This book examines how mass democracy was understood before public opinion could be measured by polls.

Fictions of Mass Democracy in Nineteenth-Century America examines how mass democracy was understood before public opinion could be measured by polls. It argues

Saxton asks why white racism remained an ideological force in America long after the need to justify slavery and Western conquest had disappeared.

What did politics and public affairs mean to those generations of Americans who first experienced democratic self-rule? Taking their cue from vibrant political

Shows how shifting views on race caused the American conservative movement to surrender highbrow fiction to to progressive liberals.