Cliquer sur une vignette pour aller sur Google Books.
Chargement... Nativism and Slavery : The Northern Know Nothings and the Politics of the 1850s (1992)par Tyler G. Anbinder
Aucun Chargement...
Inscrivez-vous à LibraryThing pour découvrir si vous aimerez ce livre Actuellement, il n'y a pas de discussions au sujet de ce livre. aucune critique | ajouter une critique
Prix et récompensesDistinctions
Political protest against immigrants has come to a head several times in American history. The most famous and influential such protest was exemplified by the Know-Nothing Party, founded in 1854 and directed especially against Catholic immigrants. By the end of 1855 the party had elected eight governors, over one hundred Congressmen, and thousands of local officials. Prominent politicians of every persuasion joined the party, which then changed its name to the American Party. It; became a major element in the new Republican Party, which first produced a presidential candidate in 1856. The party and its influence has not attracted much attention from historians, because the events involved in the coming of the Civil War eclipsed interest in a movement that was only; peripherally involved with Civil War issues.; The Know-Nothings had a precipitous decline, starting with the 1856 election, at which their presidential candidate Millard Fillmore carried only one state. The Republican Party soon eclipsed it, too. Tyler Anbinder has written the first comprehensive history of the Know-Nothings, and his book represents a major revision of historiography in the years leading up to the Civil War. Aucune description trouvée dans une bibliothèque |
Discussion en coursAucun
Google Books — Chargement... GenresClassification décimale de Melvil (CDD)320.973Social sciences Political Science Political Science Political situation and conditions North America United StatesClassification de la Bibliothèque du CongrèsÉvaluationMoyenne:
Est-ce vous ?Devenez un(e) auteur LibraryThing. |
The first thing that stood out for me, and something that I think will impress anyone that reads scholarly works, is the quality and clarity of Anbinder’s writing. It occurred to me at one point that Mr. Anbinder could make a living as a novelist if he ever gave up on history. I hope he stays with history. He is first historean I have come across who can explain statistical charts. I think that this is due to both his writing skills and the depth and breath of his research. He goes beyond telling us what the Know Nothings believed, he tells us why they believed it.
Most of what I had heard about the Know Nothings was about their anti-immigrant platform. As this book explains they feared that immigrants voting before they learned American ways would undermine the nation. The immigrants were from monarchies and could not be expected to make the important decisions citizens make when they vote. Catholics especially were suspect. They were still seen as obeying a foreign master, the Pope. The Know Nothings worried that Catholics would not vote their conscious but as a block directed from Rome. Events reinforced the Know Nothing fears about Catholics. Several dioceses were working to either end the practice of using the King James Version of the Bible to teach reading in public schools or create a separate Catholic system of publicly funded schools. An extended visit to the United States by a controversial Papal Emissary caused disturbances in cities with large German populations. The Know Nothings saw these as evidence that the Catholics were anti-education and undisciplined and therefore not to be trusted with the vote.
Two other issues that Know Nothings were identified with, anti-slavery and temperance seem related to their anti-immigrant policies. German lager and Irish whisky were seen as evil influences that degraded the Sabbath. German immigrants, Catholic and Protestant, often took their families to beer gardens for singing, food and drink after church services as well as through the week.
Slavery was said to be degrading to “good Americans”. Slavery and immigration both pushed down wages for everyone, including the native born-white-Protestants that made up the KNs thus giving them a pocketbook interest in opposing both slavery and immigration.
Dissatisfaction with the established parties, Whigs and Democrats, created a vacuum that the KNs and the new Republican Party sought to fill. The Whig party's failure to place any restrictions on slavery and the Democrats failure to focus on anything except expanding slavery seems to be the cause of this dissatisfaction. Honestly it is outside the scope of the book but I was left thinking about it. Between the founding of the secret society in the early 1850s and Lincoln’s election in 1860 the Know Nothings swept across the nation. Their platform was slightly different in the slave states but KNs were elected in great numbers in the middle of the decade then they quickly faded away with members moving to the Republican Party and it’s solid anti-slavery message.
For a legacy the Know Nothings passed some of our first voter registration laws and are possibly responsible for the Republican Party’s continued interest in voter registration.
The Tea Party is also a product of voter dissatisfaction, other than that I did not see much to compare. The Tea Party is anti-immigrant but does anyone really know why? Perhaps they need to have Mr. Anbinder explain their beliefs to the rest of us. It will be interesting to see if the Republicans deal with the Tea Party more successfully than the Whigs did with the Know Nothings. ( )