American National Biography (20 volumes, 1999) covers all politicians no longer alive; online at many academic libraries and at Wikipedia Library.
Burnham, Walter Dean. Critical Elections and the Mainsprings of American Politics. (1970)
Barone, Michael. The Almanac of American Politics 2020: The Senators, the Representatives and the Governors: Their Records and Election Results, Their States and Districts (2019); revised every two years since 1975.
Dinkin, Robert J. Voting and Vote-Getting in American History (2016), expanded edition of Dinkin, Campaigning in America: A History of Election Practices. (Greenwood 1989) online 1989 editionArchived 2017-06-30 at the Wayback Machine
Gould, Lewis L. The Republicans: A History of the Grand Old Party (2nd ed, 2014); First edition 2003 was entitled: Grand Old Party: A History of the Republicansonline 2nd edition, the best overview.
Jensen, Richard (1983). Grass Roots Politics: Parties, Issues, and Voters, 1854–1983. ISBN9780837163826., very well written scholarly work
Kleppner, Paul, et al. The Evolution of American Electoral Systems (1983), applies party systems model
Mason, Robert. The Republican Party and American Politics from Hoover to Reagan (2011) excerpt and text search
Mayer, George H. The Republican Party, 1854–1966. 2d ed. (1967), narrative.
Rutland, Robert Allen. The Republicans: From Lincoln to Bush (1996), popular
Shafer, Byron E.; Anthony J. Badger, eds. (2001). Contesting Democracy: Substance and Structure in American Political History, 1775–2000. University Press of Kansas. ISBN9780700611393., long essays by specialists on each time period:
includes: "'To One or Another of These Parties Every Man Belongs;": 1820–1865 by Joel H. Silbey; "Change and Continuity in the Party Period: 1835–1885" by Michael F. Holt; "The Transformation of American Politics: 1865–1910" by Peter H. Argersinger; "Democracy, Republicanism, and Efficiency: 1885–1930" by Richard Jensen; "The Limits of Federal Power and Social Policy: 1910–1955" by Anthony J. Badger; "The Rise of Rights and Rights Consciousness: 1930–1980" by James T. Patterson; and "Economic Growth, Issue Evolution, and Divided Government: 1955–2000" by Byron E. Shafer
Schlesinger, Arthur Meier Jr. ed. History of American Presidential Elections, 1789–2000 (various multivolume editions, latest is 2011 with Gil troy as coeditor). For each election includes good scholarly history and selection of primary document. Essays on the most important election are reprinted in Schlesinger, The Coming to Power: Critical presidential elections in American history (1972) online editions of multivolume set
Dearing, Mary. Veterans in Politics: The Story of the GAR (1952)
DeSantis, Vincent P. Republicans Face the Southern Question: The New Departure Years, 1877–1897 (1959)
Donald, David. Lincoln (1999)
Edwards, Rebecca. Angels in the Machinery: Gender in American Party Politics from the Civil War to the Progressive Era (1997)
Foner, Eric. Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men: The Ideology of the Republican Party Before the Civil War (1970), history of ideas and ideology
Gienapp, William E. The Origins of the Republican Party, 1852–1856 (1987), quantitative voting studies, by state
Gienapp, William E. "Nativism and the Creation of a Republican Majority in the North Before the Civil War", Journal of American History 72 (Dec. 1985): 529–59 in JSTOR
Hesseltine, William B. Ulysses S. Grant: Politician (1935)
Holt, Michael F. "Review: The New Political History and the Civil War Era," Reviews in American History Vol. 13, No. 1 (Mar., 1985), pp.60–69 in JSTOR
Hoogenboom, Ari. Rutherford B. Hayes: Warrior and President (1995).
Jensen, Richard. The Winning of the Midwest: Social and Political Conflict, 1888–1896 (1971)
Jordan, David. Roscoe Conkling of New York: Voice in the Senate (1971).
Kehl, James A. Boss Rule in the Gilded Age: Matt Quay of Pennsylvania (1981)
Keller, Morton. Affairs of State: Public Life in Late Nineteenth Century America (1977). details on the rules of the game in politics
Kleppner, Paul. The Third Electoral System 1853–1892: Parties, Voters, and Political Cultures (1979), analysis of voting behavior, with emphasis on region, ethnicity, religion and class.
