Paradox of Progress Economic Change, Individual Enterprise, and Political Culture in Michigan, 1837-1878

It can be compared to the best of the studies of state politics in this era done in the last quarter century... [and] is certainly one of the most important works written on nineteenth-century Michigan. (author of "The Politics of Individualism: Parties and the American Character in the Jacksonian Era") "Martin Hershock confronts a question often posed by students of American history: How did the antebellum Republican Party, firmly rooted in antislavery, quickly evolve into a party identified with big business?...One of this book's many strengths is Herschock's analysis of how the Republican Party coalesced around discontented Whigs, Democrats, and Free Soilers.... Hershock's inviting prose effectively challenges historians' arguments while telling a compelling story-one that includes an outstanding chapter on Michigan politics during the Civil War. This book deserves a wide audience." (Michigan Historical Review) "(A) detailed, meticulously researched study of the impact of an emerging market economy on the sociopolitical cultures of Michigan between two of the mid-19th-century US's deepest business depressions.... (T)his well-written book is likely to become the starting point for all further studies." (Choice) "Hershock's story is well told. It is especially important that he carries it into the 1870s in order to highlight the betrayal felt by Republicans all over the upper Midwest in the wake of the Union triumph." (Journal of the Early American Republic)