In a series of fascinating essays that explore topics in American
politics from the nation's founding to the present day, The Democratic
Experiment opens up exciting new avenues for historical research while
offering bold claims about the tensions that have animated American
public life. Revealing the fierce struggles that have taken place over
the role of the federal government and the character of representative
democracy, the authors trace the contested and dynamic evolution of the
national polity.
The contributors, who represent the leading new voices in the
revitalized field of American political history, offer original
interpretations of the nation's political past by blending
methodological insights from the new institutionalism in the social
sciences and studies of political culture. They tackle topics as
wide-ranging as the role of personal character of political elites in
the Early Republic, to the importance of courts in building a modern
regulatory state, to the centrality of local political institutions in
the late twentieth century. Placing these essays side by side encourages
the asking of new questions about the forces that have shaped American
politics over time. An unparalleled example of the new political history
in action, this book will be vastly influential in the field.
In addition to the editors, the contributors are Brian Balogh, Sven
Beckert, Rebecca Edwards, Joanne B. Freeman, Richard R. John, Ira
Katznelson, James T. Kloppenberg, Matthew D. Lassiter, Thomas J. Sugrue,
Michael Vorenberg, and Michael Willrich.
