Dewey Defeats Truman: The 1948 Election and the Battle for America's Soul

by A.J. Baime

From the New York Times best-selling author of The Accidental President comes the thrilling story of the 1948 presidential election, one of the greatest election stories of all time, as Truman mounted a history-making comeback and staked a claim for a new course for America.

On the eve of the 1948 election, America was a fractured country. Racism was rampant, foreign relations were fraught, and political parties were more divided than ever. Americans were certain that President Harry S. Truman’s political career was over. “The ballots haven’t been counted,” noted political columnist Fred Othman, “but there seems to be no further need for holding up an affectional farewell to Harry Truman.” Truman’s own staff did not believe he could win. Nor did his wife, Bess. The only man in the world confident that Truman would win was Mr. Truman himself. And win he did. 

1948 was a fight for the soul of a nation. In Dewey Defeats Truman, A. J. Baime sheds light on one of the most action-packed six months in American history, as Truman not only triumphs, but oversees watershed events—the passing of the Marshall plan, the acknowledgement of Israel as a new state, the careful attention to the origins of the Cold War, and the first desegregation of the military. 

Not only did Truman win the election, he succeeded in guiding his country forward at a critical time with high stakes and haunting parallels to the modern day.
 

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Politics, American History, Presidents, Biography, Audiobook

432 pages, Hardcover

Published July 7, 2020

Reviews

[Jill H. · Rating 5 out of 5]

The cover of this book illustrates one of the most famous photographs in political history (and the Chicago Tribune is still hiding their head over this). When FDR died, Harry Truman became the "accidental President" and the public really didn't know a lot about him. He seemed bland, non-aggresive, and unprepared to step into the Presidency. When he decided to run in the 1948 election, he wasn't given much of a chance to reach that goal.

The United States was facing several huge problems; the "Red Scare", civil rights, the Arab-Israeli war, the Berlin Airlift. To add to the fractured environment was the disintegration of the Democratic party as the Deep South (the Dixiecrats) fought to maintain states' rights and segregation and Henry Wallace's breakaway Progressive Party (which was largely controlled by American Communists) added fuel to the fire. The Republican candidate, Thomas Dewey, Governor of New York, was a rather slick talking politician and the complete opposite of Truman. The scene was set for a total defeat for Truman.

This book provides an in-depth coverage of the campaigns and tactics that came into play as the polls and most of the political "experts" predicted a humiliating loss for Truman and the Republicans became complacent. But they had underestimated Truman and his approach to the "common man". His strong belief in the policies put forth in his platform was sincere and that came across as he traveled the country, speaking in large cites and small towns.

I could write pages on the excellence of this book and the peoples' slow realization that just maybe Truman could beat Dewey and the Republicans. To quote from one of Truman's speeches....It is not just a battle between two parties. It is a fight for the very soul of the American government.

Very highly recommended.

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun book. Truman looked really down and out in 1948. I didn’t realize the extent to which everyone assumed it was a foregone conclusion that he would lose. Much of the story is how his fiery speeches in his cross-country train tour a couple months before the election brought voters to his side. However, even on the day before the election the latest polls still had him far behind and the conventional wisdom was still that Dewey would win easily.

Truman’s Democratic party was split into 3 pieces, as the far-left Henry Wallace ran on a campaign of closer relations with the Soviet Union, and the segregationist Strom Thurmond ran on an anti Civil Rights platform. (At the risk of stating the obvious, it’s incredible to me that in spite of his hateful past, Thurmond remained a Senator until 2003. It’s also incredible that he maintained a scandalous secret until he died: that he fathered a child with a 16-year-old African-American girl who worked as a servant for his family.)

Amazingly, Truman kept the defections to these groups small and still managed to win.

Even though Truman used some rhetoric that would be considered ugly even by today’s standards, Truman and Dewey were very similar on key issues. Both were in favor of the Marshall Plan and Civil Rights. Dewey was a fiscal moderate and did not advocate turning back the New Deal. If you were to rank all US elections by how different the candidates were, I’d guess that this election would be near the bottom.

It's interesting to ponder why the polls were so wrong, but the author doesn’t go into that in great detail. He mentions that the polls systematically underrepresented poorer people, as they were more difficult to contact. But that seems unsatisfactory as an explanation; I don’t remember hearing that polls ended up vastly underpredicting the performance of Democrats in other elections around this time.

[ALLEN · Rating 5 out of 5]

In 1948 Harry Truman nearly went from being the accidental President to the unemployed President. After only three and a half years in office following FDR's untimely 1945 death, the time came to formally seek election on the Democratic ticket. It was an uphill battle: in the intervening time Truman's popularity had hit an all-time low, and candidates bolted his party to form their own third parties, the socialistic left (the Progressives) in opposition to the racist right (the States' Rights or "Dixiecrat" party). It was hard to find anyone outside Truman's own family and closest friends who sincerely believed that Truman could prevail against the liberal GOP candidate, natty Thomas E. Dewey of New York. In a sampling of fifty professional journalists, all of them declared Dewey a shoo-in; New York's media maven Walter Winchell gave Dewey odds of fifteen to one.

DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN is a marvelous book. It discusses such world-important events as the nuclear arms race, the Berlin Airlift, and the rise of the latest electronic giant, television; it even mentions the different styles in potables and card games between the Truman campaign train (bourbon and poker) and Dewey's (martinis and bridge). But mostly it discusses the enormous personal and political challenges that faced Harry Truman. Author A.J. Baime, having cut his Truman teeth on 2017's THE ACCIDENTAL PRESIDENT, is really in his element here.

