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Realigners: Partisan Hacks, Political Visionaries, and the Struggle to Rule American Democracy
One of The Wall Street Journal’ s best political books of 2022
An eye-opening new history of American political conflict, from Alexander Hamilton to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
These days it seems that nobody is satisfied with American democracy. Critics across the ideological spectrum warn that the country is heading toward catastrophe but also complain that nothing seems to change. At the same time, many have begun to wonder if the gulf between elites and ordinary people has turned democracy itself into a myth. The urges to defend the country’s foundations and to dismantle them coexist―often within the same people.
How did we get here? Why does it feel like the country is both grinding to a halt and falling to pieces? In Realigners , the historian Timothy Shenk offers an eye-opening new biography of the American political tradition. In a history that runs from the drafting of the Constitution to the storming of the Capitol, Shenk offers sharp pen portraits of signal characters from James Madison and Charles Sumner to Phyllis Schlafly and Barack Obama. The result is an entertaining and provocative reassessment of the people who built the electoral coalitions that defined American democracy―and a guide for a time when figures ranging from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to MAGA-minded nationalists seek to turn radical dreams into political realities. In an era when it seems democracy is caught in perpetual crisis, Realigners looks at earlier moments in which popular majorities transformed American life. We’ve had those moments before. And if there’s an escape from the doom loop that American politics has become, it’s because we might have one again.
An eye-opening new history of American political conflict, from Alexander Hamilton to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
These days it seems that nobody is satisfied with American democracy. Critics across the ideological spectrum warn that the country is heading toward catastrophe but also complain that nothing seems to change. At the same time, many have begun to wonder if the gulf between elites and ordinary people has turned democracy itself into a myth. The urges to defend the country’s foundations and to dismantle them coexist―often within the same people.
How did we get here? Why does it feel like the country is both grinding to a halt and falling to pieces? In Realigners , the historian Timothy Shenk offers an eye-opening new biography of the American political tradition. In a history that runs from the drafting of the Constitution to the storming of the Capitol, Shenk offers sharp pen portraits of signal characters from James Madison and Charles Sumner to Phyllis Schlafly and Barack Obama. The result is an entertaining and provocative reassessment of the people who built the electoral coalitions that defined American democracy―and a guide for a time when figures ranging from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to MAGA-minded nationalists seek to turn radical dreams into political realities. In an era when it seems democracy is caught in perpetual crisis, Realigners looks at earlier moments in which popular majorities transformed American life. We’ve had those moments before. And if there’s an escape from the doom loop that American politics has become, it’s because we might have one again.
464 pages, Hardcover
Published October 18, 2022
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390 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
February 23, 2023
I had high expectations for this book. It was recommended on a podcast and so it made sense to give this book a shot. And, generally speaking, it met my expectations through the Theodore Roosevelt Presidency. I learned a lot about the coalitional build up following the George Washington years all the way up to the founding of the Republican Party. I could have had a bit more information as to why the Republican Party was necessary and how Abraham Lincoln and later US Grant fit into it. But the author does a fine job until the election of William Howard Taft.
For the rest of the 20th century and into the 21st, however, it is challenging to understand why certain coalitions came together, why some lasted longer than others and why two of the most consequential Presidents of the 20th century (FDR and LBJ) had coalitions that had opposite staying powers with the electorate. Lastly, the author gets immersed into a bunch of personalities and tries to use those to explain certain coalitions instead of explaining it by doing the painstaking work of a political scientist.
For the rest of the 20th century and into the 21st, however, it is challenging to understand why certain coalitions came together, why some lasted longer than others and why two of the most consequential Presidents of the 20th century (FDR and LBJ) had coalitions that had opposite staying powers with the electorate. Lastly, the author gets immersed into a bunch of personalities and tries to use those to explain certain coalitions instead of explaining it by doing the painstaking work of a political scientist.
November 29, 2022
I was expecting some analysis, some why and how. Instead, I got a book report. A fine book report, but a book report none the less.
June 16, 2024
With Realigners, Shenk has crafted a compelling arc of mini-biographies on some of America’s most important political actors—the men and women who worked to build majority coalitions and bring about a new eras in politics.
It’s a breezy, eminently readable 350 pages of sweeping history, but the abbreviated format left me wanting a little more. Then again, it’s a nice introduction to some of American political history’s less well celebrated characters, as I probably wouldn’t pick up a book on someone like Mark Hanna or Walter Lippman alone.
It’s a breezy, eminently readable 350 pages of sweeping history, but the abbreviated format left me wanting a little more. Then again, it’s a nice introduction to some of American political history’s less well celebrated characters, as I probably wouldn’t pick up a book on someone like Mark Hanna or Walter Lippman alone.
