Democratic Party (United States), history/Bibliography

Please sort and annotate in a user-friendly manner. For formatting, consider using automated reference wikification.

Surveys

• American National Biography (20 volumes, 1999) covers all politicians no longer alive; online and paper copies at many academic libraries. Older Dictionary of American Biography.
• Dinkin, Robert J. Campaigning in America: A History of Election Practices. (Greenwood 1989)
• Keller, Morton. America's Three Regimes: A New Political History (2007) 384pp.
• Remini, Robert V. The House: The History of the House of Representatives (2006), extensive coverage of the party
• Sabato, Larry J., and Howard R. Ernst eds. Political Parties and Elections (2007), 540pp; an encyclopedia with 450 entries by scholars, strongest on period after 1945
• Shafer, Byron E. and Anthony J. Badger, eds. Contesting Democracy: Substance and Structure in American Political History, 1775-2000 (2001), most recent collection of new essays by specialists on each time period:
  • includes: "State Development in the Early Republic: 1775–1840" by Ronald P. Formisano; "The Nationalization and Racialization of American Politics: 1790–1840" by David Waldstreicher; "'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, Brown University; and "Economic Growth, Issue Evolution, and Divided Government: 1955–2000" by Byron E. Shafer

Before 1932

• Allen, Oliver E. The Tiger: The Rise and Fall of Tammany Hall (1993)
• Baker, Jean. Affairs of Party: The Political Culture of Northern Democrats in the Mid-Nineteenth Century (1983).
• Cole, Donald B. Martin Van Buren And The American Political System (1984)
• Bass, Herbert J. "I Am a Democrat": The Political Career of David B. Hill 1961.
• Collins, Bruce. "The Ideology of the Ante-bellum Northern Democrats." Journal of American Studies (1977) 11(1): 103-121. Issn: 0021-8758
• Craig, Douglas B. After Wilson: The Struggle for the Democratic Party, 1920-1934 (1992) excerpt and text search
• Flick, Alexander C. Samuel Jones Tilden: A Study in Political Sagacity 1939.
• Formisano, Ronald P. The Transformation of Political Culture: Massachusetts Parties, 1790s-1840s (1983)
• Gammon, Samuel Rhea. The Presidential Campaign of 1832 (1922) online edition
• Hammond, Bray. Banks and Politics in America from the Revolution to the Civil War (1960), Pulitzer prize. Pro-Bank
• Jensen, Richard. Grass Roots Politics: Parties, Issues, and Voters, 1854-1983 (1983)
• Keller, Morton. Affairs of State: Public Life in Late Nineteenth Century America 1977.
• Kleppner, Paul et al. The Evolution of American Electoral Systems (1983), essays, 1790s to 1980s.
• 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
• McCormick, Richard P. The Second American Party System: Party Formation in the Jacksonian Era (1966)
• Merrill, Horace Samuel. Bourbon Democracy of the Middle West, 1865-1896 1953.
• Nevins, Allan. Grover Cleveland: A Study in Courage 1934. Pulitzer Prize
• Remini, Robert V. Martin Van Buren and the Making of the Democratic Party (1959)
• Rhodes, James Ford. The History of the United States from the Compromise of 1850 8 vol (1932) online edition
• Ritchie, Donald A. Electing FDR: The New Deal Campaign of 1932 (2007) excerpt and text search
• Sanders, Elizabeth. Roots of Reform: Farmers, Workers, and the American State, 1877-1917 (1999). argues the Democrats were the true progressives and GOP was mostly conservative
• Sarasohn, David. The Party of Reform: Democrats in the Progressive Era (1989), covers 1910-1930.
• Schlesinger, Arthur Meier, Jr. ed. History of American Presidential Elections, 1789-2000 (various multivolume editions, latest is 2001). For each election includes history and selection of primary documents. Essays on some elections are reprinted in Schlesinger, The Coming to Power: Critical presidential elections in American history (1972)
• Sharp, James Roger. The Jacksonians Versus the Banks: Politics in the States after the Panic of 1837 (1970) online edition
• Silbey, Joel H. A Respectable Minority: The Democratic Party in the Civil War Era, 1860-1868 (1977)
• Silbey, Joel H. The American Political Nation, 1838-1893 (1991) online edition
• Stampp, Kenneth M. Indiana Politics during the Civil War (1949) online edition
• Welch, Richard E. The Presidencies of Grover Cleveland 1988.
• Whicher, George F. William Jennings Bryan and the Campaign of 1896 (1953), primary and secondary sources.
• Wilentz, Sean. The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln (2005), highly detailed synthesis. excerpt and text search
• Woodward, C. Vann. Origins of the New South, 1877-1913 1951. online edition at ACLS History ebooks

