THE REPUBLICANS

by Malcolm Moos ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 30, 1956

Writer and professor of political science at Johns Hopkins, Malcolm Moos painstakingly follows the trail marks on the path that the Republicans took from the conception of the party under that name to today. His journey starts with the men whom Bovay described as going to meetings in 1854, Whigs, Free Soilers and Democrats- and coming out Republicans under an anti-slavery banner in response to the Kansas- Nebraska bill. This is a scrutinizing close-up of Republicanism working on the national level: each presidential nominating convention, each nominee and President of Republican stock is examined. We see Lincoln as the man who sought to unite his party as well as his nation -- and leaving a job which Johnson tried unsuccessfully to complete in the three-way struggle for power with Stevens and Sumner. Teddy Roosevelt provides a grand spectacle and example as he outmaneuvers Mark Hanna. The author considers the might- have-been if Hughes had been elected instead of Wilson, remarking that perhaps Germany would have thought more seriously of sea attack and our retaliation. He faces the records of Harding, Coolidge and Hoover with sympathy as he describes the man who wanted to be the best loved rather than the best President; the man who let Congress take the helm; the man who upheld the ideal of private ownership and enterprise in face of overwhelming disaster (and he indicates that the depression had already slackened a little by the time Roosevelt entered office). The recent campaign histories receive equal attention; in all campaigns the votes are noted and commented upon. If in the evolution of the party the planks seem to buckle or be replaced by new ones, giving a sense of continuity interrupted but often regained, this is a part of the story. The sense of political history, in which there are no bygones, is here, and younger New Deal begotten and bred voters can especially profit from it.

Pub Date: July 30, 1956

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Random House

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1956

Categories: NONFICTION