In the preparation of the book, I have made extensive use of the volumes by Professors Dunning, Sparks, Dewey, and Latane, in the American Nation Series, and I wish to acknowledge once for all my deep debt to them. My colleague, Mr. B. B. Kendrick, read all of the proofs and saved me from many an error. Professor R. L. Schuyler gave me the benefit of his criticisms on part of the proof. To Dr. Louis A. Mayers, of the College of the City of New York, I am under special obligations for valuable suggestions as to arrangement and for drafting a large portion of Chapter III. The shortcomings of the book fall to me, but I shall be recompensed for my indiscretions, if this volume is speedily followed by a number of texts, large and small, dealing with American history since the Civil War. It is showing no disrespect to our ancestors to be as much interested in our age as they were in theirs; and the doctrine that we can know more about Andrew Jackson whom we have not seen than about Theodore Roosevelt whom we have seen is a pernicious psychological error. CHARLES A. BEARD. COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY, November, 1913. TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. THE RESTORATION OF WHITE DOMINION IN THE SOUTH 1 II. THE ECONOMIC REVOLUTION 27 III. THE REVOLUTION IN POLITICS AND LAW 50 IV. PARTIES AND PARTY ISSUES, 1877-1896 90 V. TWO DECADES OF FEDERAL LEGISLATION, 1877-1896 117 VI. THE GROWTH OF DISSENT 143 VII. THE CAMPAIGN OF 1896 164 VIII. IMPERIALISM 199 IX. THE DEVELOPMENT OF CAPITALISM 229 X. THE ADMINISTRATIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 254 XI. THE REVIVAL OF DISSENT 283 XII. MR. TAFT AND REPUBLICAN DISINTEGRATION 317 XIII. THE CAMPAIGN OF 1912 344 APPENDIX 382 BIBLIOGRAPHY 383 INDEX 391 CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN HISTORY CHAPTER I THE RESTORATION OF WHITE DOMINION IN THE SOUTH