Earnest Men

Taking a quantitative approach, Allan G. Bogue assesses the nature of radical and conservative Republicanism in the Civil War Senate, documents the distinctions among the senators, and clarifies the factors that encouraged or discouraged factionalism. The Earnest Men is divided into two parts: "Men, Context, and Patterns" and "The Substance of Disagreement." In Part One, Bogue investigates the backgrounds of the senators and the institutional structure of the Senate, and he examines the character of leadership exercised in the Senate chamber. He then uses roll-call analysis as a means of establishing distinctions between radical and moderate senators. To account for their voting patterns, he considers living arrangements, seating, regionalism, and election results.In Part Two, Bogue looks closely at the debates in the Senate in order to ascertain the nature of disagreements between radical and moderate Republicans in such policy-making areas as slavery, taxation, human rights, punishment and rehabilitation, and legislation affecting the border states. Taking issue with the idea that the Republicans were essentially unified on the issues of the day, he finds that their differences were widespread and important. A major study of the Senate in one of its most productive periods, The Earnest Men is a remarkable combination of systematic analysis and narrative history.

Allan G. Bogue has long been known as one of the country's foremost quantitative historians.... Using highly sophisticated methods of scaling, sampling a great variety of roll calls on many different subjects, he has proved the existence of substantial differences between radical and moderate, and certainly between radical and conservative, Republicans during the period in question.... Bogue has given us an excellent quantitative analysis of the politics of Civil War senators., In this important and well-written volume, Allan Bogue examines radical and conservative Republicanism in the Senate during the 37th Congress (1861–1863), documenting distinctions among the members and clarifying the factors that affected factionalism.... He effectively combines quantitative research with that in more traditional sources in a work that will serve as a model of its kind., The core of this study is analysis of the roll-call voting record, but extensive context is supplied in evaluation of biographical, institutional, and ideological elements. Bogue makes explicit his belief that 'quantitative research can be most effective when combined with research in so-called literary sources.' His presentation brilliantly demonstrates that he has acted on his beliefs.... The finished work is as much a guide to important research methods and a surpassing example of scrupulous reporting as it is a penetrating analysis of a dominant concept in Civil War history.

Allan G. Bogue is Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.