Since 1932

see also Fifth Party System

• Allswang, John M. New Deal and American Politics (1978)
• Andersen, Kristi. The Creation of a Democratic Majority, 1928-1936 (1979)
• Barone, Michael, and Grant Ujifusa, The Almanac of American Politics 2008: The Senators, the Representatives and the Governors: Their Records and Election Results, Their States and Districts (2007), covers all the live politicians.
• Burns, James MacGregor. Roosevelt: The Lion and the Fox (1956)
• Cantril, Hadley and Mildred Strunk, eds. Public Opinion, 1935-1946 (1951), compilation of public opinion polls from US, UK, Canada, Australia, and elsewhere.
• Dallek, Robert. Lyndon B. Johnson: Portrait of a President (2004)]
• Fraser, Steve, and Gary Gerstle, eds. The Rise and Fall of the New Deal Order, 1930-1980 (1990), essays.
• Hamby, Alonzo. Liberalism and Its Challengers: From F.D.R. to Bush (1992).
• Jensen, Richard. Grass Roots Politics: Parties, Issues, and Voters, 1854-1983 (1983)
• Jensen, Richard. "The Last Party System, 1932-1980," in Paul Kleppner, ed. Evolution of American Electoral Systems (1981)
• Judis, John B. and Ruy Teixeira. The Emerging Democratic Majority (2004) demography is destiny
• Kennedy, David M. Freedom from Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929-1945 (2001), synthesis online edition
• 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).
• Lamis, Alexander P. ed. Southern Politics in the 1990s (1999)
• Martin, John Bartlow. Adlai Stevenson of Illinois: The Life of Adlai E. Stevenson (1976),
• Moscow, Warren. The Last of the Big-Time Bosses: The Life and Times of Carmine de Sapio and the Rise and Fall of Tammany Hall (1971)
• Patterson, James T. Grand Expectations: The United States, 1945-1974 (1997) synthesis. excerpt and text search
• Patterson, James T. Restless Giant: The United States from Watergate to Bush vs. Gore (2005) synthesis. excerpt and text search
• Patterson, James. Congressional Conservatism and the New Deal: The Growth of the Conservative Coalition in Congress, 1933-39 (1967)
• Plotke, David. Building a Democratic Political Order: Reshaping American Liberalism in the 1930s and 1940s (1996).
• Rae, Nicol C. Southern Democrats (1994) online edition
• Sabato, Larry J., and Howard R. Ernst. Encyclopedia Of American Political Parties And Elections (2006) comprehensive coverage of politics since 1945.
• Schlesinger, Arthur Meier, Jr. ed. History of American Presidential Elections, 1789-2000 (various multivolume editions, latest is 2001). For each election includes history and selection of primary documents. Essays on some elections are reprinted in Schlesinger, The Coming to Power: Critical presidential elections in American history (1972)
• Shelley II, Mack C. The Permanent Majority: The Conservative Coalition in the United States Congress (1983)
• Sundquist, James L. Dynamics of the Party System: Alignment and Realignment of Political Parties in the United States, (1983) online edition
• Wilentz, Sean. The Age of Reagan: A History, 1974-2008 (2008), major narrative history

Popular histories

• Ling, Peter J. The Democratic Party: A Photographic History (2003).
• Rutland, Robert Allen. The Democrats: From Jefferson to Clinton (1995).
• Schlisinger, Galbraith. Of the People: The 200 Year History of the Democratic Party (1992)
• Witcover, Jules. Party of the People: A History of the Democrats (2003)

Primary sources

• Schlesinger, Arthur Meier, Jr. ed. History of American Presidential Elections, 1789-2000 (various multivolume editions, latest is 2001). For each election includes history and selection of primary documents.
• The Digital Book Index includes some newspapers for the main events of the 1850s, proceedings of state conventions (1850-1900), and proceedings of the Democratic National Convention. Other references of the proceedings can be found in the Democratic National Convention article.

Campaign text books

The national committees of major parties published a "campaign textbook" every presidential election from about 1856 to about 1932. They were designed for speakers contain statistics, speeches, summaries of legislation, and documents, with plenty of argumentation. Only large academic libraries have them, but some are online:

• Address to the Democratic Republican Electors of the State of New York (1840). Published before the formation of party national committees.
• The Campaign Text Book: Why the People Want a Change. The Republican Party Reviewed... (1876)
• The Campaign Book of the Democratic Party (1882)
• The Republican Campaign Text Book for 1882
• The Political Reformation of 1884: A Democratic Campaign Book
• The Republican Campaign Text Book for 1884
• The Campaign Text Book of the Democratic Party of the United States, for the Presidential Election of 1888
• The Republican Campaign Text-book for 1888
• The Campaign Text Book of the Democratic Party for the Presidential Election of 1892
• Republican Campaign Text Book, 1894
• Democratic Campaign Book. Presidential Election of 1896
• Campaign Text-book of the National Democratic Party (1896). This is the Gold Democrats handbook; it strongly opposed William Jennings Bryan.