What It Took to Win, Michael Kazin
What It Took to Win, Michael Kazin
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What It Took to Win
A History of the Democratic Party

Author: Michael Kazin

Narrator: Lee Goettl

Unabridged: 13 hr 41 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 03/01/2022

Synopsis

In What It Took to Win, the eminent historian Michael Kazin identifies and assesses the Democratic 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.

About Michael Kazin

Michael Kazin is a professor of history at Georgetown University and has been coeditor of Dissent since 2009. He is the award-winning author of War Against War: The American Fight for Peace, 1914-1918; American Dreamers: How the Left Changed a Nation; A Godly Hero: The Life of William Jennings Bryan; America Divided: The Civil War of the 1960s (with Maurice Isserman); The Populist Persuasion: An American History; and Barons of Labor. In addition, he is editor-in-chief of The Princeton Encyclopedia of American Political History, coeditor of the anthology Americanism, and editor of In Search of Progressive America. Michael has contributed to the Washington Post, the Nation, Democracy, the New York Times Book Review, Foreign Affairs, and many other publications and websites. He lives in Washington DC and is married to Beth Horowitz. They have two grown children.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Ryan on April 04, 2022

The history of the Democratic party is not a history to be proud of. Until relatively recently, it was the party of white supremacy, the party that tolerated and even promoted the expansion of slavery and fought only for the rights and advancement of working white men. Early Democrats, especially fr......more

Goodreads review by Mal on May 11, 2022

In his sweeping new history of the Democratic Party, historian Michael Kazin finds that “what it took” for Democrats to win historically was an outspoken commitment to moral capitalism. The term, coined in 1990 by another historian, connotes “a form of political economy . . . that promised everyone,......more

Goodreads review by Doug on June 20, 2022

This book will explain why they can’t win elections at times and why at other times they remain a great hope for America. If you enjoy politics and history you will enjoy Kazin’s historical ride of the Democratic Party and all its leaders with their faults and strengths over the years.......more

Goodreads review by Jessica on April 27, 2022

Thank you, NetGalley, for granting me a free copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review. "There's nothing more useless than a dead liberal." ~ Lyndon B. Johnson What It Took to Win: A History of the Democratic Party traces the history of the self-declared "people's party" from the early y......more

Goodreads review by Michael on February 06, 2023

Kazin has a clear thesis: the Democratic Party succeeds when it can sell itself authentically and convincingly as advocating for working people and it fails when it cannot. It's easy to be critical of Andrew Jackson for all sorts of things. The Democrats' love affair with Old Hickory has certainly w......more

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