Last Campaign or Blueprint for Action

Last Campaign: How Harry Truman Won the 1948 Election

Author: Zachary Karabell

In The Last Campaign, Zachary Karabell rescues the 1948 presidential campaign from the annals of political folklore ("Dewey Defeats Truman," the Chicago Tribune memorably and erroneously heralded), to give us a fresh look at perhaps the last time the American people could truly distinguish what the candidates stood for.

In 1948, Harry Truman, the feisty working-class Democratic incumbent was one of the most unpopular presidents the country had ever known. His Republican rival, the aloof Thomas Dewey, was widely thought to be a shoe-in. These two major party candidates were flanked on the far left by the Progressive Henry Wallace, and on the far right by white supremacist Dixiecrat Strom Thurmond. The Last Campaign exposes the fascinating story behind Truman’s legendary victory and turns a probing eye toward a by-gone era of political earnestness, when, for “the last time in this century, an entire spectrum of ideologies was represented,” a time before television fundamentally altered the political landscape.

Library Journal

Dewey defeats Truman! claims Karabell (Architects of Intervention) in this engaging narrative of the 1948 presidential election. It was the final contest in which voters could choose from four candidates representing quite distinct political ideologies and the final campaign before television "worked its destructive magic." Incumbent President Harry Truman and Tom Dewey, his Republican opponent, offered voters moderate choices, while Progressive Henry Wallace and Dixiecrat Strom Thurmond were extreme alternatives. The author is strongest discussing the impact of the press, polls, and radio and describing the importance of the convention, which was then "a mix of high politics, low politics and entertainment." Truman was the last candidate to verbally savage his opponents, especially Dewey, who instead ran a civil but dull campaign--the kind future voters would come to expect. Dewey's campaign and not Truman's "Give-'em-Hell-Harry" strategy became the model for following elections. In this respect, the author concludes, Dewey did indeed defeat Truman. Along with Gary Donaldson's more analytical Truman Defeats Dewey (LJ 10/15/98), Karabell provides an intriguing overview of this watershed election. Recommended for all libraries.--Karl Helicher, Upper Merion Twsp. Lib., King of Prussia, PA Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

Michael Tomasky

…frank and suggestive…Tikkun

NY Times Book Review

Brings all four candidates to life skillfully recreating a tumultuous time... A vivid, entertaining book.

Boston Globe Magazine

The perfect antidote to this year's pale imitation of a political campaign.

What People Are Saying

Michael Beschloss
An absorbing, intelligent, sometimes startling account of the outsized personalities & drama and the larger forces behind a legendary campaign.

See also: Why Didnt I Think of That or Chemistry and Application of Green Tea

Blueprint for Action: A Future Worth Creating

Author: Thomas P M Barnett

The strategically crucial sequel to the New York Times bestseller.

The Pentagon's New Map was one of the most talked-about books of the year-a fundamental reexamination of war and peace in the post-9/11 world that provided a compelling vision of the future. Now, senior advisor and military analyst Thomas P.M. Barnett explores our possible long-and short-term relations with such nations and regions as Iran, Iraq, and the Middle East, China and North Korea, Latin America and Africa, while outlining the strategies to pursue, the entities to create, and the pitfalls to overcome. Barnett's new book is something more-a powerful road map through a chaotic and uncertain world to "a future worth creating."