McKinney, Gordon B. Southern Mountain Republicans, 1865–1900: Politics and the Appalachian Community 1978.
Marcus, Robert. Grand Old Party: Political Structure in the Gilded Age, 1880–1896 1971.
Morgan, H. Wayne. From Hayes to McKinley; National Party Politics, 1877–1896 (1969)
Morgan, H. Wayne. William McKinley and His America 1963.
Muzzey, David Saville. James G. Blaine: A Political Idol of Other Days 1934.
Nevins, Allan. Ordeal of the Union 8 vol (1947–77); highly detailed narrative of national politics and Civil War, 184865, by leading scholar
Oakes, James. The Crooked Path to Abolition: Abraham Lincoln and the Antislavery Constitution (W.W. Norton, 2021).
Oakes, James. Freedom National: The Destruction of Slavery in the United States, 1861–1865 (W. W. Norton, 2012)
Paludin, Philip. A People's Contest: The Union and the Civil War, 1861–1865 1988.
Polakoff, Keith Ian. The Politics of Inertia: The Election of 1876 and the End of Reconstruction 1973.
Rhodes, James Ford. The History of the United States from the Compromise of 1850 8 vol (1932), narrative, 18501909
Richardson, Heather Cox. The Greatest Nation of the Earth: Republican Economic Policies during the Civil War (1997)
Robinson, William A. Thomas B. Reed, Parliamentarian 1930.
Silbey, Joel H. The American Political Nation, 1838–1893 (1991)
Shepard, Christopher. The Civil War Income Tax and the Republican Party, 1861–1872 (2010)
Summers, Mark Wahlgren. Rum, Romanism & Rebellion: The Making of a President, 1884 (2000)
Van Deusen, Glyndon G. Horace Greeley, Nineteenth-Century Crusader (1953)
Welch, Richard E. George Frisbie Hoar and the Half Breed Republicans 1971.
Williams, R. Hal. Years of Decision: American Politics in the 1890s. 1978.
1900–1932
Blum, John MortonThe Republican Roosevelt. (1954). essays that examine how TR did politics
Brands, H.W.Theodore Roosevelt (2001), full biography
Burner, David. Herbert Hoover: A Public Life. (1979).
Chace, James. 1912: Wilson, Roosevelt, Taft, and Debs – The Election That Changed the Country. (2004). 323 pp.
Coletta, Paolo Enrico. The Presidency of William Howard Taft (1973), standard survey
Garraty, John. Henry Cabot Lodge: A Biography 1953
Gosnell, Harold F. Boss Platt and His New York Machine: A Study of the Political Leadership of Thomas C. Platt, Theodore Roosevelt, and Others (1924)
Gould, Lewis L. The Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt. (2nd ed. 2011)
Gould, Lewis L. The William Howard Taft Presidency (2009)
Gould, Lewis L. Four Hats in the Ring: The 1912 Election and the Birth of Modern American Politics (2008)
Harbaugh, William Henry. The Life and Times of Theodore Roosevelt. (1963), full scholarly biography
Hechler, Kenneth S. Insurgency: Personalities and Politics of the Taft Era (1940)
Lichtman, Allan J. Prejudice and the Old Politics: The Presidential Election of 1928 (1979). quantitative study of voters
Morris, Edmund. The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, to 1901 (1979); vol 2: Theodore Rex covers 1901909. (2001); Colonel Roosevelt (2010), after 1909. Pulitzer prize biography.
Miller; Karen A. J. Populist Nationalism: Republican Insurgency and American Foreign Policy Making, 1911–1925. Greenwood Press, 1999
McCoy, Donald, Calvin Coolidge: The Quiet President (1967),
Mowry, George E. Theodore Roosevelt and the Progressive Movement. (2001) focus on 1912.\
O’Brien, Phillips Payson, “Herbert Hoover, Anglo-American Relations, and Republican Party Politics in the 1920s,” Diplomacy and Statecraft, 22 (no. 2, 2011), 200–218.
