Summers. Party Games : Getting, Keeping, and Using Power in Gilded Age Politics. University of North Carolina Press 2004 Softcover. Very Good Octavo 352 pp
"Much of late-nineteenth-century American politics was parade and pageant. Voters crowded the polls and their votes made a real difference on policy. In Party Games, the author tells the full story and admires much of the carnival, but adds a cautionary note about the dark recesses: vote-buying, election-rigging, news suppression, and violence."