Contesting Democracy

"In a series of essays covering the transformation of politics and the growth of the national state over two hundred-plus years, Contesting Democracy is a sober study of a circus,and a good thing, too. People with ringside seats smell the sawdust and can tell the performing elephants from the trained jackasses, but, for a full view of the big picture, it helps to get beyond the big tent. Byron E. Shafer and Anthrony J. Badger’s collection gives a necessary perspective on what, for many years, was America’s greatest participatory sport."—Journal of American History

"A major publishing event in American political history. The flowering of the ‘new’ political history in the 1970s was followed by a generation of scholarship stressing grassroots non-electoral social movements, masculinized politics and gendered social policies, ‘whiteness’ studies, the mediating role of civil society, and comparative state-building. Here a parade of leading scholars examines how this research has reshaped our understanding of two centuries of American self-government."—Hugh Davis Graham, author of Civil Rights and the Presidency

"A lively collection of essays that synthesizes what we know about American politics and public policy. Even while disagreeing with each other, the authors develop new ideas about American politics and point to what we don't yet know. A terrific volume."—Paula Baker, author of Moral Frameworks of Public Life