The Civil War Party System : The Case of Massachusetts, 1848-1876

Baum combines sophisticated statistical analysis with traditional historical methods to analyse the internal dynamics of Massachusetts politics and the structure of the Republican party, especially the "Bird Club", a dominant radical faction that flavoured Bay State politics for more than a decade. He investigates innovations in party strategy, electoral behaviour and voter perceptions of the political system and, extending the analysis through Grant's administration, shows how the rise of new issues transformed the system.