The Last Campaign: How Harry Truman Won the 1948 Election [Paperback]

Zachary Karabell (Author)

Book Description

Series: Vintage | Publication Date: April 10, 2001

In The Last Campaign, Zachary Karabell rescues the 1948 presidential campaign from the annals of political folklore ("Dewey Defeats Truman," the Chicago Tribune memorably and erroneously heralded), to give us a fresh look at perhaps the last time the American people could truly distinguish what the candidates stood for.

In 1948, Harry Truman, the feisty working-class Democratic incumbent was one of the most unpopular presidents the country had ever known. His Republican rival, the aloof Thomas Dewey, was widely thought to be a shoe-in. These two major party candidates were flanked on the far left by the Progressive Henry Wallace, and on the far right by white supremacist Dixiecrat Strom Thurmond. The Last Campaign exposes the fascinating story behind Truman’s legendary victory and turns a probing eye toward a by-gone era of political earnestness, when, for “the last time in this century, an entire spectrum of ideologies was represented,” a time before television fundamentally altered the political landscape.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In 1948, Harry Truman was virtually a lame-duck president. He had no support in the polls, the right wing of his party was lurching toward Dixiecrat Strom Thurmond, the left wing toward Progressive candidate Henry Wallace, and his Republican opponent, Thomas Dewey, seemed destined to trounce them all. Yet Truman miraculously won the election, and his 1948 campaign promptly assumed the proportions of a legend. Now political scientist Karabell (What's College For?) seeks to debunk the legend. Truman's victory, Karabell believes, owed much to superior strategy and underhanded tactics. Truman's strategy--secure the farm and labor block and appeal to black voters--became a mainstay of Democratic candidates for years to come. His tactics, Karabell charges, featured negative campaigning and unrepentant demagoguery before live audiences. Karabell makes much of the fact that 1948 was the last election in which television did not play a significant role. Television, Karabell asserts, homogenizes candidates and pushes them toward the center, robbing the American electorate of political diversity among its leadership. That is why 1948 was, in his words, the "last campaign": it was the last time that "an entire spectrum of ideologies was represented in the presidential election." This is a difficult hypothesis to accept for anyone who remembers the Humphrey-Nixon-Wallace contest of 1968, or even Clinton-Bush-Perot in 1992. Karabell is on firmer ground when he sticks to reporting on the daily grind of the campaign trail, though he elaborates in more detail than most readers will need or want. Still, as an extended journalistic account of the election, the book is successful; as an analysis of television's impact on politics, it is superficial and unconvincing. 16 pages of photos. (Apr.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Library Journal

Dewey defeats Truman! claims Karabell (Architects of Intervention) in this engaging narrative of the 1948 presidential election. It was the final contest in which voters could choose from four candidates representing quite distinct political ideologies and the final campaign before television "worked its destructive magic." Incumbent President Harry Truman and Tom Dewey, his Republican opponent, offered voters moderate choices, while Progressive Henry Wallace and Dixiecrat Strom Thurmond were extreme alternatives. The author is strongest discussing the impact of the press, polls, and radio and describing the importance of the convention, which was then "a mix of high politics, low politics and entertainment." Truman was the last candidate to verbally savage his opponents, especially Dewey, who instead ran a civil but dull campaign--the kind future voters would come to expect. Dewey's campaign and not Truman's "Give-'em-Hell-Harry" strategy became the model for following elections. In this respect, the author concludes, Dewey did indeed defeat Truman. Along with Gary Donaldson's more analytical Truman Defeats Dewey (LJ 10/15/98), Karabell provides an intriguing overview of this watershed election. Recommended for all libraries.
-Karl Helicher, Upper Merion Twsp. Lib., King of Prussia, PA
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Vintage (April 10, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375700773
• ISBN-13: 978-0375700774
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.7 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #290,705 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A good synopsis, but Karabell's colors are showing, August 21, 2000

By 

David A. Bede (Singapore) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Last Campaign: How Harry Truman Won the 1948 Election (Hardcover)

This book provides a lot of information about one of the 20th century's most fascinating elections, and it does so in a concise, accessible style. Trouble is, it never goes into much depth, and the conclusions Karabell draws about the aftermath of the election are essentially an echo of the standard Republican Party lines we've all been hearing about more recent campaigns. Karabell does try to be objective, and in places he does a good job of it. This is the first book I can recall reading that acknowledges Strom Thurmond's efforts to avoid letting his Dixiecrat campaign become too extreme, while never denying the racist he was and is. He also offers a somewhat balanced account of the question of Henry Wallace's degree of sympathy toward communists, although he can't completely resist the temptation to tag Wallace as an apologist for the pawns of Moscow, if not one himself. It would have been nice to see more focus on Wallace's stances on issues other than communism, though; there was much more to him than that. Karabell doesn't appear to have it out for Truman throughout the book; refreshingly, he acknowledges that the "liberal media" was anything but so in 1948 and that its unsparingly negative portrayal of Truman contributed to the element of surprise when he won in November. But Karabell's characterization of Truman's campaign tactics is straight out of the George W. Bush playbook: Truman's attacks on the Republican 80th Congress amounted to "class warfare," we are told, with no analysis at all of whether or not Republican policies of the day were in fact detrimental to the well being of the working class and middle class, and his "unfair" tactics led to the politically unfriendly atmosphere of his second term. Karabell implies repeatedly that such polarization was unprecedented; perhaps he wasn't aware that a decade beforehand, conservatives couldn't even bring themselves to refer to Franklin Roosevelt by his real name; or that the Red Scare of 1919-1920 had wiped out meaningful left-right debate for a decade. Speaking of redbaiting, Karabell even argues at one point that Truman's campaign style was indirectly responsible for the rise of Joe McCarthy, who apparently felt justified in destroying hundreds of lives because Truman had run against the Taft-Hartley Act and the like. (It is true that Truman's own anticommunism helped pave McCarthy's way, but that's something else entirely.) Overall, this book does a decent job as far as the basic facts are concerned, but Karabell's analysis is as wrong for 1948 as it is for 2000. It would probably warrant another star if he'd left off the final chapter.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Readable and Informative, May 9, 2000

By 

Brian D. Rubendall (Oakton, VA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Last Campaign: How Harry Truman Won the 1948 Election (Hardcover)

Karabell's "The Last Campaign" is a great book for political junkies and history buffs. The title refers to 1948 being the last presidential campaign waged before televison began to have a "shrinking effect" on campaigns. The book explodes some of the myths about the election and shows how Truman used "lowball" tactics against Dewey, who refused to respond. This was also the first campaign to be affected by the emerging Cold War, which helped torpedo the hopes of the Progressive candidate, Henry Wallace. It also saw the beginnings of the civil rights backlash in the South personified by candidate Strom Thurmond. Overall, this is a well-written history book that is very readable.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating, May 20, 2000

By 

Steve Iaco (northern new jersey) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Last Campaign: How Harry Truman Won the 1948 Election (Hardcover)

I have always been fascinated by the 1948 Presidential election and Karabell's account did nothing to dampen my enthusiasm. This is an EXCELLENT narrative about a pivotal election in an era before television, the Cold War and political "reforms" combined to alter (some would say "dilute") the process permanently. Karabell's is a balanced chronicle. He points out the virtues and flaws in all the candidates. We learn that Truman gave them more than "hell" during the famed whistle stop campaign, and that Dewey's passivity and aloof demeanor probably caused his downfall. The impact of the Dixiecrat revolt and the Wallace insurgency are also captured in detail.

This book captures a bygone era when politics was truly riveting.