The Second Party System in American Politics
Michael F. Holt of the University of Virginia looks at the development of a second two-party political system in antebellum U.S. and the role the system played in balancing and unifying the nation. Holt also looks at the dissolution of this second system through loss of public faith in the Democratic and Whig parties as they stood and in the development of the Republican and Know Nothing parties in response to new social forces (such as immigration and the rise of Roman Catholicism).
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