Cross-country travel was usually by train, and not as comfortable as commonly presumed.
from the book:
Any time the [campaign] train stopped for more than a few minutes, Truman campaigners and reporters would dash for laundromats in hopes of washing the stale odor out of their clothes, and to find some soap and a shower. . . The only shower on the train was in the president's suite in the Ferdinand Magellan [Truman's private rail car]. "What weeks of travel can do your looks!" Margaret [Truman] recalled. "I had a strong inclination to burn all my clothes." "When to get our laundry done became something of an obsession," recalled [aide Clark] Clifford. (p. 247)

For two political parties that were supposedly political antagonists, it was hard to get a solid fight out of Dewey. Baime implies that Dewey's refusal to engage the issues may have been one reason for the Republican's surprise loss. Dewey was so liberal that his major positions were not notably to the right of Truman's. Furthermore, many Dewey supporters had for so long been told that their candidate couldn't lose that they may simply have stayed home on Election Day.
from the book:
In Dewey's final major campaign appearance, espousing philosophically on unity, attacking the Democrats without singling out particular issues. The Democratic Party "has been divided against itself for so long that it has forgotten the meaning of unity, and it never did know the meaning of teamwork or competence," Dewey said. . . Dewey did not mention the Jews, Israel or Palestine. Nor did he mention what his plans were regarding taxes, immigration, or the Taft-Hartley law. He said, "We will follow strong, clear policies," without saying what those policies would be. (pp. 306-07)

While DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN is fine reading under any circumstances, it also bears comparison to 2016, when the presumably undefeatable candidate, Hillary Clinton, lost partly because she did not get into the fray as Donald Trump did. Now that it's 2020, will the current Democratic candidate, Joe Biden, prove unbeatable over the highly unpopular Trump? That may be hard to say, but this book suggests just how unpredictable national elections can be.

Also recommended: The Accidental President: Harry S. Truman and the Four Months That Changed the World.

[Will Y · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5/5.0

An unlikely President wins an unlikely election. Throughout this entire book, I can’t help but wonder what the world would look like now if Henry Wallace was not cheated out of his VP candidacy in 1944, making him succeed FDR in 1945.

[Casey · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is well written and well reserached making it a fascinating read. The author brings the 1948 election for President to life covering the many plots and subplots that took place. He covers not only Harry Truman and Thomas Dewey, but also Henry Wallace and Strom Thurmond who were the major third party candidates. The book revolves mainly around Truman and Dewey and the mistakes that both made during the campaign and how Truman's had less of an impact that Dewey's. In the end Dewey lost because he was trying to not lose the election instead of winning it. I recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in presidental elections.

I received a free Kindle copy of this book courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher with the understanding that I would post a review on Net Galley, Goodreads, Amazon and my nonfiction book review blog. I also posted it to my Facebook  page.

[Jill Meyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some of the best and most readable history books are written about a short period in a subject’s life. A good example is A J Baime’s new book, “Dewey Defeats Truman: The 1948 Election and the Battle For America’s Soul”. Baime is also the author of another great micro-history, “The Accidental President”, also about Harry Truman, and his first four months in office.

America by 1946 were sick of the Democrats, who had held the US presidency since 1932. Franklin Roosevelt had guided our country through the Great Depression and WW2. He had run for a 4th term in office in 1944, with little known Missouri Senator Harry Truman as his running mate. Truman replaced Henry Wallace on the ticket; Wallace’s liberal tendencies weren’t looking good as the Soviet threat was not-so-gradually replacing anti-German and Japanese fears as the war was nearing its end and previous alliances were being rethought. The midterm congressional elections swept the Democratic Congress out, giving Republicans the power going forward. Harry Truman had problems with Republicans, the unions, as well as southern Democrats, furious with Truman’s liberal stance on civil rights.

The 1948 presidential election was shaping up as Truman’s to lose. And to lose big. He had Henry Wallace challenging him from the Democratic left, and Strom Thurmand, governor of South Carolina, challenging him from the Dixiecrat right. The Republicans chose Thomas Dewey as the nominee. Dewey had run in 1944 against Roosevelt and Truman and was itching for another chance to run.

Baime is superb writer of history. A trick to writing micro-history is to give the reader background material which might have been included in a longer book. He also compares our current political state with that of 1948 and makes some interesting trenchant comments. I can heartily recommend this book.

[Duzclues · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my second official dabbling into the 1948 election, which is easily one of the most fun and interesting elections in American history. In it, there were four major candidates, incumbent president Harry S Truman, Democrat, New York Governor Thomas E Dewey, Republican, former Vice President Henry A Wallace, Progressive, and South Carolina Governor Strom Thurmond, Dixiecrat. Prior to this, the only other ‘48 election experience that I had was from David McCullough’s Truman, in which McCullough, in his utterly masterful prose, went into intricate detail about the Truman campaign. So that was my first impression of the 1948 election, which, as is the nature of first impressions, did a great deal to define my experience with this book. That is unfair to this book, but I felt as though a disclaimer would be appropriate before I criticize the book, which was a thoroughly good and enjoyable read.

One of the big things that stood out to me was how Baime dealt with the Wallace campaign. For context (spoiler alert), Henry Wallace was FDR’s second Vice President, the one who was booted off the ticket in favor of Harry Truman just before FDR died. This created a tense relationship between the two, and eventually, as Baime argues, led to Wallace running an aggressive yet hopeless campaign against the incumbent Harry Truman. The thing is, Baime seems to have the strongest negative view of Wallace out of any of the four candidates. Now, having a lesser opinion of Wallace than Truman or Dewey, the Republican nominee, is respectable, and I would agree to an extent. But it seemed as though Baime had more of a personal vendetta against Henry Wallace than Strom Thurmond, THE premier racist of the 20th century. Now, everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but as far as opinions go, preferring Strom Thurmond over Henry Wallace is a pretty bad one. In fairness to Baime I highly, highly doubt that he actually prefers Thurmond to Wallace, he ends the book with a fair bit of praise for Wallace. I am not in any way calling him a racist. But as far as the coverage of the campaigns goes, I detected more of a negative opinion of Wallace than Thurmond. I suspect that the cause of this was the noble pursuit of remaining unbiased while writing history, which, I say again, is noble. But it seems that the line may have been toed a little too greatly. Or maybe (probably) I’ve just lost my marbles. Once again I reiterate, THIS BOOK IS NOT RACIST NOR IS BAIME, I AM NOT SAYING THAT, I just think that there may have been a bit of an overcorrection on the part of the author.

