The Democratic Party Heads North, 1877-1962

Alan Ware is a professor and tutor in Politics at Worcester College, Oxford University. He has authored seven previous books and edited six books. He has written numerous articles that have appeared in scholarly journals. His most recent book, The American Direct Primary, was published in 2002, and Political Parties and Party Systems was recently translated into Spanish. He serves on the Editorial Boards for Party Politics and Democratization.

"Alan Ware's grasp of American politics and political history is outstanding. This book tells the complicated story of what was happening to the Democratic party during the long Republican-dominated era that stretched from Reconstruction to the New Deal. The result is original political science at its best." Nelson W. Polsby, University of California, Berkeley

• 1. The south and the democratic convention; 2. The dynamics of party coalition building; 3. The unstable party equilibrium, 1877–96; 4. The re-assembling of the democratic coalition, 1896–1912; 5. Woodrow Wilson and the failure to re-shape the democratic coalition, 1912–20; 6. How could a winning democratic coalition be constructed, 1920–32?; 7. Democratic party dominance or restored party equilibrium, 1938–52?; 8. The two parties' coalitions come under threat, 1952–62; 9. Conclusions.