The American Spectator

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(Page 3 of 3)

UNFORTUNATELY, BOTH AUTHORS are short on opprobrium toward the Democratic Party during the post-Civil War years. Lewis and Gould bemoan Republican "bloody shirt" campaigning, without ever really calling Democrats to task for bloodying the shirts in the first place. They both dismissively quote Oliver P. Morton of Indiana who said in 1866:

Every man who labored for rebellion in the field, who murdered Union prisoners with cruelty and starvation, who conspired to bring about civil war in the loyal states ... calls himself a Democrat. ... Every wolf in sheep's clothing, who pretends to preach the gospel but proclaims the righteousness of man-selling and slavery; every one who shoots down negroes in the streets; burns negro school-houses and meeting-houses, and murders women and children by the light of their own flaming dwellings calls himself a Democrat.

Forget for a moment that Morton used some of the most powerful contemporary imagery available. Forget, too, that the speech was clearly designed to enflame partisan passion. The speech was also true.

And the "light of their own flaming dwellings" was provided by the Ku Klux Klan, the unofficial strong-arm of voter suppression for the Democratic Party throughout the Solid South. The Democratic Party has never been held adequately accountable for this shame, and both Lewis and Gould let the party get away with it again in their accounts.

Obvious biases like this one will annoy conservative readers at times. Another example: the Progressive Republicans were never more than a fraction of the faction even under the presidency of their hero Teddy Roosevelt. Yet Gould treats them as a fully accredited political movement.

History, the old saying goes, is written by the victors. In America, though, history is written by the liberals whether or not they won. And these two liberal historians have an uncanny way of washing away all context and perspective.

But most of us have gotten so used to it by now, we can read right past it and get to the good stuff. And there is a lot of good stuff. Gould gives us a great rendition of Republican life during the Age of the New Deal, when the GOP really never stood a chance. His concluding chapter is especially good and almost makes up for the lack of detail about the party's founding. He also includes helpful suggestions for further reading which will keep partisan bookworms digging for months.

For his part, Witcover treats Democrat demi-gods like Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Roosevelt, and Harry Truman like the real, flawed humans they were. And his chapter on the hapless "Bryan Era" -- as in, William Jennings Bryan -- is second to none.

If you're tired of this party calling that one a flip-flopper and that one calling this one a liar, pick up these two books and read them together. Learn how they got to dislike each other in the first place.

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