xix
Preface
Th is book recounts the historical development of the American
two-party system. It analyzes why and how two major parties
have dominated that system since the early 1800s. In discuss-
ing more than 200 years of American history focusing on the
dynamics of the two-party system, it is useful to categorize that
long-term history into periods of time to better discuss those de-
velopments. Several methods have been used by historians and
political scientists to do so. I herein use six such periods marked
by the presidential election of six transformative presidents and
close the discussion of current political party developments
with the question: do the 2008 and 2012 elections of President
Barack Obama demarcate a lasting change in the party coali-
tions or does the 2016 election of Donald Trump signal a shift
to Republican dominance with an appeal to national populism?
Th ere is disagreement among historians and political scientists
over concepts and dates of party systems. I fi nd it useful to break
up the discussion of more than 200 years of political party and
electoral developments by using demarcation elections that many
scholars identify as critical elections, each identifi ed by six trans-
formative presidents: Th omas Jeff erson, 1800; Andrew Jackson,
1828; Abraham Lincoln, 1860; William McKinley, 1895; Frank-
lin Roosevelt, 1932; and Ronald Reagan, 1980 (Aldrich 1995;
Burnham, 1970; Clubb et al. 1990; Gerring, 1998; Key, 1955;
Lichtman, 1983; Manza and Brooks, 1999; Rosenof 2003;
Schlesinger 1973; Sundquist 1983; Williams 2010 ). Each party
