Aaron Burr, Controversial Politician of Early America

Mushkat, Jerome

Story House Corp

The evolution of the Tammany Society and its political arm, Tammany Hall, into a political machine presents in microcosm a study of how this nation, and particularly New York City, adjusted governmental systems to the major social, economic, and political changes that transformed the United States in the nineteenth century.

Tammany; the evolution of a political machine, 1789-1865 (A New York State study)

Syracuse University Press

Offers an intensive study of the internal dynamics of the Democratic system of one state. The book's coverage ranges from 1861, when the crisis of disunion threatened the party's demise, through 1874, when it fully reconstructed itself and set a political pattern that lasted into the next century.

The Reconstruction of the New York Democracy, 1861-1874

History

Americas

UNKNO

Fernando Wood was one of the most controversial figures of nineteenth-century America. His fellow New Yorkers either respected or despised him, depending whether they considered his policies beneficial or harmful to their interests. The character revealed herein possessed some admirable qualities; high intelligence, sharp analytic skills, great capacity for hard work, and a clear talent to set his executive agenda. But equally evident are Wood’s less admirable qualities; ruthless business practices, shoddy personal ethics, corrupt politics, dictatorial tendencies. What emerges is the story of a very complex person: a successful businessman, consummate politician, resourceful three-time may of New York City, and nine-term congressman, beneath which lurked mean and self-destructive tendencies. Take as a whole, Wood’s colorful career was a unique microcosm of American history both during and after his lifetime. His business achievements mirrored popular beliefs in upward mobility. And Wood’s mayoralty held a promise of revitalizing municipal government, giving it a social conscience, and setting new standards for the future. Despite his shortcomings, Fernando Wood played a major but unappreciated role in the urban and political history of time.

Fernando Wood: A Political Biography

Biographies & Memoirs

Leaders & Notable People

The Kent State University Press

In 1828, Martin Van Buren discontinued his profession as a lawyer to become a full-time politician, yet his formative years as an attorney provided the critical ideological basis for his presidency. Mushkat and Rayback offer the first historical investigation of the nature, scope, and significance of Van Buren's legal practice as they trace the development of his republican ideology. Rather than a static set of immutable values and imperatives, Van Buren's ideology was a malleable body of thought. Dynamic and evolving, it exemplified the complexities of republicanism itself. As a teenager, Van Buren absorbed Jefforson and Madison's eighteenth-century classical republicanism. Later, the principles of classical republicanism provided guides during his first years as a practicing lawyer. As his legal and political careers developed, Van Buren adapted his ideas to new conditions, accepting key components of liberal republicanism. Van Buren's rise to prominence mirrors the relevance of law to politics. As a New York attorney, Van Buren worked with legal issues in the nation's most important state during the early nineteenth century. His key contributions were Americanization of the common law and modernization of contract law. His experience also helped shape his perspectives on such matters as the allocation and use of power, judicial activism and legislative supremacy, and property and gender rights. Consulting a wide range of original legal sources not previously used by historians, Mushkat and Rayback offer a fresh and intriguing biographical approach to an American president that challenges traditional perceptions and adds new insight into Van Buren's place in American political and legal history.

Martin Van Buren: Law, Politics, and the Shaping of Republican Ideology

Rayback, Joseph

Historical

Northern Illinois University Press

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