America's Three Regimes: A New Political History
by Morton Keller
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Book Summary Information
Author: Morton KellerEdition: Hardcover
Published: 2007-10-25
ISBN: 0195325028
Number of pages: 384
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Book Reviews of America's Three Regimes: A New Political History
Book Review: Insightful, Comprehensive Political History of the U.S.
Summary: 5 Stars
As we embark upon another presidential election year, it is worth pausing to ask the questions: how did we get to where we are today? what were the forces and events that influenced the evolution our modern political system and governmental institutions? Professor Keller answers these questions thoroughly and engagingly, in a nonpartisan manner, and he does it all in about 300 pages of text. He divides U.S. political history into three eras or regimes: (1) the post-colonial deferential regime, (2) the party-democratic regime that began with the Jackson Administration and continued until the Great Depression, and (3) the populist-bureaucratic regime. The book, in my opinion, really shines when it discusses the third of these three regimes. Professor Keller begins his discussion of that era by noting that prior to 1930, our political institutions focussed primarily on constraining the power of government; during the 1930s, however, there was a paradigm shift, and people began to say: "How can we use the power of government to serve us (or, to be precise, how can I use the power of government to serve me and my friends)"? The courts similarly went from telling the government what it can't do to telling it what it should do. You may not like the the size, power and pervasive presence of our government (I sure don't), but if you want to understand how it grew into the beast we have today, read this book.
Summary of America's Three Regimes: A New Political History
When historians take the long view, they look at "ages" or "eras" (the Age of Jackson, the Progressive Era). But these time spans last no longer than a decade or so. In this groundbreaking new book, Morton Keller divides our nation's history into three regimes, each of which lasts many, many decades, allowing us to appreciate, as never before, the slow steady evolution of American public life.Americans like to think of our society as eternally young and effervescent. But the reality is very different. A proper history of America must be as much about continuity, persistence, and evolution as about transformation and revolution. To provide this proper history, Keller groups America's past into three long regimes--Deferential and Republican, from the colonial period to the 1820s; Party and Democratic, from the 1830s to the 1930s; and Populist and Bureaucratic, from the 1930s to the present.
This approach yields many new insights. We discover, for instance, that the history of colonial America, the Revolution, and the Early Republic is a more unified story than usually assumed. The Civil War, industrialization, and the Progressive era did relatively little to alter the character of the democratic-party regime that lasted from the 1830s to the 1930s. And the populist-bureaucratic regime in which we live today has seen changes in politics, government, and law as profound as those that occurred in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
As Keller underscores the sheer staying power of America's public institutions, he sheds light on current concerns as well: in particular, will the current political polarization continue or will more moderate forces prevail.
Here then is a major contribution to United States history--an entirely new way to look at our past, our present, and our future--packed with provocative and original observations about American public life.
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