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Title details for The Age of Acrimony by Jon Grinspan - Available

The Age of Acrimony

How Americans Fought to Fix Their Democracy, 1865-1915

by Jon Grinspan
Johnny Heller
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
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1 of 1 copy available
A penetrating, character-filled history "in the manner of David McCullough" (WSJ), revealing the deep roots of our tormented present-day politics. Democracy was broken. Or that was what many Americans believed in the decades after the Civil War. Shaken by economic and technological disruption, they sought safety in aggressive, tribal partisanship. The results were the loudest, closest, most violent elections in U.S. history, driven by vibrant campaigns that drew our highest-ever voter turnouts. At the century's end, reformers finally restrained this wild system, trading away participation for civility in the process. They built a calmer, cleaner democracy, but also a more distant one. Americans' voting rates crashed and never fully recovered. This is the origin story of the "normal" politics of the 20th century. Only by exploring where that civility and restraint came from can we understand what is happening to our democracy today. The Age of Acrimony charts the rise and fall of 19th-century America's unruly politics through the lives of a remarkable father-daughter dynasty. The radical congressman William "Pig Iron" Kelley and his fiery, Progressive daughter Florence Kelley led lives packed with drama, intimately tied to their nation's politics. Through their friendships and feuds, campaigns and crusades, Will and Florie trace the narrative of a democracy in crisis. In telling the tale of what it cost to cool our republic, historian Jon Grinspan reveals our divisive political system's enduring capacity to reinvent itself.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    April 27, 2021

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781635576344
      • File size: 282052 KB
      • Duration: 09:47:36

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      This audiobook about the post-Civil War era of fervid political partisanship will feel very familiar to 21st-century listeners. Narrator Johnny Heller adds a folksy newscaster's delivery that keeps up the narrative pace. Told through the lives of Philadelphia Congressman William Kelley, who was a friend of Abraham Lincoln, and his socialist daughter, Florence, the story recounts their fight for the working man, women's votes, racial equality, and, in Florie's case, for the abolition of child labor. As industrialism moves into the heartland, both politics and journalism come under the influence of big business and its demands. Listeners will be fascinated to see how a period of enormous change, unrest, and bitter rancor affected, and mirrors, our own age. L.W.S. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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