What It Took to Win
What It Took to Win

Author: Michael Kazin

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Published: 2022-03-01

Total Pages: 246

ISBN-13: 0374717796

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A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice One of Kirkus Reviews' ten best US history books of 2022 A leading historian tells the story of the United States’ most enduring political party and its long, imperfect and newly invigorated quest for “moral capitalism,” from Andrew Jackson to Joseph Biden. One of Kirkus Reviews' 40 most anticipated books of 2022 One of Vulture's "49 books we can't wait to read in 2022" The Democratic Party is the world’s oldest mass political organization. Since its inception in the early nineteenth century, it has played a central role in defining American society, whether it was exercising power or contesting it. But what has the party stood for through the centuries, and how has it managed to succeed in elections and govern? In What It Took to Win, the eminent historian Michael Kazin identifies and assesses the party’s long-running commitment to creating “moral capitalism”—a system that mixed entrepreneurial freedom with the welfare of workers and consumers. And yet the same party that championed the rights of the white working man also vigorously protected or advanced the causes of slavery, segregation, and Indian removal. As the party evolved towards a more inclusive egalitarian vision, it won durable victories for Americans of all backgrounds. But it also struggled to hold together a majority coalition and advance a persuasive agenda for the use of government. Kazin traces the party’s fortunes through vivid character sketches of its key thinkers and doers, from Martin Van Buren and William Jennings Bryan to the financier August Belmont and reformers such as Eleanor Roosevelt, Sidney Hillman, and Jesse Jackson. He also explores the records of presidents from Andrew Jackson and Woodrow Wilson to Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. Throughout, Kazin reveals the rich interplay of personality, belief, strategy, and policy that define the life of the party—and outlines the core components of a political endeavor that may allow President Biden and his co-partisans to renew the American experiment.

Remaking the Democratic Party
Remaking the Democratic Party

Author: Hanes Walton

Publisher: University of Michigan Press

Published: 2016-08-09

Total Pages: 417

ISBN-13: 047211994X

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Examining Southern support for Johnson throughout his political career and his transformative leadership of the Democratic Party

The Fight for the Soul of the Democratic Party
The Fight for the Soul of the Democratic Party

Author: John Nichols

Publisher: Verso Books

Published: 2020-05-05

Total Pages: 305

ISBN-13: 1788737423

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Fighting fascism at home and abroad begins with the consolidation of a progressive politics Seventy-five years ago, Henry Wallace, then the sitting Vice President of the United States, mounted a campaign to warn about the persisting "Danger of American Fascism." As fighting in the European and Japanese theaters drew to a close, Wallace warned that the country may win the war and lose the piece; that the fascist threat that the U.S. was battling abroad had a terrifying domestic variant, growing rapidly in power: wealthy corporatists and their allies in the media. Wallace warned that if the New Deal project was not renewed and expanded in the post-war era, American fascists would use fear mongering, xenophonbia, and racism to regain the economic and political power that they lost. He championed an alternative, progressive vision of a post-war world-an alternative to triumphalist "American Century" vision then rising--in which the United States rejected colonialism and imperialism. Wallace's political vision - as well as his standing in the Democratic Party - were quickly sidelined. In the decades to come, other progressive forces would mount similar campaigns: George McGovern and Jesse Jackson more prominently. As John Nichols chronicles in this book, they ultimately failed - a warning to would-be reformers today - but their successive efforts provide us with insights into the nature of the Democratic Party, and a strategic script for the likes of Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

The People V. the Democratic Party
The People V. the Democratic Party

Author: Michael Walsh

Publisher: Encounter Books

Published: 2012

Total Pages: 51

ISBN-13: 1594036616

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Since the day Aaron Burr, the sitting vice president of the United States, shot and killed Alexander Hamilton, one of the Founding Fathers, the Democratic Party has been at war with America. With a history that includes murder, treason, slavery, segregation, sedition, bribery, and systemic vote theft, it can argued that the Democrats are, at root, the anti-American party. In this incendiary Broadside - a heartfeltj’accuse- Michael Walsh traces the illicit and immoral history of the Democrats from Burr and the founding of the quintessential big-city political machine, Tammany Hall, to the "by any means necessary,” Saul Alinsky-inspired presidency of Barack Obama and his Windy City cronies. The prosecutorial argument: The Democrats, in essence, are nothing less than a criminal organization masquerading as a political party.

The New Democrats and the Return to Power
The New Democrats and the Return to Power

Author: Al From

Publisher: Macmillan + ORM

Published: 2013-12-03

Total Pages: 263

ISBN-13: 1137401443

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After Barack Obama's solid win in the 2012 election, it's easy to forget that there was a time, not long ago, when the Democrats were shut out of power for over a decade. But Al From remembers. In 1984, he led a small band of governors, US senators, and members of Congress to organize the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC). Their mission: to rescue the party from the political wilderness, redefine its message, and, most importantly, win presidential elections. In April 1989, From traveled to Little Rock, Arkansas, to recruit the state's young governor, Bill Clinton, to be chairman of the DLC. Here, Al From explores the founding philosophy of the New Democrats, which not only achieved stunning validation during Clinton's two terms, but also became the model for resurgent center-left parties in Europe and throughout the democratic world. Here, he outlines for the first time the principles at the heart of the movement, including economic centrism, national security, and entitlement reform, and why they are vital to the success of the Democratic Party in the years ahead.

