The Presidency/Hugh Sidey "A great disruptive fact was the baneful influence of elections almost continuously in progress, of campaigns never over, and of political uproar endlessly arousing emotions . . . It raised to ever higher pitch the passion-rousing oratory of rivals. They egged one another on to make more and more exaggerated statements."
Historian Roy Franklin Nichols was not describing our time. He was writing about America's chaotic years before the Civil War; this excerpt is from his classic work The Disruption of American Democracy, published in 1948. For some students of today's politics, there are alarming echoes. The issues...
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