Introduction: Rethinking Political Parties in the Information Age --Political Parties in an American Setting -- Political Parties: Institutions Americans Love to Hate -- Praise from the Ivory Tower -- Politics without Parties -- The Parties Speak: Gejdenson versus White on the Importance of Political Parties -- Three Important Party Distinctions -- How Parties Differ from Other Organizations -- The Components of American Political Parties -- Does the Tripod Work in the Information Age? -- What Do Political Parties Seek to Accomplish? -- The Battle of the Titans: Hamilton Versus Jefferson -- Like God, Parties are not Dead -- The Ascendance of Party Politics -- The Pre-Party Era -- The Colonial Experience -- Nascent Parties: Federalists Versus Republicans -- Party Rule: 1824-1912 -- Breakdown and Renewal: The Election of 1824 -- The Jackson-Van Buren Alliance -- The Rise of Mass-Based Politics and the Emergence of the Spoils System -- The Interregnum: Parties and the Civil War -- The Coming of the Machine -- The Parties Speak: A Day in the Life of Party Boss George Washington Plunkitt -- The Parties Speak: Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard J. Daley on Patronage -- Parties "American Style" -- The Decline of Party Politics -- "Clean it Up!": The Progressive Movement -- Enter the Progressives -- The Parties Speak: Robert M. LaFollette, Sr., "The Menace of the Machine" (1897) -- Why the Progressive Movement Was Successful -- An End to Party Politics? -- Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal -- The New Deal and Party Politics.