But the biggest problem that I have with the book is that it frankly doesn’t go in depth enough into the election and the politics of it. It does a splendid job of touching upon the issues of the time that defined the campaigns. But that’s all it did, it touched upon the issues. It was only really a paragraph that went in depth as to WHY (spoiler alert) Truman actually ended up winning his unlikely campaign, which I think was a little disappointing. Only one sentence really acknowledged organized labor’s role in his re-election, as well as the black vote, as well as the farmer’s vote, the implications of which echoed throughout history for decades, and in some cases to this day. Really, the thing that was most touched upon was the different vibes of the campaigns. Now, that’s certainly important, as I often say “politics is vibes,” but there were, as mentioned before, reasons besides vibes that Truman won that ended up impacting our country for years to come. I suspect this was not the fault of Baime, but rather the circumstances that led this book to being only 350 pages. I think a 700 or so page book would have done a better service to the depth which I would’ve liked to see this book dive into. Alas, it would not be so. But the history in it, while shallow, is good, and I have no qualms with any argument that Baime does make. It’s really just that the book is too short, which, as far as problems for a book goes, is a pretty good one to have.

But after all that, the book was by and large a pleasant read. It wasn’t really life changing to one who is at least moderately familiar with the politics of the day (which I, if I may be permitted to say, consider myself), but it’s still worthwhile, especially if one wants a digestible introduction to post-war politics. The book is chock-filled with lovely anecdotes from the campaign trail, my favorite of which was when (spoiler alert) Tom Dewey yelled into a microphone during a rally in front of the press and voters that his train conductor “ought to be taken out back and shot.” Also, despite what I deemed to be slightly unfair coverage of the Wallace campaign, Baime still gives great credit to Wallace’s utterly brave tour through the Jim Crow South. And, Baime is able to wonderfully convey just how unlikely it was for President Truman to win re-election that year, continuing to almost stoke anticipation and fear in the reader up until Harry Truman himself realized he had won, despite the fact that we know how the story ends. Really, it was by and large a wonderful read and a great display of writing by somebody who clearly knows his stuff.

This book does its job well. It is a solid, fairly comprehensive view of the 1948 election. It covers the issues that defined the campaigns, and covers the ideas on which the candidates campaigned adequately, albeit basically. It is admittedly not the masterwork of prose that McCullough’s book was, but that’s okay, it didn’t have to be. This is a solid, productive read, that will allow one to learn about the presidential election of 1948. Would recommend. Two thumbs up.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Delving beyond the famous headline, "Dewey Defeats Truman" takes the reader behind the scenes during a tumultuous election year in which four candidates - the sitting President, the Governor of New York, a Communist mystic and a white supremacist - competed against each other for votes.

[Andy Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

So much happened in the 1948 election and much of that still reverberates today. It was the beginning of the end of the Solid South for the Democratic party as Strom Thurmond lead a break away from the Democratic party because of Truman's support for integration and Thurmond ended carrying a few states that had always gone Democratic. Henry Wallace's third party run as a Progressive presaged the continuing fissure between wings of the Democratic party that is as much about winning elections and governing as it is about ideology. Thomas Dewey's campaign's focus on governing, experience, appealing to the center instead of the right wing, reluctance to engage in personal attacks and willingness to engage in bipartisan solutions seems to belong in a museum of political history as opposed to any place in today's Republican party.
All this is so well described in Baime's book on the election. But Harry Truman is the lead character and Baime clearly admires Truman, issues such as Truman's cronyism are somewhat downplayed in favor of Truman's strength in overcoming adversity. Baime carefully recounts how Truman was written off by the media, the opposition, his own party, so much so that they were all late in recognizing that Truman's whistlestop speeches were gaining traction with the voters. Truman's passion and conviction were part of his appeal but the campaign was also about substance. Truman made the campaign about his argument that the Republican party was out for the big guys, the big corporations, while he was going to take care of the little guys.
A great book about a fascinating election

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful book about an election that offered a lot of challenges to the participants and the country as a whole. Attacks on the press, russian meddling domestically and internationally, racism, communism, people and profits issues, a sure bet that does not work. Sounds familiar? Yes before 2016 and 2020 there have been elections with similarities. The belief in democracy applied only to white people according to a southern faction of the democratic party. A role reversal the same thing is now occuring in the Republican party. Democracy has always been under attack, will it survive? There has never been a definitive answer to that question.

[Patrick Collins · Rating 2 out of 5]

The title of Blaime's book is misleading.
The story of the 1948 election is interesting and if you want a newspaper level account of the events this book is good for that. If you want depth, you will not find much here. That is not to say Blaime's book does not have value. There are aspects that provide information about the travels, speeches and comments of Harry Truman and Thomas Dewey, and the Progressive (Communist) candidate Henry Wallace, and the Dixiecrat (frankly, racist) candidate Strom Thurmond, but no engaging character study. After a while, reading over and over that Truman appeared in 14 towns this day and talked about how bad the Eightieth Congress was to 20,000 people, etc. gets repetitive.

If you want to know more about the candidates travels and statements, read this book. If you want a compelling story, maybe not so much. The strongest aspect of Blaime's book is simply learning about how elections have changed over the years with technology and, to a degree, the education of the electorate. I still do not know why Truman won after being so far behind in the polls to the point lazy reporters and editors were already writing stories about how Dewey won up to and through election day. Perhaps no one knows why Truman won.
Last, the title. It should read Dewey Defeats Truman: The 1948 Election. The part stating "...the Battle for America's Soul" overstates Blaime's success. There is no support in the book for the premise that the election was a battle for the soul of America. To the contrary, Blaime seems to present evidence that Truman won because he was the underdog, the economy was doing well, and people related to him better than Dewey. And the fact Dewey appears to have run a terrible, vanilla campaign. On issues, they seem to have not been too far apart. Where was the "soul" battle?

