Where Did the Party Go?: William Jennings Bryan, Hubert Humphrey, And the Jeffersonian Legacy (Paperback)

~ (Author) "Liberal is frequently used in American political discourse but is rarely defined..." (more)
Key Phrases: Hubert Humphrey, New Deal, United States (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

Jeff Taylor offers up a thoughtful analysis of the Jeffersonian roots
of the Democratic Party . . . Taylor is clear and logical in his reasoning. He read widely among secondary sources and quotes them in support of his arguments. . . . Where Did the Party Go? is a well reasoned book that belongs on the shelves of all academic libraries.

-- Kansas History, Summer 2007 --Kansas History

Taylor offers a wide-ranging critique of the Democratic Party and
modern liberalism . . . Taylor deserves substantial credit for tackling big and important ideas and for placing contemporary political issues in a long-term historical context. . . . Taylor tries to do at a national level what Thomas Frank did on a smaller scale in What's the Matter with Kansas? . . . Serious political junkies will find plenty of novel and intriguing material to ponder here. Summing Up: Recommended.

-- Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, June 2007 --Choice

Taylor's book, rich in detail, forensically forceful, is no routine
exercise in comparative politics. Where Did the Party Go? amounts to a populist reinterpretation of the 20th-century Democratic Party. The
author is both an exhaustively thorough researcher and a pleasingly
partisan writer: he is on the side of the old America of 'puritans and
populists, of anabaptists and anarchists,' and laments its paving over by midcentury 'Democratic and Republican leaders [who] agreed on the ends of American life: anticommunism and economic growth.' . . . Among Taylor's virtues is his spirited refusal to inter persons and ideas in the coffins labeled 'liberal' and 'conservative.' He knows too much political history for that."

--The American Conservative
Bill Kauffman July 31, 2006 --The American Conservative --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Description

It doesn't take a pundit to recognize that the Democratic Party has changed. With frustrating losses in the last two national elections and the erosion of its traditional base, the party of Jefferson and Jackson has become something neither would recognize. In this intriguing book, Jeff Taylor looks beyond the shortcomings of individual candidates to focus on the party's real problem: its very philosophical underpinnings have changed in ways that turn off many Americans. Rank-and-file party members may still hold to traditional views, but Taylor argues that those who finance, manage, and represent the party at the national level have become nothing less than Hamiltonian elitists - a stance that flies in the face of the party's bedrock Jeffersonian principles. "Where Did the Party Go?" is a prodigious work of scholarship that converts extensive research into an accessible book. Taylor offers up a unique twelve-point model of Jefferson's thought - as relevant to our time as to his - and uses it to appraise competing views of liberalism in the party during two key eras. Bypassing the well-worn assessments of high-profile Democratic presidents, he shows instead how liberalism from 1885 to 1925 was distinctly Jeffersonian as exemplified by the populism of William Jennings Bryan, while from 1938 to 1978 it became largely elitist under national leaders such as Hubert Humphrey who embraced a centralized state and economy, as well as imperial intervention abroad. In the first book to look closely at the ideologies of these two midwestern liberals, Taylor chronicles Bryan's battles with the conservative wing of the party - putting today's conflicts in sharp historical perspective - and then tells how Humphrey followed those who rejected Jeffersonian principles. By demonstrating how Jefferson's legacy has gradually weakened, Taylor clearly shows why the party has lost its place in Middle America and how its transformation has led to widespread confusion. His provocative look at the post-Humphrey era considers why so many of today's voters on both Left and Right agree on issues like economic policy, foreign relations, and political reform - united against elitists of the Center while rarely recognizing their common kinship in Jeffersonian ideals. If party leaders have wondered where their traditional supporters have gone, they might well consider that those very voters have asked what became of the party they once knew. As the Democrats look ahead to 2008, Taylor's book will force many to question where the party of Jefferson has gone...and whether it can ever come back.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 373 pages
• Publisher: University of Missouri Press (June 19, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0826216617
• ISBN-13: 978-0826216618
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #975,663 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars this book is revolutionary, September 9, 2006

