A list of political books I wish someone would write
#1: The Complete History of the Natural Law Party. Which would either end up overlapping some with
#2: The 2000 Reform Party Nomination Battle. A case study in how a third party dies due to its usefulness as a vessel for other-interested.
#3: A look at ALL of the Presidential Races of Eugene McCarthy, emphasis of the 1992 race equal to the 1968 race. Skew the Historical perspective a bit, why dontcha?
#4:Â The Search for the last Whig Party Candidate to appear on any ballot, the last Federalist Party Candidate to appear on any ballot, and the last actually elected Whig and Federalist.
#5: The 1986 Illinois Democratic Primary Race. You know the ones. Heck, the Executive Intelligence Review or Benjamin Franklin Books could publish it. No, then he’d have to acknowledge he peaked in 1986 and didn’t get anywhere electorally with his peak.
#6: The Disjointed history of the Libertarian National Socialist Green Party. Granted, this would have to end up being an essay, but it’s amusing and darkly funny anyways.
#7: The 1924 Democratic National Convention, which was what inspired the oft quoted Will Rogers saying “I’m not a member of an organized political party. I am a Democrat.”
#8: The History of the Dies Committee. Actually I’ve seen this book, so never mind. Published in the early 1940s, it posited the late twentieth century Red Scare as a precursor to the Dies Committee. Which is odd, because today, the Dies Committee would be a footnote, a brief mention as the actual physical entity of the Committee on UnAmerican Activities, and a precursor to McCarthy in the 1950s.
So, those are several books I want to read. I don’t think there’s a market for any of them, but why don’t you write them anyway?
March 15th, 2007 at 8:36 pm
I read your post about a list of interesting topics for books. Just for the heck of it I did a little looking and found some possible starts for such books. There is a pretty detailed essay on the 1986 Illinois Democratic primary at http://www.prin.edu/users/els/departments/poli_sci/state/state/larouche.htm and there is a brief article about the Federalists that mention the last Federalist candidates and elected officials such as this quote:
“During the last days of their party, the Federalists remained in office longest in Connecticut and Massachusetts. Oliver Wolcott, Jr. served as governor of Connecticut from 1817 to 1827. That state also had two Federalist senators until 1827, one of whom continued in office until 1831. In Massachusetts, Harrison Gray Otis served as senator (1817-22) and so did James Lloyd, Jr. (1822-26). Josiah Quincy was mayor of Boston (1823) and was replaced by his friend Otis (1829-31).
Defeatist Rufus King was the only Federalist outside of these states who held an important elective office during this time. He was senator from New York (1813-1825) and minister of England (1825-26).”
It truly is amazing what you can find on the Internet if you look for it.