| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 88.2

You have not been recognized as a subscriber to JAH online. About 198 words from this article are provided below; about 349 words remain.

If you are a individual member of the Organization of American Historians, you may:: • login here if you have already registered for online access.; • Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.
• Set up your online account for the first time.
If you are not a member of the Organization of American Historians, you can:: • Join the OAH and receive many member benefits including print and electronic issues of the Journal of American History.
• Purchase a research pass to gain two-hour access to the entire History Cooperative web site. You will have full access to current issues of the Journal of American History (86.1-present). Note: the Research Pass does not provide access to JSTOR's holdings of the Journal of American History.
Instititutions can:: • Subscribe to this journal and receive print and electronic issues.
• Activate your existing subscription so that we recognize your IP number ranges.

| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 88.2 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Rude Republic: Americans and Their Politics in the Nineteenth Century. By Glenn C. Altschuler and Stuart M. Blumin. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000. xii, 316 pp. $35.00, ISBN 0-691-00130-8.)

This is a genuine paradigm-shifting book about the nature of political participation in the nineteenth-century United States. The authors quietly contest a solid consensus among political historians that nineteenth-century Americans' lives were consumed with electoral politics. That view was thought to be proven by high voter turnout rates, seemingly massive torchlight parades, and newspapers stuffed with political discourse. 1

Politics was lifeblood for only handfuls of lawyers, businessmen, and other interested parties: those who lived at or near the crossroads of commerce and communication and who produced a "centered" geography of political space. "Outside of the county seat it was by no means certain that a town caucus would even be held." Political "insiders," who made most of the noise and organized the showy parades, asked the masses for little more than a simple ballot vote once or twice a year. The insiders created a "political package" of psychological and material inducements to win that vote, but the point of contact was amazingly thin and short-lived. . . .

There are about 349 more words in this article. Please log in (or, if you are not yet an authorized user, please go to the User Setup page) to gain full access rights. Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.