Jon Grinspan is a historian of American democracy, youth, and popular culture. He is a curator of political history at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History and a frequent contributor to the New York Times.

An imaginative and suggestive study that places American political history in a broad social context.--American Historical Review|This important book makes clear that we need a modern version of the Wide Awake movement.--Vox|A useful historical look at how strong the youth demographic can be.--Kirkus Reviews|Mining the diaries and letters of young Americans, the author creates revealing vignettes of 19th century politics and American youth. Recommended.--CHOICE|In this energetic account of the rise and fall of youthful political engagement in the nineteenth century, Jon Grinspan embraces the narrative zeal of his subjects with his own fast-paced and exuberant writing style.--Journal of Southern History|Will be informative for historians and political scientists and enjoyable for the general reader. . . . Reveals important aspects of American political life from that 'foreign country' that is the past.--North Carolina Historical Review|[A] pithy and thought-provoking work. . . . Offer[s] a sensitive and illuminating overview of the vital role of young voters in America's nascent political party system.--Civil War Book Review|As a study of the excitement and larger significance of political engagement in the party period, this is the most thoughtful and indeed the best book written in at least a generation. It is also quite a lot of fun. What could improve on an afterword beginning, 'Twelve-year-olds can't hold their liquor like they used to'?...This book is a must-read.--Mark Wahlgren Summers, in The Journal of the Civil War Era|[A] period chronicled in vivid and loving detail. . . . Plunges readers into a pulsating political culture long vanished.--Wall Street Journal|Readers will learn about some of the forces that brought Abraham Lincoln to office and shaped the United States' post-Civil War political scene.--Civil War News|Provid[es] new insight into the history of politics and that of youth. . . . Engagingly written, peopled with varied archival voices, and would work well in classrooms at the undergraduate or graduate level.--Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era|Correlates changes in youthful political socialization with the widely lamented decline from high nineteenth-century young voter turnout to today's low participation rates. . . . Makes an original and compelling argument that youth's changing role was a critical factor.--Journal of American History