Book Review: Grand Old Party - A History of the Republicans

by Pittsburgh Enigma

Author: Lewis L. Gould
Genre: Political History

Grand Old Party provides a history of the Republican Party, from its origin in 1854 to the present day and the first election of George W. Bush. While the book focuses primarily on presidential elections, it also covers congressional and state Republicans who had an important influence on the party at the given time. An analysis of the changing philosphy of the party through its history is also presented. The book is organized around major eras in American History, including the Civil War and Reconstruction, the Gilded Age, the Teddy Roosevelt years, the Wilson Years, Roosevelt and the New Deal, the Cold War, Nixon and Watergate, Reagan, and the "Gingrich Revolution" of 1994. All of this makes for not only a good political history but a good American history as well.

While Grand Old Party is for the most part easy to read, it is long--about 500 densely written pages (not including the "notes" section) -- so one should keep that in mind before starting. There are also political and party terms that are often assumed to be already known to the reader. For example, the author jumps right in talking about the process of delegates balloting for a presidential candidate without first explaining how that process works.

The coverage of presidential elections includes not only the candidates and who they run against, but what the make-up of the country's population was at the time and how critical it was in building coalitions that enabled certain candidates to win. For example, in the Civil War era the Republicans largely held the North while Democrats held the South. Trends in party politics would almost turn this fact upside down in later years. In reading about the presidential elections early in the party, one can compare those events to modern events and draw some interesting conclusions.

For one thing, partisanship was rampant. The conventional wisdom seems to be that presidential politics was never so "ugly and divisive" as it is today, but in fact it frequently was. In the election of 1876, Rutherford B. Hayes (Republican) won an electoral victory over Samuel J. Tilden (Democrat), but Tilden led in the popular vote. Sound familiar? Another example of conventional wisdom is that a Republican candidate who is "too conservative" (as opposed to being more centrist) can't win elections, and then Barry Goldwater is presented as the example. But when we read about Barry Goldwater's candidacy, we discover that he didn't lose because he was too conservative but because he was just a really bad candidate himself and ran a bad campaign. Sound like someone who just lost an election in 2008?

The analysis of the evolution of the Republican Party's philosophy is interesting, because it shows just how different the party is today compared to what it stood for in 1854. What started as a party that promoted national power to end slavery and preserve the Union (and to consequently limit the rights of the states) is now a party that stands for a less powerful federal government and a strong support of states' rights. A party that was once isolationist is now the party that is known for its stand on strong national security. A party that supported protectionism and tariffs on foreign goods for much of its early history is now the party of free trade.

It is worth noting that a certain amount of bias can be detected in the book. The author states from the outset that he is a Democrat. This comes as no surprise when one discovers that the author has written not one but two books on Ladybird Johnson. But that aside, the author insists that he attempts to present the material in an unbiased way, and this is for the most part true. The bias tends to creep through on the more modern history of the party. For example, the author can't help pointing out that certain prominent Republicans such as Newt Gingrich, Dick Cheney and Phil Gramm avoided entering the military during the Vietnam War even though they encouraged military intervention (e.g. the Gulf War) later in their careers. The criticism seems to come out of nowhere. But when the subject of Senator Ted Kennedy comes up, there is only a passing reference to a drowning woman who just happened to be a passenger in his car.

Despite the occasional bias, I think this book is an excellent read for anyone who wants to better understand how the Republican Party got its start and how it has evolved over the last 154 years into a major component of the two-party system in American politics.

(Editor’s Note: Commentarama has its own article on the history of the Republican Party. Check it out if you get the chance, you might be surprised.)