The Virgin Vote

This book has been one of the most interesting and enjoyable ones I have read recently. Grinspan looks at how political parties tried to cement voters’ loyalty for a lifetime by courting their first (or virgin) vote. He also discusses the importance of voting and political parties in shaping the lives of young people. Young people are often overlooked in traditional historical scholarship, but Grinspan treats them seriously.  

Grinspan’s fluid prose wonderfully evokes the social world of antebellum politics, showing the central role that children and young people played in the nation’s political life. In an age when popular amusements in small towns were few, politicking provided compelling spectacle and diversion for Americans of all ages. Among many other insights, Grinspan shows how the emotional intensity that male youths brought to politics—especially as members of quasi-military organizations like Wide Awake Clubs—helped define the raucous tenor of the 1850s that led to the Civil War.