3 Review(s)

When Jacob Coxey's army marched into Washington, DC in 1894, observers didn't know what to make of this concerted effort by citizens to use the capital for national public protest. By 1971, however, when thousands marched to protest the war in Vietnam, what had once been outside the political order had become a routine gesture in American political culture. An erudite history of marching on Washington, this text explains how this political tactic began as something unacceptable and gradually became legitimate. The author shows how these highly visible events contributed to the development of a broader and more inclusive view of American citizenship and transformed the capital from the exclusive domain of politicians and officials into a national stage for American citizens to participate directly in national politics.