[Noah Goats · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is perhaps the greatest underdog story in the history of American presidential politics. As the 48 election approached, Harry Truman faced a terrible uphill battle. People were sick of the Democrats who had held the White House since 1932, the Republicans nominated a respected moderate to oppose him, as the campaign began he was way behind in the polls, he struggled so much to raise funds that at one point he didn't even have the few thousand dollars he needed to keep his campaign train moving, and his party split into three as the left wing followed Henry Wallace to the Progressive Party and the white supremacists broke away to form the Dixiecrats. But Truman ignored the polls and never stopped believing in himself. He worked non-stop, he attacked his opponents hard, and in the end he pulled it off.

I've read several books by Baime now, including his other book on Truman, and I have liked all of them. He has a sense of the drama in history and manages to make his writing exciting. Even though everybody knows how this election ended, he somehow still imbues his book with a sense of suspense. This is a very readable work of popular history. If you are interested in American presidential campaigns, this is not to be missed.

[Gary Morgenstein · Rating 5 out of 5]

An absolutely riveting journey into a terrifying moment in American history when the world finally escaped from the nightmare of World War 2, only to topple into more uncertainty. So much of the polarizations of today began in that post-war period, which Mr. Baime brilliantly captures.
I'll definitely read more of his books.

[John Yingling · Rating 5 out of 5]

Here is a book that almost reads like novel, since it is so riveting a story. It’s a story of overcoming the odds certainly, but it’s also about power and how to wield it, about stubbornness, racism, the part personality plays in elections, and about jumping to conclusions—essentially making up one’s mind before all the facts are in. I think my biggest takeaway from this book was how decent a man Thomas Dewey was. By taking the high road and not attacking throughout his campaign, he may well have cost himself the presidency. And yet...this approach is how I wish all political campaigns would be run. It’s a shame that Mr. Dewey ran a basically honorable campaign, yet lost. How sad that too often getting “down and dirty” is the way to win an election. Harry Truman did attack, but he wisely went after the Republican Party and Congress instead of his opponent. I have said this before, but I enjoy history books the best when they tell me things I didn’t know, and when they focus on people and not on dates, events, and paralysis by analysis. I think a good historian should have a bit of the novelist within him or her—not playing fast and loose with the facts, but rather wearing the hat of a storyteller. In this AJ. Baime succeeds admirably. Well researched, well told; all in all a top-notch book.

[Mark Kliesen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is stunning! This book tells the story of the most thrilling presidential election in American history. It's wonderfully researched and has fabulous detail. I feel I know the cast of characters; their motivations, their inner life. It's great, great history.

But more than that, this is superb storytelling. It takes the truth and molds it into a story of unending propulsion. It reads like a thriller. This books pulls you along with a drama that's almost physical. Pundits and reporters often talk about momentum. Winning campaigns usually have momentum, they say. I feel like I get what they mean now. Every chapter I grew a little bit more breathless. I felt the win building, beneath the surface and then everywhere.

Can't recommend this more strongly.

[Jack Stebbins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely phenomenal. I can now say Truman is without a doubt my FAVORITE president. AJ Baime illustrated this story beautifully and the trials and tribulations each of the four major candidates faced. I have never read a historical work that humanized the politicians to this extent. I loved learning about the inter-workings of Truman’s family and himself as a man. I would have loved to meet him. Great book, beautiful writing, awesome history, would wholeheartedly recommend. Now, onto the next AJ Baime history novel🤞

[Wonyoung · Rating 5 out of 5]

Harry Truman

The more I read about Harry Truman, the more interesting he seems and the more I want to read about him.

[Maya Berardi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Is there a name for that genre where the story’s propelled by the sheer fact that everyone’s together on a moving train? Half of this book was like that and it was the better half

[Don Heiman · Rating 5 out of 5]

The A.J. Blaine’s book “Dewey Defeats Truman: The 1948 Election and the Battle for America’s Soul” First Mariner Books edition was published in 2021 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Truman became infected with diphtheria when he was in grade school. He was paralyzed for over a year according to his sister Mary Jane. Harry met his future wife Bess Wallace when she was his fifth grade classmate. They remained classmates through high school. During World War I Truman was in the U.S. Army and earned the rank of Captain. He served in an artillery unit and he fought in France on a the “front lines” close to the Argonne Forrest. When the war ended, he married Beth Wallace and they lived in the Wallace home on North Delaware Street in Independence, Missouri. He worked in a haberdashery business that he and his friend started. The business went bankrupt. He then took a job working for Kansas City boss Tom Pendergast “the King Maker.”. He was elected a Jackson County Missouri judge. Later, with Pendergast’s help he was elected as a Missouri Federal Senator. In the Senate he created a Committee to police military spending. The committee was nationally acclaimed and was known as the “Truman Committee.” Through a chain of events he became FDR’s vice president during Roosevelt’s 4th term as U.S. President. Eighty-two days after being elected President, Roosevelt died from a cerebral hemorrhage and Truman became President. He took the oath of office on April 12, 1945. He was a few weeks short of his 61st birthday. In August 1945 two atom bombs were dropped on Japan and Japan quickly surrendered ending World War II. A.J. Baime writes that Truman “…was haunted by the decision he made to use the bomb.”

The Presidential election of 1948 became a major media topic. Thomas Dewey of New York enjoyed widespread media popularity. He had won his New York State Governorship election in 1946 by over 680,000 votes. From the national media perspective, he was clearly the frontrunner to win the United States 1948 Presidential election. He was born in 1902 in Owosdo, Michigan. He graduated from Michigan University in 1923. He then received a law degree from Columbia University in 1925. He was certified to practice law in New York. Shortly after his graduation he was appointed Special Prosecutor to investigate New York City’s corruption. Two years later he became an Assistant U.S Attorney, and at the age of 32 years old he was working in Manhattan’s Southern District. By the age of 35 years old he was Attorney General for the State of New York. He and his team investigated mafia activists to include mob boss Lucky Luciano, “Tootsie” Herbert, and Jacob “Gurrah” Shapiro and many others. Thomas Dewey’s investigations and prosecution activities had the attention of national and international media outlets. In 1942 he was elected Governor of New York. In 1944 he was the Republican nominee to run against FDR.

