Home > Media > Books > Darcy?G.??? Richardson - Others: Third-party Politics From The Nation's Founding To The Rise And Fall Of The Greenback-labor Party
Darcy?G.??? Richardson - Others: Third-party Politics From The Nation's Founding To The Rise And Fall Of The Greenback-labor Party
Pros: Flair, charm and a shockingly refreshing attention to detail.
Cons: I read faster than Richardson writes.
The Bottom Line: It's rare to find a comprehensive topical history and a page-turner of a book between the same covers. Others is one of those rarities.
tlknapp's Full Review: Darcy?G.??? Richardson - Others: Third-party Polit...
... for different folks. And Others is all about those other folks.
Most political histories of the United States confine their focus to "major party" politics, with the occasional nod to major trends as manifested in "third" party movements. In so doing, they lose much of the detail, flavor and grandeur of the American political pageant.
Darcy G. Richardson goes down the path not taken: His focus is entirely on the "the also rans" -- the "third" political parties vying for power in a de facto two-party system -- and he covers their history with flair, charm and a shockingly refreshing attention to detail.
At present, Others runs to four volumes (covering, all told, American history into the period between the two World Wars) with a fifth in progress. While this review covers only the first volume, be warned: By the time you put it down, you'll have already ordered the others.
A brief gloss on American political party history from the founding through the 1880s would probably focus on three topics:
- The initial gravitation toward a two-party system, emerging from the conflict between the Federalists and Anti-Federalists in the late 18th century and culminating in the dominance of the Democrats and Whigs;
- The replacement of the Whigs by the Republicans as one of the two major parties; and
- The four-cornered presidential race of 1860, when two Democratic parties, the Republican Party and the moderate Constitutional Union Party squared off, resulting in the election of Abraham Lincoln (and civil war).
There's so much more than that, though, and Richardson covers it all. But while I'm on the Civil War, it seems like a good time to make the most apt comparison I can think of: Others reads, to me, very much like Shelby Foote's The Civil War: A Narrative. Like Foote, Richardson has a knack for making the most seemingly trivial details interesting and relevant -- or, to put it a different way, turning dry history into engaging storytelling.
The early US was, in fact, a hornets' nest of political activity. After the initial Federalist/anti-Federalist split, third parties proliferated. As Thomas Jefferson began his second term, former ally John Randolph was already organizing the Quids to dispute his foreign policy and expansionist ideas.
By Jackson's presidency, proto-socialist "workingmen" parties, the Anti-Masonic Party were in full flare. And as the century proceeded toward a continental war over slavery, parties ranging from the Liberty Party to Free Soil to the proto-libertarian (and oddly named!) North American Hotel Party vigorously attempted to drive that issue like a wedge into the two-party system. And let us not forget the Know-Nothings and an astounding variety of Whig schemes!
In two paragraphs, I've given you a thimbleful of US political party history through the Civil War. Richardson offers about 350 pages ... all of it of page-turner quality.
Another 300 pages or so cover the Liberal Republicans, Prohibitionists, women's suffragists, Marxists and Greenback-Labor phenomena of the post-war period, leading toward (but stopping just short of) the Populist era of the 1890s. You'll have to go to the second volume to get that. And, believe me, you'll want to do so.
Disclaimer: As a long-time third party activist (pre-1996 Aaron Russo Constitution Party, Libertarian Party and Boston Tea Party), I may assume too much -- namely that others will find this topic as interesting as I do. I suppose it may be a niche, and eccentric, genre and that you won't share my enthusiasm for Others. On the other hand, Richardson's work fits into two broader categories, those being "American history in general" and "good writing." I believe that devotees of those two categories will find Others rewarding whether or not they share my obsession with third party politics.
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