Henry Wallace's 1948 Presidential Campaign and the Future of Postwar Liberalism

by Thomas W. Devine

Overview

In the presidential campaign of 1948, Henry Wallace set out to challenge the conventional wisdom of his time, blaming the United States, instead of the Soviet Union, for the Cold War, denouncing the popular Marshall Plan, and calling for an end to segregation. In addition, he argued that domestic fascism--rather than international communism--posed the primary threat to the nation. He even welcomed Communists into his campaign, admiring their commitment to peace. Focusing on what Wallace himself later considered his campaign's most important aspect, the troubled relationship between non-Communist progressives like himself and members of the American Communist Party, Thomas W. Devine demonstrates that such an alliance was not only untenable but, from the perspective of the American Communists, undesirable.
Rather than romanticizing the political culture of the Popular Front, Devine provides a detailed account of the Communists' self-destructive behavior throughout the campaign and chronicles the frustrating challenges that non-Communist progressives faced in trying to sustain a movement that critiqued American Cold War policies and championed civil rights for African Americans without becoming a sounding board for pro-Soviet propaganda.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781469602042
Publisher:	The University of North Carolina Press
Publication date:	05/27/2013
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	424
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Thomas W. Devine is professor of history at California State University, Northridge.

Table of Contents

Preface ix

1 A Frenchman Named Duclos: The Communists and the Origins of the Progressive Party 1

2 I Shall Run as an Independent Candidate for President: Launching Gideon's Army 35

3 One Robin Doesn't Bring No Spring: Early Victories and Mounting Attacks 71

4 Wall Street Is in the Saddle: Henry Wallace's Critique of Containment 95

5 Like a Silken Thread Running Through the Whole Thing: Lead-Up to the National Convention and the Crafting of a Third Party Platform 123

6 The Whole Place Has Gone Wallace Wacky: The Founding Convention of the Progressive Party 156

7 Rolling Downhill: Post-Convention Fallout and Dropouts 180

8 Too Damned Long in the Woods to Be Fooled by Weasels: Youth, Labor, Spies, and the Post-Convention Campaign 200

9 Thirty Years Too Soon: Gideon's Army Invades Dixie 233

10 Truman Defeats Wallace: Denouement 269

Conclusion 286

Notes 293

Bibliography 355

Acknowledgments 395

Index 399

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

A superb book that gets to the heart of things. Devine has made all previous books on this subject obsolete with new evidence and his interpretation of it.—William L. O'Neill, Rutgers University

As Devine focuses on the interplay between Communists and non-Communist liberals in Wallace's campaign, he analyzes a key episode in the history of American liberalism and the onset of the Cold War. This remarkably well-written book is a genuine pleasure to read. The quality of Devine's research and analysis is outstanding, the issues he addresses are lively and relevant, and his judgments are shrewd and clear.—Robert Zieger, author of For Jobs and Freedom: Race and Labor in America since 1865

A work of superb historical scholarship. The breadth and depth of Devine's archival research is truly impressive and his command of the secondary literature equally so. Impressive as well is the maturity of his historical judgment and his understanding of both mainstream and liberal/left American politics. This book is the most complete and insightful historical account available of Wallace's 1948 campaign and the self-destruction of Popular Front progressivism in the post-World War II era and will be indispensable reading for anyone seriously seeking to understand the trajectory of postwar American liberalism.—John Earl Haynes, author of Red Scare or Red Menace? American Communism and Anticommunism in the Cold War Era

Editorial Reviews

“This is not a Wallace biography; it’s a penetrating and persuasive account of the first postwar U.S. presidential contest and one of the most contentious in our history. Highly recommended, especially for serious students of American politics and presidential elections.” — Library Journal

“A revision of the revisionists.” — The New Yorker

“With careful scrutiny of Wallace’s language, assumptions, and arguments, Devine offers a fairly devastating portrait of a flawed man and an even more flawed crusade.” — Dissent

“Very engrossing.” — Ballot Access News

“The research is excellent, and Devine tells the history in a straightforward way. A must read for all students of the period. Essential. Upper-division undergraduates and above.” — CHOICE

“This book will be the definitive account of Henry Wallace’s 1948 presidential campaign.” — Register of the Kentucky Historical Society

“In some respects, ##Henry Wallace’s 1948 Presidential Campaign and the Future of Postwar Liberalism# is a critique of historians who have seen postwar Popular Front liberalism as a positive force in American politics.” — Annals of Iowa

“[An] excellent book. . . . This will surely remain the definitive work on the Wallace movement for many years to come.” — Journal of American Studies

“Exhaustively researched and elegantly argued, the book places the Wallace campaign into a larger context of late 1940s post-Popular Front politics that sheds new light on the road of American leftist political activism in these years.” — American Historical Review

“Thomas W. Devine’s new study of Wallace is a serious work of history. The book seems likely to stand as the definitive account of Wallace’s ill-fated presidential campaign and the ideological and political developments it represented.” — Journal of Cold War Studies

From the Publisher