Customer Reviews

Mr. Democrat: Jim Farley, the New Deal and the Making of Modern American Politics

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Jim Farley was cited by FDR as one of the two people most responsible for him winning the 1932 Presidential election. He helped FDR win the nomination as one of his closest advisors and win the presidency as chair of the Democratic National Committee. He was rewarded for his service with eight more years as chair and a role in the Cabinet as Postmaster General. Sometime during the second term, Farley shifted from his strong support of FDR and mounted a bid against him at the 1940 convention. He was largely riding an anti-third term movement that had little to do with Farley personally.

Mr. Democrat is a quick read the takes you through Farley's rise in New York politics, to the famous events discussed above, and briefly through his post-FDR career as a salesman for Coca-Cola and political prognosticator. It is the only book I have ever seen about Farley not written by the man himself and for that reason I would recommend it. However, its major shortcoming is that it views Farley's entire experience with FDR through the prism of politics shifting from a patronage driven pursuit to issue/group driven. The research in this book demonstrates, I'm sure accurately, that Farley was a party man and believed strongly in rewarding Democrats with the spoils of elections. However, I cannot believe his break from FDR and presidential campaign was really premised entirely on that effort. Farley had aspirations at times to be Governor or Senator from New York, mayor of New York City, and President. He must have had other interests and goals besides furthering Democratic Party patronage. Even in the convention driven nominations of the period, Farley could not believe that this alone would propel his candidacy.

Unfortunately, the book is a bit light on what Farley believed or cared about besides patronage. It also does not get into some of the details I expected on Farley's contributions to FDR's election. It downplays Farley's work going to western states to drum up support for FDR's nomination. In the author's view, the trip was largely ineffective which is a departure from most other material I have read on the topic.

If you are interested in people like Karl Rove and Marcus Hanna, you will be interested in Jim Farley. This book gives a useful sketch of his life and his politics, particularly his efforts to further the Democratic Party.