From Bloody Shirt to Full Dinner Pail: The Transformation of Politics and Governance in the Gilded Age Book

For most Americans, the political history of the Gilded Age is a period where the country was governed by a succession of indistinguishably bearded presidents who did nothing. Sandwiched as it is between the drama of the Civil War period and the revolution in government brought about during the Progressive Era, it often tends to be overshadowed and overlooked, a period where the dominance of laissez-faire attitudes meant that little of significance took place. In this short little book, Charles W. Calhoun demolishes such misconceptions, showing the period to be one that both wrestled with important questions left over from the Civil War and set the stage for many of the transformations that were to follow.

Calhoun begins his study with the 1868 presidential election. Though this was the first presidential election after the Civil War, the issues created by the conflict dominated the campaign, particularly the issue of black suffrage. Republicans proved effective at rallying voters outside the South by "waving the bloody shirt," or rallying voters to defending the results against the efforts by Democrats to reverse them. Calhoun sees this as reflective of the political philosophies that characterized the political parties in this period, with the Republicans believing that the federal government could play a positive role in national government, while the Democrats argued for greater deference to state and local governments.

This clash of philosophical approaches was reflected not just in contrasting views on the issue of black suffrage, but in economic policy as well. Calhoun sees the Republicans in the 1870s as facing the question of whether to emphasize the efforts to preserve black suffrage or their use of tariffs and other policies to encourage national economic development. The economic depression of the period helped fuel an emphasis on the latter issue, and protecting the rights of African Americans to vote receded as an issue for the party as the century came to an end. Calhoun emphasizes the role of African American voter suppression as key to both the Democratic dominance of the South during this period and the narrowness of voting totals in national elections. By the 1890s, however, the Republicans use of such issues as the gold standard cemented a political dominance that would last for a generation, enshrining a more active role for the federal government in national life as a result.

Concise and insightful, Calhoun's book offers a stimulating introduction to American politics in the Gilded Age. Though his focus is on the presidency, his inclusion of Congressional and gubernatorial elections offers a broad overall portrait of the ebbs and flows of party fortunes and how they reflected the broader attitudes of the electorate. The result is a superb overview that serves as an excellent starting point for anyone seeking to learn more about this underappreciated era in American political history.