Pringle, Henry F. The Life and Times of William Howard Taft: A Biography. 2 vol (1939); Pulitzer prize; the standard biography
Pringle, Henry F. Theodore Roosevelt: A Biography (1931)
Sherman, Richard B. The Republican Party and Black America from McKinley to Hoover 1973.
Smith, Richard Norton. An Uncommon Man: The Triumph of Herbert Hoover, (1987) full-length scholarly biography.
David Thelen, Robert M. La Follette and the Insurgent Spirit 1976. short interpretive biography
Nancy C. Unger. Fighting Bob La Follette: The Righteous Reformer (2000), full scale biography
1932–1980
Bowen, Michael. The Roots of Modern Conservatism: Dewey, Taft, and the Battle for the Soul of the Republican Party (2011)
Brennan, Mary C. Turning Right in the Sixties: The Conservative Capture of the GOP (1995), 1960s
Broussard, James H. The Improbable Wendell Willkie: The Businessman Who Saved the Republican Party and His Country, and Conceived a New World Order (2020).
Cunningham, Sean P. Cowboy Conservatism: Texas and the Rise of the Modern Right (2010)
Dueck, Colin. Hard Line: The Republican Party and U.S. Foreign Policy since World War II (2010)
Dallek, Matthew. The Right Moment: Ronald Reagan's First Victory and the Decisive Turning Point in American Politics. (2004). Study of 1966 election as governor.
Firestone, Bernard J. & Alexej Ugrinsky, ed. (1992). Gerald R. Ford and the Politics of Post-Watergate America. ISBN978-0-313-28009-2.
Greenberg, David. Nixon's Shadow: The History of an Image (2003). Important study of how Nixon was perceived by media and scholars.
Jensen, Richard. "The Last Party System, 1932–1980," in Paul Kleppner, ed. Evolution of American Electoral Systems (1981)
Ladd Jr., Everett Carll with Charles D. Hadley. Transformations of the American Party System: Political Coalitions from the New Deal to the 1970s 2d ed. (1978).
Mason, Robert. Richard Nixon and the Quest for a New Majority (2004). 289 pp.
Morris, Roger. Richard Milhous Nixon: The Rise of an American Politician (1990).
Pach, Chester J. and Elmo Richardson. Presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower (1991). Standard scholarly survey.
Parmet, Herbert S. Eisenhower and the American Crusades (1972)
Parmet, Herbert S. Richard Nixon and His America (1990).
Patterson, James T. Mr. Republican: A Biography of Robert A. Taft (1972)
Patterson, James. Congressional Conservatism and the New Deal: The Growth of the Conservative Coalition in Congress, 1933–39 (1967)
Perlstein, Rick. Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus (2002) well written, broad account of 1964
Persico, Joseph E.The Imperial Rockefeller: A Biography of Nelson A. Rockefeller, 1982 (The author was a senior aide).
Reich, Cary. The Life of Nelson A. Rockefeller: Worlds to Conquer, 1908–1958, 1996.
Reichley, James; Conservatives in an Age of Change: The Nixon and Ford Administrations, Brookings Institution, 1981.
Reinhard, David W. The Republican Right since 1945 (1983)
Rosen, Elliot A. The Republican Party in the Age of Roosevelt: Sources of Anti-Government Conservatism in the United States (U. of Virginia Press, 2014) excerpt and text search
Shelley II, Mack C. The Permanent Majority: The Conservative Coalition in the United States Congress (1983)
Smith, Richard Norton. Thomas E. Dewey and His Times. (1982)
Sundquist, James L. Dynamics of the Party System: Alignment and Realignment of Political Parties in the United States (1983)
White, Theodore. The Making of the President: 1960 (1961); The Making of the President: 1964 (1965); The Making of the President 1968 (1969) classic narratives
1980–2016
The Almanac of American Politics (2022) details on members of Congress, and the governors: their records and election results; also state and district politics; revised every two years since 1975. details
American National Biography (20 volumes, 1999) covers all politicians no longer alive; online at many academic libraries and at Wikipedia Library.
