A long time coming

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Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair

"Every four years as the presidential elections approach, the alarm bell clangs for progressive-minded people, warning them about the looming take-over of the country by Republican ultras intent on yoking the nation under a fascist regime. Every four years, the Democratic Party offers itself as the only bulwark against the jackboot. Every four years, this argument becomes more and more labored; the differences between the two parties harder to detect." "In this volume, the editors and writers of CounterPunch, the radical newsletter and popular website, reveal how each party is fattened by the same roster of corporate contributors; bows to the desires of defense contractors and media conglomerates; hawks an economic program that shifts money up the tree to the super-rich; imprisons the poor with starvation wages or puts them behind bars in a vast gulag mostly created by that bipartisan failure, the War on Drugs." "The message of this book is: don't put the cart before the horse. First come the ideals, the social movements, that create the gravitational pulls that politicians have to heed. Justice won't come to America just because some candidate pledged it on the final night of a convention. It will come through people's movements, citizens organizing together in the workplace, or on the front lines defending their air, their water and their forests. There's work to be done. Let's get to it."--BOOK JACKET.

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Robert H. Ferrell

As Franklin D. Roosevelt's health deteriorated in the months leading up to the Democratic National Convention of 1944, Democratic leaders confronted a dire situation. Given the inevitability of the president's death during a fourth term, the choice of a running mate for FDR was of profound importance. The Democrats needed a man they could trust. They needed Harry S. Truman. In the days between July 11 and July 21, 1944, the vice-presidential nomination went to Truman in a series of moves, countermoves, and near chaotic happenings. This first detailed account of those tumultuous days explains how Truman, a man whom Roosevelt barely knew and who had not actively sought the nomination, became the president's running mate. Robert Ferrell tells an engrossing tale of ruthless ambition, secret meetings, and party politics. Roosevelt emerges as a manipulative leader whose desire to retain power led to a blatant disregard for the loyalty of his subordinates and the aspirations of his vice-presidential hopefuls. Ferrell demonstrates how the conspiratorial efforts of a handful of White House insiders unseated Vice-President Henry Wallace as a contender, while the president himself thwarted the hopes of powerful White House aide James F. Byrnes . The events surrounding Truman's nomination would have seemed almost unbelievable, had not so much been at risk. But as the convention came to a close, the kingmakers of the party could assure themselves of one thing: Truman would be the next president of the United States. Startling in its conclusions, impeccable in its research, Choosing Truman is an engrossing, behind-the-scenes look at the making of the nation's thirty-third president.

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Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr

Discusses the presidential election of 1828 and the subsequent administration of Andrew Jackson, based on source documents.

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Jeffrey L. Pasley

Argues that, despite its passivity and lack of active campaigning, the election of 1796 set the stage for all of American politics to follow.