By	Robert Barta - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Jeff Taylor's book is an excellent history of the Democratic party, exploring its history through the ideologies of Jefferson, William Jennings Bryan and Hubert Humpherey. Taylor views Bryan as the last of the populist, middle America Democrats, the type of isolationist, anti-Supreme Court, pro-direct democracy and pro-small government Democrat that is very rare in today's world. Humpherey, and by implication the usual nominees of the Democrats of today, represents a pro-globalist, pro-mass immigration (in spite of its impact on wages), often pro-war, pro-corporate pro-big government, pro-activist Supreme Court. Concerning religion, Bryan also represented a pro-Christian, albeit a populist, "social" Christian outlook that is sorely lacking among current Democratic nominees, though not among its electorate, as is proven by the votes of Democratic leaning voters in referenda and opinion polls on issues as diverse as immigration, abortion and same sex marriage.
Taylor argues that Democratic leaders of today are "Hamiltonians", believers in the concept of a strong central government. Democrats of today would argue that they might be Hamiltonians, but for Jeffersonian ends, i.e. they are for a big federal government but because of the good it will do for the common man. Taylor addresses the validity of this issue somewhat, though I'd like to see more disscussion of just who benefits from big government. I love his analysis of why Democrats have lost their way in terms of their hiding behind the activist Warren courts of the 50's and 60's to get their legislative dirty work accomplished. Taylor points out that it represents a dangerous approach, something that Bryan, with his support of direct democracy (i.e. initiative and referendum) and his opposition to what was at the time considered a conservative, anti-labour judiciary, would have shied away from.
I also enjoyed his discussion about the WW2 era, where liberals such as Sen. Wheeler of Montana, or Lafollette of Wisconsin, became "conservatives" just because they were opposed to our intervention.
Taylor argues that conservative populists such as Buchanan and liberal populists such as Jerry Brown and Ralph Nader actually have a lot in common, far more in common with each other than Buchanan would have with, say, Arlen Specter, or Dennis Hastert, or Nader would have in common with a typical DLC Democrat like Clinton. In France this has been the case in the opposition to France's deepening involvement with the European Union. There, rightist groupings such as the National Front and leftist movements from the Communist Party to other leftist splinter groups have successfully mobilized a majority to vote against the most recent European Union constitution.
I urge anyone who wonders why just because someone is pro-life that means they must be pro-Iraq war, or just because someone is pro-2nd Amendment that means they must be for tax cuts for the rich, or why someone who supports immigration reduction should be anti-union, to read this book. Taylor gives a great overview of a compelling, pro-middle America, pro-common people, pro-conservative values, pro direct democracy heritage in the Democratic party, a Jeffersonian heritage best represented in the 20th Century by William Jennings Bryan.

8 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What Democrats Need to Know, October 10, 2006

By	Chad Israelson "Chad" (Minnesota) - See all my reviews

Jeff Taylor's book is a must read for anyone who is interested in answering the question why the Democratic Party has struggled so much in national elections since 1950. His analysis of the terms Liberal and Conservative and how little they truly mean these days helps to clear away the misconceptions that are perpetuated by most pundits. Taylor is able to cut through the glossy veneer of platitudes used by both parties and substantiate that the Democratic Party of today has become disconnected from its populist origins. This is an outstanding work of scholarship. As a history professor, I highly recommend this book.

7 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Weird coincidences in a Twllight Zone world, November 20, 2006

By	J. Taylor "lokapala" (Directly over the center of the earth) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Read this book, and you just might join the Democratic party again, or form your own. St. Jude smiles on lost causes, and this is a book that might renew your faith in a few.

Amazon readers, I have always told you the truth and never lied to you, except for entertainment purposes and always with full disclosure. In the interest of which, please be advised that I am not the same Jeff Taylor who wrote this excellent book. I wrote two others instead; it's a common name. So far, I've tallied seven Jeff Taylors working in the fields of writing and journalism. Perhaps someday we'll gather and pool notes. In the meantime, I'd recommend this book if it were written by Joe Smith.

If you have reached a point of fatalism where your angst about politics has reached a fricking nadir or zenith, I humbly direct you to this book, written by Jeff Taylor, of whom (I hereby swear) I know not one iota of biographical data. We have never communicated in any way. Just happen to have the same name, and be authors of books.

If you want to find out how things went so far sideways and downhill after Carter and Clinton, if you'd like to connect some interesting dots,find your way out of the maze of what-happened, read this book. Buy it for those pathetic, lovable idealists who have let the Kerry/Edwards decal moulder on the back bumper of their Volvo Subaru Outwagon, and who probably feel like closet Republicans and who automatically pull green on the voting slots, out of guilt. (But they haven't read John Edwards' book, Home. Too busy working and worrying about personal death. They haven't read this book, either.)

Give it to them. Buy this book, wrap it for the holidays, and put it in the hands of your intelligent friends. Perhaps you can remake the world politically within your lifetime, by learning a little more about party history and party politics. For the first time in years, I'm registering to vote in the next election, after opting to abstain for the last few charades. Reading this book made me more optimistic; things have been terrible, even worse than now, for the Democrats before. If enough of us, whatever our names, exercise our rights to elect representatives with a life-friendly viewpoint, we just might fix the Titanic and save Troy, disarm the bomb at 11:11, and maybe build a world similar to the promised land of which Martin Luther King showed us a pure glimpse. No, you're right, it's impossible... so just read this book for pleasure and escape.