In 1947 Great Britain notified American leadership that the British were in a state of funding short falls and could not continued their financial support for Greece and Turkey. America political leaders were highly concerned that these two countries join Russia’s Stalin regime. Truman responded with his “Truman Doctrine” that stated the U.S. would provide political, military, and economic assistance to nations threatened by communist or authoritarian regimes. Based on this 1947 doctrine America provided funding to Greece and Turkey to help them overcome their post World War II welfare crisis. The Doctrine was joined by the Marshall Plan to underpin bipartisan financial support for European and neighboring countries in dire need of financial help.

During this time period, Henry Wallace decided to run for the Presidency. He joined a new political organization called the Progressive Party. He was considered an “icon for left wing intellectuals.” The Democratic Party road map for the 1948 election was written by James Rowe Jr. Truman kept a copy of the road map in his presidential top drawer and he referred to it often. The road map had 6 significant reference points:
1. The Democratic Party was in collapse;
2. Thomas Dewey is a popular and dangerous candidate;
3. Henry Wallace is also a dangerous messianic 3rd Party candidate;
4. Truman must court Jews, farmers, laborers, and Black Americans;
5. Truman must influence a Republican controlled Congress; and
6. Belief that the future of America is anchored to Truman’s leadership.

Truman crafted his State of the Union message using these reference points to draw a sharp line between Democrats and Republications, promote civil rights, design economic advancements, and design domestic policies for world peace. During his State of the Union address he talked about raising expenditures, funding old age benefits, providing benefits to families of fallen soldiers, and also providing unemployment compensation. He then discussed a Palestine-Israel two state solution based on the Marshall Plan and the Truman Doctrine.

During the Republican convention, Dewey was chosen to run for the Presidency which Earl Warren, Governor of California, as his VP running mate. Dewey’s plan for liberal Republicanism was endorsed by the convention. The Democratic convention convened on July 12th in Philadelphia and Eisenhower made it very clear he would not run for the Presidency despite the fact that Truman voter Presidential approval rating was only 36%. An emergency special session of the Federal Legislative session was called on July 26, 1948 to discuss Berlin diplomacy issues and about legislation to promote civil rights, reduce inflation, provide social security initiatives, and aggressively address housing concerns.

A.J Baime then discusses in detail the 35,000 miles Truman traveled across America to speak from a microphone on a train car platform called the “Ferdinand Magellan” to thousands of people who greeted him at many “whistle stop” locations. At these stops Truman also held “meet and greet” train car conferences with dignitaries, media professionals, and invited guests. The presentations were watched in person by thousands of people, and the presentations were also televised and radio broadcasted throughout the regions he visited. The presentations focused on economics, government services, and how best to mitigate citizen fear of international conflicts. The presentations were written in Washington D.C. and flown to the “Whistle Stop” locations. Truman and his personal travel team edited the manuscripts Truman used his dialog skills to present the transcripts themes. Over time Truman’s made many presentations that were more impromptu and less based on the transcripts. There were many people who believed America was on the precipice of World War III. Truman speeches chastised the 80th “do nothing” legislative session, criticized the awful American economy, and featured Truman’s promise of economic independence if he is elected. He also accused the Republicans of “selling out the American people to profiteers.” Six days before the start of the voting for U.S. President the consensus among the United States major media publications and pollsters predicted a Dewey landslide.

On October 28, 1948 Truman closed his speech saying to the audience… “I have only one request to make of you: vote on Election Day. Vote for yourselves. You don’t have to vote for me. Vote on your own interests.” He received a standing ovation! The day before the start of voting the final Gallup poll had Dewey with a 46% rating and Truman at 40%. Clifton Daniels New York Times London based political writer said “Most of the articles (in Britain) read like obituaries of President Truman’s Administration.” He later became Margaret Truman’s husband and Harry Truman’s son-in-law. Over 50 million American voted. After tabulating results of the November 3rd election votes in the morning of November 3 Thomas Dewey sent a telegram to Truman: It read: “My heartiest congratulations to you on your election and every good wish for a successful administration. I urge all Americans to and support your efforts to keep our nation strong and free… “ It was signed Thomas F. Dewey. Truman on his way back to Washington D.C. stopped in St. Louis and was given a copy of the November 3 issue of the Chicago Daily Tribune. The front page had an enourmous headline: “Dewey Defeats Truman.” Truman held the paper in the air so everyone could photograph the headline declaration. Truman’s smile while holding the newspaper headline above his head made history! When Truman arrived in Washington D.C. he was greeted by over 750,000 people. The final vote tally showed Truman with 303 electoral votes and winning the support of 28 states. Dewey had 189 electoral votes and winning 16 states. Strom Thurmond won 4 states and he had only 39 electoral votes. Truman had 21,970.064 popular votes and Dewey had 21,970,064 votes. These statistics were in the books concluding paragraphs. (P)