The Democrats
The Democrats

Author: Lance Selfa

Publisher: Haymarket Books

Published: 2012-08-07

Total Pages: 306

ISBN-13: 1608461920

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"A smart, readable history of the Democrats that reminds us of the party's allegiance to capital."—Indypendent

This Is Not Your Father's Democratic Party
This Is Not Your Father's Democratic Party

Author: William Sylvester Noonan

Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform

Published: 2012-08-25

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781477600955

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"This Is Not Your Father's Democratic Party" is a lively analysis of the Democratic Party told by a multigenerational liberal, with close ties to Massachusetts politics, who abruptly realizes during the special election of Republican Senator Scott Brown, that he finds himself outside the political tent of the contemporary Democratic Party. Political Junkies of all stripes will find it provocative and interesting. The book begins with the election of "Classic Liberal" Woodrow Wilson in 1912 and chronologically traverses the historical circumstances of 20th century as well as the Democratic Party's evolution over the decades. The book discusses the emergence of Lyndon Johnson's "Social Progress" platforms, Bill Clinton's "New Democrats", and culminates a century later with the "Socialist" policies of Barack Obama. Neither a critical missive nor a detailed dissertation by an apostate liberal turned conservative, the book is brilliantly written with an always engaging, humorous and passionate delivery perfect for a book on this subject matter.

Camelot's End
Camelot's End

Author: Jon Ward

Publisher: Twelve

Published: 2019-01-22

Total Pages: 348

ISBN-13: 1455591378

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From a strange, dark chapter in American political history comes the captivating story of Ted Kennedy's 1980 campaign for president against the incumbent Jimmy Carter, told in full for the first time. The Carter presidency was on life support. The Democrats, desperate to keep power and yearning to resurrect former glory, turned to Kennedy. And so, 1980 became a civil war. It was the last time an American president received a serious reelection challenge from inside his own party, the last contested convention, and the last all-out floor fight, where political combatants fought in real time to decide who would be the nominee. It was the last gasp of an outdated system, an insider's game that old Kennedy hands thought they had mastered, and the year that marked the unraveling of the Democratic Party as America had known it. Camelot's End details the incredible drama of Kennedy's challenge -- what led to it, how it unfolded, and its lasting effects -- with cinematic sweep. It is a story about what happened to the Democratic Party when the country's long string of successes, luck, and global dominance following World War II ran its course, and how, on a quest to recapture the magic of JFK, Democrats plunged themselves into an intra-party civil war. And, at its heart, Camelot's End is the tale of two extraordinary and deeply flawed men: Teddy Kennedy, one of the nation's greatest lawmakers, a man of flaws and of great character; and Jimmy Carter, a politically tenacious but frequently underestimated trailblazer. Comprehensive and nuanced, featuring new interviews with major party leaders and behind-the-scenes revelations from the time, Camelot's End presents both Kennedy and Carter in a new light, and takes readers deep inside a dark chapter in American political history.

Party in the Street
Party in the Street

Author: Michael T. Heaney

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2015-02-02

Total Pages: 329

ISBN-13: 1107085403

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Party in the Street explores the interaction between political parties and social movements in the United States. Examining the collapse of the post-9/11 antiwar movement against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, this book focuses on activism and protest in the United States. It argues that the electoral success of the Democratic Party and President Barack Obama, as well as antipathy toward President George W. Bush, played a greater role in this collapse than did changes in foreign policy. It shows that how people identify with social movements and political parties matters a great deal, and it considers the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street as comparison cases.

The Emerging Democratic Majority
The Emerging Democratic Majority

Author: John B. Judis

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2004-02-10

Total Pages: 244

ISBN-13: 0743254783

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ONE OF THE ECONOMIST'S BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR AND A WINNER OF THE WASHINGTON MONTHLY'S ANNUAL POLITICAL BOOK AWARD Political experts John B. Judis and Ruy Teixeira convincingly use hard data -- demographic, geographic, economic, and political -- to forecast the dawn of a new progressive era. In the 1960s, Kevin Phillips, battling conventional wisdom, correctly foretold the dawn of a new conservative era. His book, The Emerging Republican Majority, became an indispensable guide for all those attempting to understand political change through the 1970s and 1980s. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, with the country in Republican hands, The Emerging Democratic Majority is the indispensable guide to this era. In five well-researched chapters and a new afterword covering the 2002 elections, Judis and Teixeira show how the most dynamic and fastest-growing areas of the country are cultivating a new wave of Democratic voters who embrace what the authors call "progressive centrism" and take umbrage at Republican demands to privatize social security, ban abortion, and cut back environmental regulations. As the GOP continues to be dominated by neoconservatives, the religious right, and corporate influence, this is an essential volume for all those discontented with their narrow agenda -- and a clarion call for a new political order.