Aberbach, Joel D., and Gillian Peele, eds. Crisis of Conservatism?: The Republican Party, the Conservative Movement, and American Politics After Bush (2011) excerpt and text search
Aistrup, Joseph A. The Southern Strategy Revisited: Republican Top-Down Advancement in the South (1996)
Black, Earl and Merle Black. The Rise of Southern Republicans (2002).
Cadava, Geraldo. The Hispanic Republican: The Shaping of an American Political Identity, from Nixon to Trump (2020)
Crines, Andrew S. and Sophia Hatzisavvidou, eds. Republican Orators from Eisenhower to Trump (2017).
Crotty, William J. Winning the Presidency 2012 (Routledge, 2015).
Dunbar, Peter, and Mike Haridopolos. The Modern Republican Party in Florida (UP of Florida, 2019).
Ehrman, John, The Eighties: America in the Age of Reagan (2005)
Frank, Thomas. What's the Matter with Kansas? How Conservatives Won the Heart of America (2005), criticism from the left
Frum, David. What's Right: The New Conservative Majority and the Remaking of America (1996)
Germond, Jack W. and Jules Witcover. Blue Smoke & Mirrors: How Reagan Won & Why Carter Lost the Election of 1980. 1981. Detailed journalism. [ISBNmissing]
Green, John Robert. The Presidency of George Bush. (2000). [ISBNmissing]
Janda, Kenneth. "The 2016 US Presidential Election: The Lesson for Conservatism." (2017). online paper
Kabaservice, Geoffrey. Rule and Ruin: The Downfall of Moderation and the Destruction of the Republican Party, From Eisenhower to the Tea Party (2012) scholarly history excerpt and text search
Lamis, Alexander P. ed. Southern Politics in the 1990s (1999)
Patterson, James T. Restless Giant: The United States from Watergate to Bush vs. Gore. (2005), standard scholarly synthesis.
Pemberton, William E. Exit with Honor: The Life and Presidency of Ronald Reagan (1998) biography by historian
Perrin, Andrew J., et al. "Political and Cultural Dimensions of Tea Party Support, 2009–2012." Sociological Quarterly (2014) 55#4 pp: 625–652. online
Philpot, Tasha. Race, Republicans, and the Return of the Party of Lincoln (U of Michigan Press, 2009).
Reeves, Richard. President Reagan: The Triumph of Imagination (2005) detailed analysis by historian
Sabato, Larry J. Divided States of America: The Slash and Burn Politics of the 2004 Presidential Election (2005).
Sabato, Larry J. and Bruce Larson. The Party's Just Begun: Shaping Political Parties for America's Future (2001).
Shafer, Byron and Richard Johnston. The End of Southern Exceptionalism (2006), uses statistical election data & polls to argue GOP growth was primarily a response to economic change
Mel Steely. The Gentleman from Georgia: The Biography of Newt Gingrich Mercer University Press, 2000. ISBN0-86554-671-1.
Wooldridge, Adrian and John Micklethwait. The Right Nation: Conservative Power in America sophisticated study by two British journalists (2004). [ISBNmissing]
Recent years
Alberta, Tim. American Carnage: On the Front Lines of the Republican Civil War and the Rise of President Trump (2019). ISBN9780062896445.
Baker, Joseph O., and Christopher D. Bader. "Xenophobia, Partisanship, and Support for Donald Trump and the Republican Party." Race and Social Problems 14.1 (2022): 69–83.
Barber, Michael, and Jeremy C. Pope. "Does party trump ideology? Disentangling party and ideology in America." American Political Science Review 113.1 (2019): 38–54 online.
Boucher, Jean-Christophe, and Cameron G. Thies. "'I Am a Tariff Man': The Power of Populist Foreign Policy Rhetoric under President Trump." Journal of Politics 81.2 (2019): 712–722 online.
Chaturvedi, Neilan S., and Chris Haynes. "Polls and Elections: Is Loyalty a Powerful Thing? Republican Senate Campaign Strategy and Trump Coattails in the 2016 Election." Presidential Studies Quarterly 49.2 (2019): 432–448 online.