[Ted Hunt · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is an easily digested narrative of one of the most interesting presidential campaigns in American history: the campaign of 1948. It is well written and full of interesting details and memorable stories. The author begins the book by pointing out some of the connections between 1948 and our current political state of affairs and while he doesn't really forge new ground, the similarities are often striking. This was the election that has been called the biggest presidential upset in American history (at least it has been called that until the most recent [2016] election), and most Americans, even if they do not really know any of the details, have probably seen the famous post-election photo of the victorious Harry Truman holding up the newspaper that had declared the victory of his opponent. The book provides a lot of details about the background of the four major candidates that year: the incumbent president Democrat Harry Truman, Republican governor of New York Thomas Dewey, Progressive anti-war candidate Henry Wallace, and Dixiecrat South Carolina governor Strom Thurmond. The focus of the book is on the week-to-week actives of the campaign (the emphasis is primarily on Truman and Dewey), but the book makes it clear that the American political system was evolving before everyone's eyes. Dewey's Republican Party was split between his moderate Republican platform, which was actually very similar to Truman's, and the much more conservative wing of the party. This struggle would continue for another generation until the Reagan Revolution put the conservatives firmly in control of the party, and the moderate Republicans became, well, Democrats. 1948 also saw the beginning of the fracture of the Democratic Party over its support of civil rights. Harry Truman was the first true civil rights president since Abraham Lincoln, and while he understood the potential political gains of forging new ground in the area of civil rights (desegregating the military, for instance), it was risky, but it was what he believed was the right thing to do. His support for civil rights saw the party fracture in 1948, with segregationists supporting Dixiecrat Thurmond, the beginning of the monumental shift of the south from being the "solid South" of the Democratic Party to its status today as the core of the Republican Party. Those southerners who supported Thurmond in 1948 eventually, beginning with Thurmond in 1964, switched parties, one of the reasons that the Republicans became increasingly conservative in the late 20th century. In the end, the campaign of 1948 resembled the election of 2016 in more ways than simply its shocking result. Truman, in many ways, campaigned like Trump did in '16: speaking off the cuff in front of passionate crowds of people who believed that the other party had abandoned them. The polls in 1948 were all wrong and the pollsters spent a lot of time trying to figure out why this had happened (similar to the recent election), and the shift of a few thousand votes in three states in 1948 (California, Illinois, and Ohio) would have given the victory to Dewey. I'm not sure about the book's subtitle "the battle for America's soul," as Truman's victory didn't really reveal anything about the fate of the nation's soul. Here we are, over 70 years later, and we are still fighting over that issue. In short, if you are an American politics "junkie," this is a book for you.

[Brice Karickhoff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this bc it’s election season! Somehow forgot that the last thing I want during election season is more election related content but whatever. Still a great book!

I had a lot I wanted to put in this review, but we’ve all heard enough about politics this week so I won’t do it. I’ll just say that you should read this if you’re into political history, or really history in general. I sure do wish our political landscape was a bit more like 1948, back when extremists were actually treated like extremists instead of parties just becoming more extreme. What the heck happened?

[Nolan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book drew me in from the first page and kept me intricately connected to it. This is not a dry rendering of the 1948 presidential election replete with names and dates that you must keep track of. Instead, it’s a lively, vivid, human look at not merely an election but the months preceding it. It fascinated me and even gave me hope. Chaos, division, and hate are far from new to the U.S. political scene. It’s a well-told story of a nation in serious transition, and everything was on the line. Homelessness and unemployment among recently returned veterans ran high in the years preceding the 1948 election. The presidency was in the hands of a man who was anything but impressive. There were railroad strikes and civil rights unrest, and poor Truman had to tussle with an out-of-control unruly state department over whether the U.S. should recognize the fledgling nation of Israel.

I knew at 25 percent in that I would be fascinated by this to the end. I thought that from the beginning, but usually by the time I’m 25 percent through, I’ve a solid understanding as to whether the book and I will remain connected.

The author portrays Truman as a beleaguered leader. He faced a filibuster-proof Republican congress, and it was restive and ready to do battle with what it collectively saw as a corrosive set of New Deal policies. Southern states leaders either looked the other way or participated in lynchings of black Americans, and the NAACP was clearly out of patience with Washington’s lackluster, blind-eyed discrimination policies.

Read this to learn how the 1948 campaigns began. Again, nothing boring here—no endless litanies of names and faces of those long dead. Instead, you get a front row seat into the thoughts and feelings of those who attended the two conventions that summer. You’ll be fascinated to read about how Franklin Roosevelt’s son, James, worked openly to draft General Dwight D. Eisenhower as a Democratic party candidate. Truman allegedly confronted Roosevelt, insisting that if his dad knew what he was doing, he would turn over in his grave or something like that.

White supremacy is in full-throated vigor that year as well. Strom Thurman and his Dixiecrats vow that Truman won’t get a single vote in the South. But the campaign about which I knew nothing all these years and the one that was surprisingly active early on especially was that of Henry Wallace, the progressive who had no problem accepting financial and electoral support from the Communist Party USA. Of course, I had vaguely heard about Wallace’s campaign from history teachers and others, but I had no idea it garnered the kind of support it got. Ok, before I exaggerate beyond what’s appropriate, I realize four percent of the populous is hardly resounding support. But I came away a bit surprised that Wallace and his country-music-singing vice-presidential candidate, a senator from Idaho of all places, captured as much attention and financing as they did.

If you read this, you’ll follow the 1948 campaign. So excellent is the author’s writing style that you’ll practically feel the click-clack of the wheels of Truman’s campaign railcar on the tracks as he visits town after town. Ever so gradually, the campaign everyone thought was a loser began to shift things. Truman’s crowds got gradually bigger. He became the everyman voters looked for. Unlike the hapless Michael Dukakis in that tank during his campaign decades later, Truman nonchalantly ploughed a field with mules at a campaign stop in Iowa, and he looked credible. He had grown up doing exactly that in Missouri, and when he finished, his furrows were straight.

As October raced toward the first Tuesday of November, Truman’s crowds grew in size and energy. It began to appear that “Give’em Hell Harry” was doing exactly that. Even some members of the press began to privately wonder whether they were wrong about the vast Dewey wave. All of this is spookily reminiscent for me as the mid-term elections in 2022. Even once-respected pollsters got their reputations tarnished in 2022, and you see the same thing happening in 1948. That’s not the only parallel. Truman compared Dewey to Hitler in a Chicago speech in the final days of the campaign. That forced Dewey to abandon his unity message and lash back. Even Ronald Reagan offered strong support for Truman in the waning days of the campaign.
Even the granular way in which the author treats election day for both candidates is entertaining and good reading. The epilogue is a whatever happened to section.

