Rebecca Edwards’ Angels in the Machinery traces the relationship between family power structures and gender and the development of partisan politics from the Whig era to the early twentieth century. Through a series of essays, Edwards traces the expanding role for women outside of the home and within party politics, a role she argues was actually more integrated with partisan political machinery before 1890 as opposed to afterwards. Edwards contends that the industrial revolution created many domestic political issues that manifested the formation of two powerful political parties with broad constituencies, constituencies that were actually communities of individuals who shared similar faith or values. Women played an instrumental role in politics of this era because they were viewed as being superior in morality by Republicans, even though the Democrats viewed them as a threat to the white patriarchy.
Because of the transformation from the Agrarian Era to the Industrial Era, Edwards contends that many fundamental changes and the redefining of many values took place which burdened the American leadership to try and consolidate a broad constituency with shared values. Therefore this Gilded Age was marked by a struggle for American society to come to an agreement upon the definitions of family and government power. The Republicans viewed their legislation as necessary for protecting family values, whereas the Democrats believed the federal government should not interfere with the domestic sphere. During the two decades from 1876 to 1894, Edwards argues the country experienced a revolving door atmosphere in the political realm, one through which both parties entered and exited routinely and with through the narrowest margins of victory when winning office. Because of this instability, both parties sought to once again redefine their ideologies and gender relationships in order to gain a wide power base. The Democrats became...