Talk:Radical Republicans

To the Loveable-Book-Worm

I agree with you! BTW, (that's a cute name!)

Left-wing

Radical Republicans were almost self-evidently the left wing of mainstream US political culture in the 1860s (and they were so perceived by contemporaries, both their conservative rivals and the radicals themselves). I'm not sure what grounds could be offered for disputing this—except maybe that the terms "left" and "right" were more commonly used in French than US political culture at the time? However, I do think it's worth it for the infobox to point this out, because the Republican party today is on the right: younger or more naïve readers might not realize that the parties have switched positions during the intervening decades. Q·L·1968 ☿ 17:02, 27 December 2018 (UTC)

using left-right is VERY confusing for this period and RS do not use the terms. the people in the 1860s did not use these terms. The other wing --the 'right wing' of the GOP called themselves Liberal Republicans. So Radical = left and Liberal = right ???? Rjensen (talk) 18:23, 27 December 2018 (UTC)

You know, I've been hunting around for unambiguous reliable sources, and you might be right that the terms "left" and "right" weren't used in the US context at that point. This would surprise me because the 48ers and leftists in Europe certainly identified with the Republican cause particularly in its Radical expression. I seem to remember that McClellan called his radical critics "Jacobins" in his correspondence, which is a reference to the same French Revolutionary seating chart that gives us "left" and "right". But yes, clearly Radical = left and Liberal = right in the Republican context of the Civil War and Reconstruction period. By the way, is there some reason to object to America as a Civilization: Life and Through in the United States Today as a "fringe source" the way the anonymous user did? I haven't looked at it; I was rescuing that reference from an earlier deletion that looked like it might have been accidental. Q·L·1968 ☿ 23:38, 27 December 2018 (UTC)

The America as a Civilization book by Max Lerner is not fringe--it's a very well written description of life in 1950s--not much theory. see https://www.jstor.org/stable/2146094 Rjensen (talk) 00:11, 28 December 2018 (UTC)

Well, they opposed hierarchies (particularly racial) and fought for labor rights as shown by Radical Republican General Benjamin Butler. I'd say they'd be leftist in terms of both economic and social.

The left typically fights hierarchy in favor of equity/liberation (as a person on the left, I can confirm this), and the Radical Republicans fought to prevent the freedmen's rights from being taken by racist Southerners via prohibiting black codes and other racial hierarchies in the society.

So, yes, as confusing it may be, I would say they'd be categorized as left-wing! Western Progressivist (talk) 01:45, 30 June 2023 (UTC)