$33.99 The book serves as both a history of American political parties and an argument that their deterioration has done untold damage to the U.S., particularly that of the Republican Party.

For almost 200 years a two-party system has sustained itself as the basis of our democratic government. Since the mid-1850's, the Democrats and Republicans have dominated the American political scene.

For most of the 20th century, much of the South embraced the party, whose ideological identity—like that of its foil, the Republicans—was forged by the deepest conflicts in American history.