The star-spangled mirror Book

Absolutely essential history of the interface between US citizen & US government. We inherited a strong sense of class consciousness from the British & this was the predominant political motivator in the early days of the republic. Citizens paid no personal taxes, received very little in the way of public services, and citizenship was composed largely of voting which tended to be non-partisan & consisted of affirming support for the leading aristocrats. Later citizenship became absorbed in party membership & party membership subsumed all subsequent political decisions & was redeemed by a strong sense of belonging as well as spoils system benefits. Party control was weakened by the rise of civil service reform as party loyalty weakened as the primary activity of citizenship & expertise & the quest for knowledge rose in importance. Finally, the sense of rights as an important aspect of citizen-government interfact has arisen in the modern day.