Cronin, Christopher. "Endless Love: Evangelical Voters, the Republican Party, and Donald Trump." in The 2020 Presidential Election: Key Issues and Regional Dynamics (2022): 113–129. [ISBNmissing]
Dodson, Kyle, and Clem Brooks. "All by Himself? Trump, Isolationism, and the American Electorate." Sociological Quarterly 63.4 (2022): 780–803. on foreign policy; doi:10.1080/00380253.2021.1966348
Eichengreen, Barry. The Populist Temptation: Economic Grievance and Political Reaction in the Modern Era (2018). ISBN9780190866280.
Sonin, Konstantin. "The Historical Perspective on the Donald Trump Puzzle: A Review of Barry Eichengreen's The Populist Temptation: Economic Grievance and Political Reaction in the Modern Era." Journal of Economic Literature 60.3 (2022): 1029–38. online
Espinoza, Michael. "Donald Trump's impact on the Republican Party." in The Trump Administration (Routledge, 2022) pp.134–150. online
Hopkins, David A. "How trump Changed the Republican Party – and the Democrats, too." in The Trump Effect: Disruption and Its Consequences in US Politics and Government (2022): 21+ online.
Jacobs, Lawrence R. Democracy Under Fire: Donald Trump and the Breaking of American History (Oxford University Press, 2022) online.
Jacobson, Gary C. "The Dimensions, Origins, and Consequences of Belief in Donald Trump’s Big Lie." Political Science Quarterly 138.2 (2023): 133–166. doi:10.1093/psquar/qqac030
Kelly, Casey Ryan. "Donald J. Trump and the rhetoric of ressentiment." Quarterly Journal of Speech 106.1 (2020): 2–24 online.
Knoester, Chris, and Matthew Knoester. "Social structure, culture, and the allure of Donald Trump in 2016." New Political Science 45.1 (2023): 33–57. online
Krasner, Michael Alan. "Tweets, Taunts, Tirades, and Tantrums: How America’s Donald Trump Transformed Transgressive Language into Political Power." in Debasing Political Rhetoric: Dissing Opponents, Journalists, and Minorities in Populist Leadership Communication (Springer Nature Singapore, 2023) pp.201–218 online
Margolis, Michele F. "Who wants to make America great again? Understanding evangelical support for Donald Trump." Politics and Religion 13.1 (2020): 89–118 online.
Martin, Jonathan, and Alexander Burns. This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden, and the Battle for America's Future (Simon and Schuster, 2023) online.
Meeks, Lindsey. "Defining the Enemy: How Donald Trump Frames the News Media." Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly 97.1 (2020): 211–234.
Milbank, Dana. The Destructionists: The Twenty-Five Year Crack-Up of the Republican Party (2022) excerpt
Piazza, James, and Natalia Van Doren. "it’s about hate: approval of Donald Trump, racism, xenophobia and support for political violence." American Politics Research 51.3 (2023): 299–314. online
Tucker, Patrick D., et al. "Pathways to Trump: Republican voters in 2016." Electoral Studies 61 (2019): 102035.
White, John Kenneth. "Donald Trump, the Republican Party, and the Scourge of Populism". In Populist Nationalism in Europe and the Americas ed. by Fernando López-Alves and Diane E. Johnson. (2018): 188–205. [ISBNmissing]
White, John Kenneth. "Donald Trump and the Republican Party: The Making of a Faustian Bargain". Studies in Media and Communication 5.2 (2017): 8–20.
Wilson, Joshua C. "Striving to Rollback or Protect Roe: State Legislation and the Trump-Era Politics of Abortion." Publius: The Journal of Federalism 50.3 (2020): 370–397.
Primary sources
Cantril, Hadley and Mildred Strunk, eds. Public Opinion, 1935–1946 (1951), compilation of public opinion polls from the United States and elsewhere.[ISBNmissing]
Schlesinger, Arthur Meier Jr. ed. History of American Presidential Elections, 1789–2000 (various multivolume editions, latest is 2001). For each election includes brief history and selection of primary documents.[ISBNmissing]
The national committees of major parties published a "campaign textbook" every presidential election from about 1856 to about 1932. They were designed for speakers and are jammed with statistics, speeches, summaries of legislation, and documents, with plenty of argumentation. Only large academic libraries have them, but some are online.
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