To Make Men Free, Heather Cox Richardson
To Make Men Free, Heather Cox Richardson
List: $44.99 | Sale: $31.50
Club: $22.49

To Make Men Free
A History of the Republican Party

Author: Heather Cox Richardson

Narrator: Heather Cox Richardson

Unabridged: 15 hr 18 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 11/23/2021

Synopsis

“The most comprehensive account of the GOP and its competing impulses” (Los Angeles Times), now updated to cover the Trump presidency and its aftermath.When Abraham Lincoln helped create the Republican Party on the eve of the Civil War, his goal was economic opportunity for all Americans. Yet the party quickly became mired in an identity crisis. Would it be the party of democratic ideals? Or the party of moneyed interests?In To Make Men Free, acclaimed historian Heather Cox Richardson traces the shifting ideology of the Republican Party from the antebellum era to the Great Recession. While progressive Republicans like Teddy Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower revived Lincoln’s vision and expanded the government, their opponents appealed to Americans’ latent racism and xenophobia to regain political power, linking taxation and regulation to redistribution and socialism. In the modern era, the schism within the Republican Party has grown wider, pulling the GOP ever further from its founding principles.Now with an epilogue that reflects on the Trump era and what is likely to come after it, To Make Men Free is a sweeping history of the party that was once considered America’s greatest political hope, but now lies in disarray.

About Heather Cox Richardson

Heather Cox Richardson is Professor of History at Boston College. Her previous works include West from Appomattox and To Make Men Free.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Conor

I read this book in physical form while my audiobook was The New Tsar: The Rise and Reign of Vladimir Putin, so I really felt like I was consuming both the past and the future of the Republican party! Joking (?) aside, this book was really informative. It traces the disconnect between the imperative......more

Goodreads review by Randall

The Republican Party, was originally the party of Lincoln, so how did it become the party of white supremacy? The Democratic Party in Lincoln’s time was the party of white supremacy - so how and when did both parties switch their hat color and do the full 180? And why do Americans never discuss this......more

Goodreads review by Jim

Richardson details the history of the Republican Party from Lincoln to Bush, showing how it became the party that serves the interests of the wealthy and the big corporations. Lincoln, the first Republican president, believed that government must promote economic opportunity for all citizens, not ju......more

Goodreads review by Joris

This books follows the "far left" to "far right" swings of the Republican Party since its inception in the late 1850s until Obama's election which is fascinating. It shows that at the core the problem is a conflict between the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. The Declaration of Inde......more

Goodreads review by Philip

A good, brief account of the 160 year history of the US Republican Party and its struggle to reconcile constitutional property rights with the principle of equality promoted in the Declaration of Independence. The best part of the book, for me, are the chapters dealing with the first and greatest Rep......more

Quotes

“A readable and provocative account of the many paths that Republicans have taken to their current state of confusion.” —New York Times Book Review“The book offers a lively survey of Republican politics in all its diversity, from the ‘transformational presidency' of Abraham Lincoln (to borrow a 21st-century term) to the conservative ascendancy of Ronald Reagan.” —Washington Post“The most comprehensive account of the GOP and its competing impulses... an important contribution to understanding where we are today.” —Los Angeles Times

Add to Cart
Add to Wish List