Henry W. Blair's Campaign to Reform America: From the Civil War to the U.S. Senate

“”Gordon B. McKinney’s fully contextualized, engagingly written, and richly documented study of Henry W. Blair, Senate Republican and New England reformer, brings to life the crucial nature of the 1880s and the era of national politics following Reconstruction. Skillfully combining political history with a biography of a long-neglected figure, McKinney makes an important contribution to our understanding of Gilded Age.”– William A. Link, Richard J. Milbauer Professor of History at the University of Florida” —

“”Gordon McKinney provides a discerning and sympathetic account of Blair’s tenacious struggles to use an idealized image of his home region as a legislative template. This is a book that has been worth waiting for.”” — Daniel W. Crofts, author of Reluctant Confederates: Upper South Unionists in the Secession Crisis

“This well-crafted biography of Henry W. Blair places the New Hampshire politician at the center of late nineteenth-century political debates about moral reform…. both general readers and historians of the Gilded Age will find much to like about this study.” — The Historian

“With a sure hand, McKinney sorts out the competing interests; discovers the machinations of local and state politics; and wends through the inner workings of Congress to understand Blair’s success in keeping reform issues in the public eye…” — The Journal of American History

Gordon B. McKinney is professor emeritus of history and former director of the Loyal Jones Appalachian Center at Berea College, USA. He is the author of numerous books, including Southern Mountain Republicans, 1865―1900 and Zeb Vance: North Carolina’s Civil War Governor and Gilded Age Political Leader.