num_pages: 388
description: Democrats and the American Idea is about memory and about vision.In these pages some of America's most distinguished political historians recount how the Democratic party was born 200 years ago, how it survived through triumph and defeat, and how it has often embodied the ideals and diversity of a nation.Who were these Democrats of the past, and what ideas have they bequeathed to the Democrats of today? What has caused so many Americans to fervently attach themselves to this institution, enabling it to grow, to change and ultimately to succeed again and again in giving the nation the leadership it needed?The story begins three years after the ratification of the constitution when Thomas Jefferson and James Madison laid out a program of opposition to Alexander Hamilton's economic policies - a program intended to safeguard for the citizens of the new republic their newly-won liberties. The story continues with the reincarnation of the party under the presidency of Andrew Jackson, the "people's" president, and then the subsequent failure of the party to address the contradictions of a nation half slave and half free.Democrats and the American Idea is also a chronicle of how the party eventually transformed itself by remaining true to a heritage of diversity and demonstrating a willingness to challenge outdated doctrines. It tells how Democrats ultimately came to retain Jeffersonian principles while discarding Jeffersonian fears of an activist government under the tutelage of its early and mid-twentieth century leaders - William Jennings Bryan, Woodrow Wilson, and Franklin D. Roosevelt.This is also a book about today and the future. It surveys the post-World War II period under presidents Truman, Kennedy, Johnson and Carter, and concludes with a series of essays in which some of America's most astute political analysts provide their own roadmaps for where the party can go, and should go, as the nation enters the twenty-first century.
language: English
title: Democrats and the American Idea: A Bicentennial Appraisal
titlecomplete: Democrats and the American Idea: A Bicentennial Appraisal
ratings_count: 1
publisher: Center for Natl Policy