"The Rise and Fall of the American Whig Party" by Michael Holt

[redstatebluegirl]

2. Yes in a nutshell this is the case.

This book is an academic work so it is a little wordy, but they talk about the divisions in the party related to slavery. The southern Whigs were not going quietly and the infighting got totally out of hand. Much of the book is anecdotal, so the stories from diaries and papers tell the story.

As I got to chapter 14 this morning, I kept seeing the similarities. How they tried to use the media of the day but it just made them look worse and pushed the two sides further apart. The electorate were getting tired of the fighting and were leaving in droves.

Not much in terms of cliff notes but this is the jest of it.