The Formation of the American Political Field, 1872-1924

Stephanie L. Mudge, University of California, Davis
Shahar Zaken, University of California, Davis

This article develops a historical account of the formation of the American political field between 1872 and 1924. We deploy a neo-Bourdieusian conception of the political field via a computational analysis of emergence and change in axes of opposition, dominant personas, and the overall scope of American politics using over 20 million pages of historical newspapers. Two novel computational measures show, with striking consistency, that the American political field semantically expanded and then contracted between 1872 and 1924, reaching maximum breadth in 1916. Within this arc were three mini-cycles: 1872-1896, reaching peak breadth in 1892; 1896 to 1912, peaking in 1904; and 1912 to 1924, peaking in 1916. Patterns are broadly consistent with relevant historiography of the period, including literatures on realignments and critical elections. The mini-cyclical pattern is also consistent with the Marxian insight that there is an intimate connection between capitalism’s crisis cycles and dynamics of political contention: political field expansion tends to correspond with economic expansion, and vice versa. Further analyses focus on the relationship between political formation and geographical/territorial formation; look closely at election years that were dominated by personalities rather than issues, bringing the analytical focus down to the level of the person; and track successive shifts in axes of political opposition alongside the consolidation of an increasingly heavyweight administrative state. Ultimately, this article contributes to political sociology by demonstrating how computational methods, informed by sociological theory and relational sensibilities, can deepen existing understandings of the formation of political fields. More specifically, our aim is to better grasp a volatile period in American political history that, it would seem, has striking similarities with dynamics in the present.

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 Presented in Session 21. Critical Perspectives on US History