True Blues

Adam Hilton is Assistant Professor of Politics, Mount Holyoke College.

Contents Introduction. Who Governs Parties? Part I. The Rise of the Advocacy Party Chapter 1. In the Shadow of States' Rights: The New Deal Democratic Party and the Prelude to Reform Chapter 2. The Undemocratic Party: Antiwar Insurgents and the Party Crisis of 1968 Chapter 3. "Curing the Ills of Democracy": Party Entrepreneurship in the McGovern-Fraser Commission Chapter 4. The Party Turned Upside Down: The McGovern Nomination and the Backlash Against Reform Chapter 5. Bringing the Counter-Reformers Back In: The Coalition for a Democratic Majority and the Making of the Advocacy Party Part II. The Politics of the Advocacy Party Chapter 6. The Limits of Group Influence: Jimmy Carter and the Demand for Full Employment Policy Chapter 7. The Officeholders Strike Back: The New Democrats' Resistance to the Advocacy Party Chapter 8. The Advocate-in-Chief: Barack Obama's Harnessing of the Advocacy Party Conclusion. The Consequences of the Advocacy Party Notes Index Acknowledgments

"Adam Hilton's True Blues skillfully demonstrates how the New Politics movement both succeeded and failed to achieve its goals. In his telling, the hard-fought battle between extra-party groups from the New Left - the civil rights, feminist, and antiwar movements and the labor unions allied with them - and established officeholders shaped the Democrats into the party it is today." (Jacobin) "In this imaginative, lively book on the history of the Democratic Party, Hilton offers a challenge to existing scholarship on the evolution of the Democratic Party since the end of the New Deal. Instead of affirming the role of party leaders and officeholders as the main force in shaping the party's direction, this book argues that 'conflict between extra-party groups' controlled political changes...This study allows for a greater understanding of the change that has taken and continues to take place in the Democratic Party." (Choice) "True Blues offers an excellent history of internal Democratic Party dynamics, consistent with but expanding on useful general political science histories...Hilton's model of change, where party entrepreneurs take advantage of a crisis, face an electoral test, and then struggle against opponents, is a useful addition to understanding American parties, as is his description of the Democratic Party as an 'advocacy party.'" (Party Politics) "!n True Blues, Adam Hilton offers a comprehensive look into the process of layered reform that created the modern Democratic Party...[A] compelling read for those pondering the major questions facing Democrats today." (Comparative Politics) "[A]n important book with a rich and detailed account of reform and counter-reform that would be most useful to anyone seeking to understand just what the modern Democratic Party is and how it got to be that way. Students, scholars, and political journalists will find much in here of value, and it is indispensable for those seeking to describe the past half century of Democratic Party politics." (Forum Review)