[Annika Hipple · Rating 5 out of 5]

"A groundswell of white nationalism. Impeachment headlines. A president caught in a bitter public feud with his own Congress. A resurgence of populism. A game-changing new form of media. A chief executive aiming fake news accusations at the national press. War and terrorism in the Middle East. A booming economy, with historically low unemployment. The FBI on the trail of a major presidential candidate regarding a possible Russian conspiracy.

The year was 1948."

So begins A.J. Baime's fascinating book about the presidential election that pitted the Democratic "accidental president," Harry S. Truman, against the popular Republican governor of New York, Thomas E. Dewey. It was an election that no one--pollsters, the media, even the president's own wife--expected Truman to win. No one, that is, except for Truman himself. Crisscrossing the country by train, Truman gave speech after speech, usually off the cuff, to hundreds of thousands of people in small "whistlestop" towns that had never been visited by a presidential candidate before. He filled arenas and halls in major cities, railing against the "Do-Nothing Republican Congress" that was impeding his policies and preaching support for civil rights, universal health care, and the expansion of Social Security, along with opposition to Soviet efforts to spread Communism.

By the time the election rolled around, there were plenty of signs that the election was beginning to turn in Truman's favor. Yet even as election returns began to come in, pollsters were reporting Truman could not win, and news media were busy preparing stories of Dewey's landslide victory. So confident were the media that Truman would lose that early headlines proclaimed his defeat, even as the votes were beginning to suggest otherwise. The photo of a jubilant Truman holding up a copy of the Chicago Daily Tribune with the erroneous headline "Dewey Defeats Truman" is one of the most (in)famous election photos in U.S. history.

This is A.J. Baime's second book about Truman, following the excellent The Accidental President, which I read earlier this summer. In my review of that book, I wrote that it left me wanting to read more about Truman. Luckily for me, Baime's new book came out only a month later. Now that I've read it, I'm even more interested in Truman. For example, I had no idea he took such a firm stance on civil rights--he issued an executive order desegregating the military, was the first president to address the NAACP, and held to a strong commitment to civil rights in the Democratic platform even when it led southern segregationists to split from the Democrats and form a new party with Strom Thurmond as its presidential candidate. Coming from a family that had fought for the Confederacy, Truman had not always been attuned to civil rights issues, but as Baime describes, his conscience and awareness were awakened when he learned of the horrific attack on Isaac Woodard, a decorated Black war veteran who was blinded by police in South Carolina. (I've now added the well-reviewed 2019 book Unexampled Courage: The Blinding of Sgt. Isaac Woodard and the Awakening of President Harry S. Truman and Judge J. Waties Waring by Richard Gergel to my to-read list.)

As the introductory paragraph I quoted above makes clear, Baime's book is not just interesting but also timely because of the many parallels between the elections of 1948 and 2016. Baime's book bears the subtitle: "The 1948 Election and the Battle for America's Soul." As this year's presidential election approaches, America's soul is once again at stake. Dewey Defeats Truman reminds us that U.S. presidential elections are unpredictable, and it's never a good idea to assume victory is guaranteed, no matter what the polls and expert analysts may say.

I look forward to seeing what A.J. Baime writes next.

[patrick Lorelli · Rating 5 out of 5]

The photo on the outside of this book is probably one of the most famous. I hope this new generation will come to appreciate the history behind it. Written by the same author who wrote “The Accidental President” which also was an excellent book and were at the beginning of this book he mentions some information will be repeated if you had read the other book.
Dealing with the press and the Eighth Congress President Truman had his own ideas about the country. A man who says Germany surrender 21 days after he came into office it would then be four months later when Japan Surrendered. Dealing with the ramifications from Yalta which he was never given any idea into what was spoken of during those meetings between the big three, one can assume it was really Stalin telling Roosevelt and Churchill the way it was going to be, for he went straight into countries right after the war and imposed his will. Just a few days after Germany surrenders Poland was Russian along with many other countries bit everyone was focused on Berlin. Congress and the press wanted nothing to do with Berlin but Truman seeing into the future knew something different.
Still, you begin the book with the press making the president out to be a country bumkin. You find out how everyone is so wrong. You see how Thomas Dewey; Strom Thurman and their ideas opinions were different than his. Everything really changed for Truman during his train stop campaign especially with the framers and when he told them that the Eighth congress got rid of the grain storage containers. Congress thinking that farmers did not need those and this was just one of the issues that Truman would begin to raise and how he would go about his fight against the congress was really good.
I found this to be a very fascinating book about how the country was changing after World War Two and also the World. You also see the fear of the country and communism but not World wide but just in the country. You also get a look at the beginning of Korea as well. This was a great book about the history of our country and the author did a huge job in research to make this book work. Very much worth the read. I received this book from Netgalley.com I gave it 5 stars. Follow us at www.1rad-readerreviews.com

[Luke · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 star might be a bit harsh and this may be a 3.5 star. I read this book because I’ve read many books in the time period, and a Truman biography, but what I knew about Dewey was not much beyond the famous gaff “Dewey defeats Truman”.

I like how the book highlights the key issues of the election, including the social and economic issues which are usually overshadowed by the foreign policy of the time. It lets you see what the Republican Party was with Dewey while bringing clarity on Wallace and Thurmond, showing how they impacted the election and issues of the time.

There are also clear parallels to today’s politics and methods for winning elections, although some of the author take aways I don’t think are the correct ones. For example, I believe Trump has more in common with Truman in strategic ways than he does with some laissez faire influence that the author implies Trump has won on. Trump is/was winning with a nationalist and social conservatism approach, which is/was leading him toward some government program destruction (which is probably the author’s idea here), but it also flies in the face of laissez faire in so many ways and with his most important issues: free trade and protectionism (tariffs), anti trust / anti corp., labor support (steel/auto unions), federal reserve opinions (always low rates), and immigration (wall). The author did not have the benefit to see how his first term went with the deficit/spending and government stimulus support thru Trump bucks and various other covid measures, or how he won his second term by doubling or tripling down on all these anti free market things… But even so, calling Trump laissez faire is a lazy take away imo, and deeper parallels should have been drawn.

