Douglas B. Craig
Autore di Fireside Politics: Radio and Political Culture in the United States, 1920-1940
Sull'Autore
Douglas B. Craig is a senior lecturer in history at the Australian National University.
Opere di Douglas B. Craig
Etichette
Informazioni generali
- Sesso
- male
Utenti
Recensioni
Statistiche
- Opere
- 4
- Utenti
- 27
- Popolarità
- #483,027
- Voto
- 3.8
- Recensioni
- 2
- ISBN
- 8
Craig begins by examining the Democratic realignment in the 1920 elections, when conservatives succeeded in taking over the direction of the party, abandoning Wilsonian progressivism and his successful electoral strategy of linking the American South with the West in favor of a more traditional East-South alliance that opposed government intervention in the economy and in society, particularly in terms of Prohibition. Craig sees all three of the presidential candidates during this decade - James Cox, John W. Davis, and Al Smith - as supporting this agenda, symbolizing the dominance of this conservative approach over the progressive agenda pursued by William Gibbs McAdoo and his followers. It was not until Franklin Roosevelt overcame conservative opposition to win the nomination in 1932 that the liberal wing succeeded in wresting control of the party away from the conservatives, many of whom went on to form the core of American Liberty League that opposed the New Deal.
Craig's book is an interesting examination of the ideological struggles of the Democratic Party leadership during the past-World War I period. Based on considerable research in the archives of the party's leaders, he makes convincing arguments for the centrality of this struggle to the party's conflicts in the 1920s. Yet Craig's focus tends to exaggerate ideological differences between many of these figures (such as those between Smith and Roosevelt), and he never connects this struggle to any sort of analysis of what was happening with the party at the grassroots level. These deficiencies ultimately limit the value of the book, which reveals much about the transformation taking place within the leadership of the Democratic Party but is wanting as an overall examination of the party on the eve of its political dominance over the nation.… (altro)