The American Ballot Box in the Mid-Nineteenth Century
Richard Franklin Bensel
(Author)
Description
Unlike modern elections, the American polling place of the mid-nineteenth century was thoroughly endowed with symbolic meaning for individuals who otherwise would not have had the least interest in politics. This made the polls exciting and encouraged men to vote at far higher rates than they do today. Men who approached a polling place were met by agents of the major political parties. They treated the voters with whiskey, gave them petty bribes, and urged that they should be loyal to their ethnic and religious communities. As reported in the eyewitness accounts of ordinary voters, the polls were almost always crowded, noisy, and often, violent.
Product Details
Price
$45.09
Publisher
Cambridge University Press
Publish Date
April 12, 2004
Pages
302
Dimensions
6.04 X 8.94 X 0.68 inches | 0.93 pounds
Language
English
Type
Paperback
EAN/UPC
9780521537865
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Reviews
Richard Bensel has written a fascinating book on a timely subject, the nature of polling places in the United States at the juncture between the second and third party systems. His cogent description of how balloting actually took place raises provocative questions about the interpretation of nineteenth-century elections, the development of modern democracy, and the dilemmas inherent in electoral institutions. Perspectives On Politics
The lore of the ballot box is unforgettable. Benselas rendering of it provides an excellent lesson in precision of description and, most important, it provides a picture we have unavailable in any other book I know of. Civil War History
Richard Bensel's meticulous and perceptive investigation of how voters behaved on election day during the Civil War era is a very important book whose findings will offer little encouragement to 'rational choice' theorists or to policymakers currently engaged in democratic nation-building. Michael Perman, University of Illinois at Chicago
This study is fascinating and readable. Political Science Quarterly, Howard W. Allen, Southern Illinois University, Cardbondale
When historians and political scientists systematically began to explore the nineteenth-century voting universe about four or five decades ago, The American Ballot Box would have been extremely useful. That assertion in no way diminishes its contribution now, and the likelihood is that it will rekindle debates over such issues as the degree of fraud in those high-turnout elections and, at minimum, bring an expanded awareness to analysis of nineteenth-century elections...the value of a book that answers and raises so many questions cannot be underestimated. Would that this book was available many years ago; its appearance now is most welcome. Ron Formisano, Register of the Kentucky Historical Society
this is a provocative book, sure to have important consequences for how scholars interpret nineteenth-century politics.
American Historical Review, Mark Voss-Hubbard
This important and provocative book should be in the library of everyone interested in nineteenth-century American politics. - Speculum Thomas E. Jeffrey, Rutgers University
The lore of the ballot box is unforgettable. Benselas rendering of it provides an excellent lesson in precision of description and, most important, it provides a picture we have unavailable in any other book I know of. Civil War History
Richard Bensel's meticulous and perceptive investigation of how voters behaved on election day during the Civil War era is a very important book whose findings will offer little encouragement to 'rational choice' theorists or to policymakers currently engaged in democratic nation-building. Michael Perman, University of Illinois at Chicago
This study is fascinating and readable. Political Science Quarterly, Howard W. Allen, Southern Illinois University, Cardbondale
When historians and political scientists systematically began to explore the nineteenth-century voting universe about four or five decades ago, The American Ballot Box would have been extremely useful. That assertion in no way diminishes its contribution now, and the likelihood is that it will rekindle debates over such issues as the degree of fraud in those high-turnout elections and, at minimum, bring an expanded awareness to analysis of nineteenth-century elections...the value of a book that answers and raises so many questions cannot be underestimated. Would that this book was available many years ago; its appearance now is most welcome. Ron Formisano, Register of the Kentucky Historical Society
this is a provocative book, sure to have important consequences for how scholars interpret nineteenth-century politics.
American Historical Review, Mark Voss-Hubbard
This important and provocative book should be in the library of everyone interested in nineteenth-century American politics. - Speculum Thomas E. Jeffrey, Rutgers University