So overall a good read if you are interested in the subject, but in the 3 star range probably because I didn’t bring enough of my own motivation, and it was difficult to stay attached to at times.

[pjk82 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Continuing my reading about Harry Truman, who I find to be the one of the most intriguing presidents in our nation's history.

This book was such an easy read. It truly focused on the campaigns of the candidates (mainly focused on Truman and Dewey, but also Wallace and Thurmond). It gave some information on the domestic and world ongoings but quickly tied these events into the campaigns.

A few thoughts I had:
1) Was this the election that has driven the nastiness of all recent elections? Dewey took a conservative approach, never in attack mode. Truman was relentless, attacking the "Do Nothing Congress" and Dewey. With Dewey's surprise loss, did that drive both parties to avoid "the high road"?
2) The changing political map is incredible. The south used to be solidly blue. Republicans used to have more than a fighting chance to win California. (per Wikipedia, California has voted for more Republicans than Democrats since being admitted to the Union, despite the last Republican win being 1988) (I'd be happy to take recommendations on books on this topic)
3) Will our country ever break the two-party system? It seemed like 1948 set up to be the perfect opportunity for other parties to begin gaining steam (regardless of whether those are the types of parties we'd want). Yet they both failed miserably.
4) Polls meant nothing back then either!

The line that caught my eye the most...At the end of the book, the author includes a quote from Edward Murrow "It's open season on the pollsters...but it ought to be pointed to that they are accused of nothing except being wrong. No one claims, as far as i know, that they were 'bought' or that they deliberately attempted to influence the outcome..." It's hard to imagine social media "journalists" saying this today!

[Marco · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic read, especially for political history nerds and aficionados, but thanks to Baime's ability to present true history in a thriller-like pace, also for "normal" readers who wouldn't think first of the 1948 election for their next gripping read.

The author pieces together a very lively story of the run-up and actual election of 1948, going only by first-person sources (diaries, journals, notes, memos, news articles, oral testimony, etc etc). This makes so that what could have been a quite arid and dry account of a historical event, instead feels very personal, down to earth and emotional. It's the same story but viewed from the eyes and hearts of the original people involved. With Baime, history comes to life.

One thing some may not like: it is quite evident whose side Baime's on (spoiler: Truman), but he does a good job of portraying the story from the other candidates' side too. He extensively goes on to set the stage and tell the story and motives of the second-time GOP nominee and NY governor Thomas Dewey, the secret father to a black girl and segregationist Dixiecrat candidate Strom Thurmond, and once FDR's Vice President and now fallen-from-grace political hero Henry Wallace.

Overall, very recommended.

[Sam · Rating 5 out of 5]

We've all seen the famous picture of Truman holding the Chicago Tribune with the headline, Dewey Defeats Truman, from November 3, 1948. Baime's book goes into minute detail, almost a day-by-day, of the presidential campaign that shocked not only the U. S., but the world. Baime points out that up until November 1, 1948, 99 44/100 of the newspapers in the United States, and most of the foreign newspapers had Dewey winning the election, almost 6 months before the first votes were cast. He provides great insight into what had become a four man battle to become POTUS (President of the United States), with three of them being Democrats (Truman, Henry Wallace, and Strom Thurmond). No spoiler alerts, here, because we all know who won, but Baime's writing brings the election back to life, 73 years later. He pointedly notes where Truman and Dewey differed, making the difference. Truman attacking the "Do-Nothing 80th Congress" that did not want to pass his proposed legislation (even though they supported it...much like what Biden is going through today), and Dewey who refused to discuss specific policies to be implemented, if he was elected. If you're into presidential politics, or just like a good historic read, this book is outstanding. I highly recommend it.

[Ron Lavery · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved the surprise ending. Seriously I loved Baimes first book about Truman (The Accidental President) and was kind of eager to read this. I have previously read much about the events of the time; Rapid Russian expansion across Eastern Europe, the Berlin Airlift, the Palestine problem, Communist China revolution, the Dixiecrats defection, Civil Rights pressure and Russian involvement in Korea. I had never put it together the way Baimes did to show the enormous pressure Truman was under. Truman never expected nor wanted to be President now he had to make world-shaking decisions that he new he would be roundly attacked for making- every choice was fraught with peril. Baimes gives a totally evenhanded accounting on the strengths and weaknesses of all four campaigns and gives a very compelling account of the strategies and movements of each. He made it quite reasonable to see why the experts were all totally surprised by his win. Very well researched with with a lot of interesting details.

The way he finished the book it seems to me he is working on a 3rd book encompassing Truman's second term. If so I will buy it as soon as it comes out.

[Roger Smitter · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Dewey vs. Truman in 1948 was one of the most unusual run for the presidency. Author A.J. Baime captures the story line and makes it a good read. Early in the book, it’s clear that this would be a run. In the beginning of his campaign, he had only 36% of the voters behind him.

Baime writes in a newspaper stone line at times, making the 95 per cent readers to understand what was different than the world today. There’s a good, but short, analysis of how the new TV tool was becoming the friend of candidates. The book also gives us some insight of what the winning of WW2 began to change America. A smaller theme is about the way women could make a difference in votes. In 1948, Madison Squire was the place where politicians talked to the country. Many challenges were emerging in the world, including the creation of a new nation in the Middle East.

The book reads like a newspaper, even after 50 years, lots of stories but not much depth. Most of the book is caught up with Truman and his MEN. There is deeper information—but for this time around, it’s a fun read.

(And there’s a short story of how and why Truman held up the Daily Tribune with the headline “Dewey Defeats Truman.”)