The Rise of the Federal Colossus: The Growth of Federal Power from Lincoln to F.D.R.

by Peter Zavodnyik

Overview

This challenging book explores the debates over the scope of the enumerated powers of Congress and the Fourteenth Amendment that accompanied the expansion of federal authority during the period between the beginning of the Civil War and the inauguration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

The Rise of the Federal Colossus: The Growth of Federal Power from Lincoln to F.D.R. offers readers a front-row seat for the critical phases of a debate that is at the very center of American history, exploring such controversial issues as what powers are bestowed on the federal government, what its role should be, and how the Constitution should be interpreted.

The book argues that the critical period in the growth of federal power was not the New Deal and the three decades that followed, but the preceding 72 years when important precedents establishing the national government's authority to aid citizens in distress, regulate labor, and take steps to foster economic growth were established. The author explores newspaper and magazine articles, as well as congressional debates and court opinions, to determine how Americans perceived the growing authority of their national government and examine arguments over whether novel federal activities had any constitutional basis. Responses of government to the enormous changes that took place during this period are also surveyed.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780313392931
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	01/04/2011
Series:	Praeger Series on American Political Culture Series
Pages:	568
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.30(h) x 2.10(d)

About the Author

Peter Zavodnyik is a lawyer in private practice in Chicago and the author of The Age of Strict Construction: A History of the Growth of Federal Power, 1789-1861.

Table of Contents

Series Foreword ix

Introduction xiii

Chapter 1 Federalism and War, 1861-1865 1

The Assembling of Armies 1

Federal Rule in Wartime 7

Republican Innovations 19

Consolidation and Victory 35

Chapter 2 The Constitution Obscured, 1865-1877 45

Restoration 45

Revolution 66

Redemption 85

Chapter 3 Federalism in the Gilded Age, 1877-1901 111

Pecuniary Issues 111

Federal Novelties 144

The Industrial Abyss and the Southern Revival 167

Federalism, Regulation, and the Gilded Age Supreme Court 179

The National Pork Barrel 197

Labor and Money 228

Chapter 4 The Progressive Era and American Federalism, 1901-1921 249

The Erosion of State Authority 249

The Discovery of National Authority 263

Democrats and National Authority 296

Federalism and the Weight of War 331

Chapter 5 Places at the Trough, 1921-1933 357

Mutual Exploitation: The Interest Groups 357

Jazz Age Federalism 375

Due Process, Incorporation, and the Regulation of Speech 387

Farmers and Republicans 398

Federalism and the Great Depression 404

Notes 425

Select Bibliography 505

Index 513

What People are Saying About This

Richard M. Gamble

"Zavodnyik's comprehensive study of the politics of national consolidation from 1860 to 1933 points to one conclusion: the demise of the Founder's republic began long before Progressives and New Dealers came to power. This book makes it impossible to deny that there is something more authentically American and home grown about big government than we ever imagined."

—

Richard M. Gamble, Anna Margaret Ross Alexander Professor of History and Political Science, Hillsdale College

G. Edward White

"An impressive overview of the sometimes surreptitious growth of the power of the federal government from the Civil War through the 1920s. Zavodnyik shows that even during times in which the ideology of extensive federal power was not generally supported, incremental growth in the regulatory and redistributive powers of the federal government took place."

—

G. Edward White, David and Mary Harrison Distinguished Professor, University of Virginia School of Law

Richard M. Gamble

"Zavodnyik's comprehensive study of the politics of national consolidation from 1860 to 1933 points to one conclusion: the demise of the Founder's republic began long before Progressives and New Dealers came to power. This book makes it impossible to deny that there is something more authentically American and home grown about big government than we ever imagined."

Morton Keller

"An encyclopedic survey of the expanding role of the federal government from the Civil War to the Great Depression , Peter Zavodnyik's The Rise of the Federal Colossus provides a substantial evidentiary base for future inquiries into the complex relationships among the federal, state, local and private sources of power in American life during this period. It will assist scholars who seek a better understanding of the ways in which the modern American state emerged out of, and differed from, that seed-time of federal power."

—

Morton Keller, Spector Professor of History, emeritus, Brandeis University

G. Edward White

"An impressive overview of the sometimes surreptitious growth of the power of the federal government from the Civil War through the 1920s. Zavodnyik shows that even during times in which the ideology of extensive federal power was not generally supported, incremental growth in the regulatory and redistributive powers of the federal government took place."

Morton Keller

"An encyclopedic survey of the expanding role of the federal government from the Civil War to the Great Depression , Peter Zavodnyik's The Rise of the Federal Colossus provides a substantial evidentiary base for future inquiries into the complex relationships among the federal, state, local and private sources of power in American life during this period. It will assist scholars who seek a better understanding of the ways in which the modern American state emerged out of, and differed from, that seed-time of federal power."

Editorial Reviews

Zavodnyik presents a valuable new contribution to Praeger's "American Political Culture" series . . . Summing up: Recommended.” —Choice

“Readers in search of an exhaustive account of the activities of the federal government and the expansion of its impact on society will find value in Zavodnyik's narrative. The author seemingly leaves no piece of evidence behind in his attempt to document carefully the different ways that federal authority operated between 1865 and 1933. . . . Zavodnyik sticks relentlessly close to his sources, an approach that ultimately renders this book useful to historians mainly as a kind of primary-source concordance.” —The Jourbanal of American History

From the Publisher