Table of Contents

CoverTitle PageCopyright PageContentsIntroduction Timothy Stanley and Jonathan BellPart I: Liberals and the Left1. Partners for Progress? Liberals and Radicals in the Long Twentieth Century Doug Rossinow2. From Popular Front to Liberalism: Redefining the Political in California in the Post-World War II3. Going Beyond the New Deal: Socialists and the Democratic Party in the 1970s Timothy Stanley4. From Friends to Foes: George McGovern, Hubert Humphrey, and the Fracture in American Liberalism BPart II: Liberals and Urban Policy5. New York Liberalism and the Fight against Homelessness Ella Howard6. Liberalism in the Postwar City: Public and Private Power in Urban Renewal Lizabeth CohenPart III: Coalitions7. Albert Gore Sr., Liberalism and the South in the 1960s Tony Badger8. Forgotten Architects of the Second Reconstruction Republicans and Cvil Rights, 1945-1972 Timothy9. Liberal Feminism and the Reshaping of the New Deal Order Susan M. Hartmann10. Labor, Liberalism, and the Democratic Party: A Fruitful but Vexed Alliance Nelson LichtensteinContributorsIndexBack Cover

Promotional Information

Takes the pulse of the left in contemporary US politics

About the Author

Jonathan Bell is an associate professor of history at the University of Reading, England, and the author of The Liberal State on Trial: The Cold War and American Politics in the Truman Years. Timothy Stanley is a member of the Rothermere American Institute, University of Oxford, and the author of The Crusader: The Life and Tumultuous Times of Pat Buchanan.

Reviews

"With the proliferation of scholarly monographs on the conservative movement, this volume's serious engagement with U.S. liberalism is surprisingly refreshing. Highly Recommended."--Choice "A compelling narrative of the shifting dynamics of ideas and policy on the left end of the political spectrum."--The Journal of American History "An exciting collection of ten essays exploring liberalism and the New Deal coalition in the twentieth century... a wonderful preview of some interesting new scholarship."--The Journal of Southern History "This impressive collection of thoughtful essays pulls together an all-star roster of prominent historians and promising younger scholars to make an important contribution to our understanding of postwar liberalism."--Steven M. Gillon, resident historian for The History Channel and author of The Kennedy Assassination--24 Hours After: Lyndon B. Johnson's Pivotal First Day as President "Making Sense of American Liberalism promises to alter the way we look at liberalism and the Democratic Party. Disagreeing with contentions that conservatives enjoy a natural electoral majority, editors Jonathan Bell and Timothy Stanley use the essays in this volume to show that American history is neither seamlessly conservative nor liberal but rather an ongoing battle between these two competing visions. The collection will prompt scholars to reconsider the history of postwar politics."--Peter B. Levy, author of The New Left and Labor in the 1960s