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"Ain't You Glad You Joined the Republicans?" A Short History of the GOP. By John Calvin Batchelor. (New York: Holt, 1996. xii, 399 pp. $25.00, ISBN 0-8050-3267-3.)
John Calvin Batchelor wrote seven novels before he attempted this first history, which may explain why the book reads so well but is rather undocumented. It is divided into time-segment chapters on the history of the Republican party. Each begins with the most dramatic moment of that period in terms of its implications for the Republican party. For example, the segment 1854-1865 flashes forward to the nomination of Abraham Lincoln and then returns to the founding of the party. The segment 1920-1944 flashes forward to the 1929 crash, then back to the "return to normalcy" campaign. These telling moments are marvelously detailed and show Batchelor's skill at re-creating history. Happily this...