A provocative reconsideration of a presidency on the brink of Civil War
Almost no president was as well trained and well prepared for the office as James Buchanan. He had served in the Pennsylvania state legislature, the U.S. House, and the U.S. Senate; he was Secretary of State and was even offered a seat on the Supreme Court. And yet, by every measure except his own, James Buchanan was a miserable failure as president, leaving office in disgrace. Virtually all of his intentions were thwarted by his own inability to compromise: he had been unable to resolve issues of slavery, caused his party to split-thereby ensuring the election of the first Republican president, Abraham Lincoln-and made the Civil War all but inevitable.
Historian Jean H. Baker explains that we have rightly placed Buchanan at the end of the presidential rankings, but his poor presidency should not be an excuse to forget him. To study Buchanan is to consider the implications of weak leadership in a time of national crisis. Elegantly written, Baker's volume offers a balanced look at a crucial moment in our nation's history and explores a man who, when given the opportunity, failed to rise to the challenge.

Affairs of party, Jean Baker asserts, were a central feature of public life in nineteenth-century America. In this book she explores the way in which the Northern Democrats of the mid-eighteen hundreds lived their public lives. She begins with a psychobiographical explanation of how people became Democrats, weighing the importance of such influences as education and family life. She then discusses two major elements that set Democrats apart from members of other political organizations: a modified Republican ideology tailored to the circumstances of the Civil War, and a mordant racism conveyed most strikingly through minstrelsy. Finally, Baker studies the neglected subject of partisan behavior, concentrating on the significance of parades, voting, and other rituals. In Affairs of Party Jean Baker brings together the three basic components of a political cultureaeducation, thought, and behavioraand provides an understanding of the collective values of Northern Democrats and an insight into the elusive meaning of party experience. In her new preface, Professor Baker places her book in the context of both recent scholarship and recent political and cultural developments.

An English emigre who became America's first professional architect, Benjamin Henry Latrobe put his stamp on the built landscape of the new republic. Latrobe contributed to such iconic structures as the south wing of the US Capitol building, the White House, and the Navy Yard. He created some of the early republic's greatest neoclassical interiors, including the Statuary Hall and the Senate, House, and Supreme Court Chambers. As a young man, Latrobe was apprenticed to both a leading architect and civil engineer in London, studied the European continent's architectural and engineering monuments, worked on canals, and designed private houses. After the death of his first wife, he was bankrupt and emigrated to the United States in 1796 to restart his career. For the new nation with grand political expectations, he intended buildings and engineering projects to match those aspirations. Like his patron Thomas Jefferson, Latrobe saw his neoclassical designs as a way to convey American democracy. He envisioned his engineering projects, such as the canals and municipal water systems for Philadelphia and New Orleans, as a way to unite the nation and improve public health. Jean Baker conveys the personality of this charming, driven, and often frustrated genius and the era in which he lived. Latrobe tried to establish architecture as a profession with high standards, established fees, and recognized procedures, though he was unable to collect fees and earn the living his work was worth. Like many of his peers, he speculated and found himself in bankruptcy several times. Building America masterfully narrates the life and legacy of a key figure in creating an American aesthetic in the new United States.

This volume of eleven original essays about the struggle for suffrage affords readers the opportunity to revisit an important American political and social movement. Part of the Viewpoints on American Culture series, Votes for Women develops not just the chronological framework of suffrage organization. but the essays also develop new and sometimes controversial interpretations about leaders, strategies, and the way suffrage intersected with other national issues. The result is a series of rich new perspectives on how women got the vote and why it took so long.

This volume of eleven original essays about the struggle for suffrage affords readers the opportunity to revisit an important American political and social movement. Part of the Viewpoints on American Culture series, Votes for Women develops not just the chronological framework of suffrage organization. but the essays also develop new and sometimes controversial interpretations about leaders, strategies, and the way suffrage intersected with other national issues. The result is a series of rich new perspectives on how women got the vote and why it took so long.

Affairs of party, Jean Baker asserts, were a central feature of public life in nineteenth-century America. In this book she explores the way in which the Northern Democrats of the mid-eighteen hundreds lived their public lives. She begins with a psychobiographical explanation of how people became Democrats, weighing the importance of such influences as education and family life. She then discusses two major elements that set Democrats apart from members of other political organizations: a modified Republican ideology tailored to the circumstances of the Civil War, and a mordant racism conveyed most strikingly through minstrelsy. Finally, Baker studies the neglected subject of partisan behavior, concentrating on the significance of parades, voting, and other rituals. In Affairs of Party Jean Baker brings together the three basic components of a political cultureaeducation, thought, and behavioraand provides an understanding of the collective values of Northern Democrats and an insight into the elusive meaning of party experience. In her new preface, Professor Baker places her book in the context of both recent scholarship and recent political and cultural developments.

CONTENTS: Introduction, Jean H. Baker and Charles W. Mitchell "Border State, Border War: Fighting for Freedom and Slavery in Antebellum Maryland," Richard Bell "Charity Folks and the Ghosts of Slavery in Pre-Civil War Maryland," Jessica Millward "Confronting Dred Scott: Seeing Citizenship from Baltimore," Martha S. Jones "'Maryland Is This Day . . . True to the American Union' The Election of 1860 and a Winter of Discontent," Charles W. Mitchell "Baltimore's Secessionist Moment: Conservatism and Political Networks in the Pratt Street Riot and Its Aftermath," Frank Towers "Abraham Lincoln, Civil Liberties, and Maryland," Frank J. Williams "The Fighting Sons of 'My Maryland' The Recruitment of Union Regiments in Baltimore, 1861-1865," Timothy J. Orr "'What I Witnessed Would Only Make You Sick' Union Soldiers Confront the Dead at Antietam," Brian Matthew Jordan "Confederate Invasions of Maryland," Thomas G. Clemens "Achieving Emancipation in Maryland," Jonathan W. White "Maryland's Women at War," Robert W. Schoeberlein "The Failed Promise of Reconstruction," Sharita Jacobs Thompson "'F--k the Confederacy' The Strange Career of Civil War Memory in Maryland after 1865," Robert J. Cook

Undoubtedly the most influential advocate for birth control even before the term existed, Margaret Sanger ignited a movement that has shaped our society to this day. Yet her star has waned. A frequent target of so-called family values activists, she has also been neglected by progressives, who cite her socialist leanings and purported belief in eugenics. In this captivating biography, the renowned feminist historian Jean H. Baker rescues Sanger from such critiques and restores her to the vaunted place in history she once held.
Trained as a nurse, Sanger saw the dangers of unplanned pregnancy and pioneered the first family planning clinic, the forerunner to Planned Parenthood. The movement she started spread across the country, eventually becoming a vast international organization with her as its spokeswoman. Baker demonstrates that Sanger's staunch advocacy of women's privacy and freedom extended to her personal life as well: after abandoning the trappings of home and family for a globe-trotting life, she became notorious for the sheer number of her romantic entanglements. That she lived long enough to witness the advent of "free love" and the creation of the birth control pill--which finally made planned pregnancy a reality--is only fitting.