Classical liberal ideas were conspicuously absent from federal elections for many decades after the short-lived National Democratic Party (1896-1900), a last-ditch effort to build a consensus for free trade and limited government. The story of the NDP (or Gold Democrats, as they are also known) sheds light on the fall of classical liberalism and the subsequent rise of modern liberalism.

Linda Royster Beito is Professor of Social Sciences and Dean of Arts and Science at Stillman College.
David T. Beito is a Senior Fellow at the Independent Institute, Professor Emeritus at the University of Alabama, and author of The New Deal’s War on the Bill of Rights: The Untold Story of FDR’s Concentration Camps, Censorship, and Mass Surveillance.
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Other Independent Review articles by Linda Royster Beito
Spring 2016 The “Lodger Evil” and the Transformation of Progressive Housing Reform, 1890–1930
Fall 2010 Selling Laissez-faire Antiracism to the Black Masses: Rose Wilder Lane and the Pittsburgh Courier
Other Independent Review articles by David T. Beito
Summer 2016 “New Deal Witch Hunt”: The Buchanan Committee Investigation of the Committee for Constitutional Government
Spring 2016 The “Lodger Evil” and the Transformation of Progressive Housing Reform, 1890–1930
Fall 2010 Selling Laissez-faire Antiracism to the Black Masses: Rose Wilder Lane and the Pittsburgh Courier
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