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This lively and lucidly written history examines the crucial role third parties have played in shaping our nation's destiny beginning with the Anti-Masonic Party in the 1820s and concluding with the spectacular rise and disappointing collapse of the Greenback-Labor movement in the mid-1880s--a short-lived entity that gave birth to the dramatic Populist movement of the following decade.</P><P>In this sweeping historical chronicle a marvelous mix of history and biography the author explains in vivid detail how two antebellum third-party movements--the Free Soil and Know-Nothing parties--provided the spark for the phoenix-like ascendancy of the antislavery Republican Party in the 1850s culminating in Abraham Lincoln's election to the presidency in 1860.</P><P>This copiously rich and brisk narrative also describes how the Know-Nothing Party--the most powerful third-party movement in American history--was ultimately ripped asunder over the issue of slavery.</P><P>In the first of a riveting and powerful four-volume series on independent and third-party politics in U.S. history Darcy Richardson also examines the remarkable and fascinating men and women who took part in those political movements outside the traditional two-party system and the extraordinary contributions they made in shaping the course of America's destiny.</P>