To Make Men Free : A History of the Republican Party

When Abraham Lincoln helped create the Republican Party on the eve of the Civil War, his goal was to promote economic opportunity for all Americans, not just the slaveholding Southern planters who steered national politics. Yet while visionary Republicans like Teddy Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower shared Lincoln’s egalitarian dream, their attempts to use government to guard against the concentration of wealth have repeatedly been undone by the country’s moneyed interests and members of their own party. Ronald Reagan’s embrace of big business—and the ensuing financial crisis—is the latest example of this calamitous cycle, but it is by no means the first. In To Make Men Free, celebrated historian Heather Cox Richardson traces the shifting ideology of the Grand Old Party from the antebellum era to the Great Recession, showing how Republicans’ ideological vacillations have had terrible repercussions for minorities, the middle class, and America at large. Expansive and authoritative, To Make Men Free explains how a relatively young party became America’s greatest political hope—and, time and time again, its greatest disappointment. From the New York Times bestselling author of Democracy Awakening , “the most comprehensive account of the GOP and its competing impulses” ( Los Angeles Times ) When Abraham Lincoln helped create the Republican Party on the eve of the Civil War, his goal was to promote economic opportunity for all Americans, not just the slaveholding Southern planters who steered national politics. Yet, despite the egalitarian dream at the heart of its founding, the Republican Party quickly became mired in a fundamental identity crisis. Would it be the party of democratic ideals? Or would it be the party of moneyed interests? In the century and a half since, Republicans have vacillated between these two poles, with dire economic, political, and moral repercussions for the entire nation. In To Make Men Free , celebrated historian Heather Cox Richardson traces the shifting ideology of the Grand Old Party from the antebellum era to the Great Recession, revealing the insidious cycle of boom and bust that has characterized the Party since its inception. While in office, progressive Republicans like Teddy Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower revived Lincoln's vision of economic freedom and expanded the government, attacking the concentration of wealth and nurturing upward mobility. But they and others like them have been continually thwarted by powerful business interests in the Party. Their opponents appealed to Americans' latent racism and xenophobia to regain political power, linking taxation and regulation to redistribution and socialism. The results of the Party's wholesale embrace of big business are all too familiar: financial collapses like the Panic of 1893, the Great Depression in 1929, and the Great Recession in 2008. With each passing decade, with each missed opportunity and political misstep, the schism within the Republican Party has grown wider, pulling the GOP ever further from its founding principles. Expansive and authoritative, To Make Men Free is a sweeping history of the Party that was once America's greatest political hope — and, time and time again, has proved its greatest disappointment. Introduction 1. The Founding: The West as a Land of Promise 2. 1854 3. Republicans and the Slave Power 4. A Republican World View 5. Government of the People 6. Government for the People 7. The Party of Loyalty 8. Government by the People 9. Creating a Free Labor Nation 10. Lincoln's Vision Destroyed 11. Shall Not Perish from the Earth 12. Republicans or Radicals? 13. Corruption and Cowboys: The Republican Party Splits 14. Communism! 15. Republicans and Big Business 16. Equality or Empire? 17. Keeping the Country Republican 18. Making the Depression Work 19. The March of the Flag 20. Republicans Become "Liberals" 21. Roosevelt Stands with Lincoln 22. The Red Scare and Calvin Coolidge 23. The Business of America is Business, 1921-1928 24. The End of an Era 25. Republicans and the New Deal 26. A New Republican Vision 27. The Birth of Movement Conservatism 28. The Second Reconstruction 29. Movement Conservatives Capture the GOP 30. Reagan 31. The Ending: The West as an Idea Conclusion The west as a land of promise Government of the people, by the people, for the people Republicans or radicals? Abandoning equality Republicans and big business Republicans become liberals The business of America is business Republicans and the New Deal A new Republican vision The rise of movement conservatism Movement conservatives capture the GOP The west as an idea. "In To Make Men Free, celebrated historian Heather Cox Richardson traces the shifting ideology of the Grand Old Party from the antebellum era to the Great Recession, showing how Republicans' ideological vacillations have had terrible repercussions for minorities, the middle class, and America at large."--from publisher's description. "In To Make Men Free, celebrated historian Heather Cox Richardson traces the shifting ideology of the Grand Old Party from the antebellum era to the Great Recession, showing how Republicans' ideological vacillations have had terrible repercussions for minorities, the middle class, and America at large."--De l'éditeur A distinguished American historian traces the paradoxical evolution of the Republican Party—founded to give the poor equal opportunity, but too often aligned with the country's elites.