

Synopsis

This lively and lucidly written history examines the crucial role third parties have played in shaping our nation's destiny, beginning with the Anti-Masonic Party in the 1820s and concluding with the spectacular rise and disappointing collapse of the Greenback-Labor movement in the mid-1880s-a short-lived entity that gave birth to the dramatic Populist movement of the following decade. In this sweeping historical chronicle, a marvelous mix of history and biography, the author explains in vivid detail how two antebellum third-party movements-the Free Soil and Know-Nothing parties-provided the spark for the phoenix-like ascendancy of the antislavery Republican Party in the 1850s, culminating in Abraham Lincoln's election to the presidency in 1860. This copiously rich and brisk narrative also describes how the Know-Nothing Party-the most powerful third-party movement in American history-was ultimately ripped asunder over the issue of slavery. In the first of a riveting and powerful four-volume series on independent and third-party politics in U.S. history, Darcy Richardson also examines the remarkable and fascinating men and women who took part in those political movements outside the traditional "two-party system" and the extraordinary contributions they made in shaping the course of America's destiny.

About the Author

Darcy G. Richardson, a freelance writer, is the author of A Nation Divided: The 1968 Presidential Campaign. Long active in third-party politics, he was the Consumer Party candidate for Pennsylvania Auditor General in 1980 and for the U.S. Senate eight years later. He now resides and works in Jacksonville, Florida.