December 30, 2022
Rating; g+ : 1-2 instances of profanity. No sex. An assassination.
Recommend: US history readers, jh and up.
Thorough, nothing especially new, but the perspective is definitely from the left, but not … violently so. More on Phyllis schlaffly than I’ve ever heard before, that was interesting, but all with a bit of an air of ridicule, almost scorn. An informative book, but I’m not sure it did what it set out to do, to present the two party-system and it’s political swings as intentional or… somehow bad. For me, having this broad, 10,000 ft view of American history, especially in my own lifetime, was helpful, there were some longevity things that I didn’t realize. Like… % of voters over time. Trump’s longer presence. FDR and other politicians of the era.
Recommend: US history readers, jh and up.
Thorough, nothing especially new, but the perspective is definitely from the left, but not … violently so. More on Phyllis schlaffly than I’ve ever heard before, that was interesting, but all with a bit of an air of ridicule, almost scorn. An informative book, but I’m not sure it did what it set out to do, to present the two party-system and it’s political swings as intentional or… somehow bad. For me, having this broad, 10,000 ft view of American history, especially in my own lifetime, was helpful, there were some longevity things that I didn’t realize. Like… % of voters over time. Trump’s longer presence. FDR and other politicians of the era.
February 2, 2023
Democracy through the rise and fall of coalitions! A much more sustainable way to explain this country than any abiding belief in founding ideologies. Shenk is right that no realignment has truly stood the test of time, probably because none of them have ever truly delivered on their promises—two parties of capital and all. But I guess, as he points out, you have to keep believing in the promise of democracy, because if we don’t, then we don’t really have anything at all and that’s worse.
I hope Phyllis Schlafly is burning in hell where she belongs but I’m not ashamed to admit I didn’t recognize her game. There’s much to dislike about second-wave feminism and its narrow bourgeois ambitions, so her ability to make them all look stupid, I mean….unparalleled….
I hope Phyllis Schlafly is burning in hell where she belongs but I’m not ashamed to admit I didn’t recognize her game. There’s much to dislike about second-wave feminism and its narrow bourgeois ambitions, so her ability to make them all look stupid, I mean….unparalleled….
December 14, 2022
Containing a good amount of historical context, some well-known, some less main-stream, this book attempts to consider some of the figures that shifted American values, governance, and ideology. At times, I lost this thread and felt like I was reading through a basic what-happened rather than an argument about the importance and the why and the outcomes. I found myself wanting more connective tissue and reasoning but appreciating some of the perspective and historical context that I was less familiar with.
December 24, 2023
Mid-way review:
I took Prof. Shenk's history class at GW, ostensibly about the same topic that this book covers. I enjoyed the class, and thought the idea of studying American politics through the lens of ever-changing political coalitions was a unique way to understand our history and current political dysfunction.
I'm somewhat unsatisfied with the first half of the book, as it feels a bit too personality-driven and at times unfocused. There is a strong emphasis on the people who brought about the changes in coalitions, and much attention is devoted to their biographies, but I don't necessarily feel that I understand any better why and how the coalitions they formed came into being. I was hoping to have a better understanding as to the strategies employed by these masterful political organizers, but I don't have that, although I do know more now about people like Charles Sumner and Mark Hanna than I did before.
The book does have some gems, especially this very prescient passage about the collapse of the New Deal coalition:
"Eventually, amatuers on the left and right got their wish. The parties traded the core of their old coalitions, with Democrats picking up the Northeast and Republicans picking up the South and West. At the same time, the connection between income and partisan affiliation broke down, pushing working-class white people into the GOP and drawing educated professionals toward the Democrats.
The shift was already evident by the middle of the 1960s, thanks to the growing significance of a loosely connected collection of subjects that the political analysts Richard Scammon and Ben Watternberg dubbed "the Social Issue:" civil rights, drugs, crime, busing, welfare, the draft, protests in cities and on campuses. A vocal contingent of left-leaning observers quickly realized that their side might come out on the losing side of this realignment. In 1970, the political scientist Walter Dean Burnham predicted that dividing the parties around a 'polarized cultural conflict' would pit a Democratic alliance of elites and the marginalized against a threatened Republican majority, turning 'peripheral regions against the center, 'parochials' against 'cosmopolitans,' blue-collar whites against both blacks and affluent liberals... a top-bottom coalition against a 'great middle.'
Burnham doubted that anything good would come out of this change. If the country avoided a crisis, he believed it would probably descend into a soft authoritarianism, where responsibility for governing was handed over to a technocratic executive branch walled off from the public.
But what if there was a crisis, some catalytic event that forced a reckoning? Burnham warned that a political system divided between incompatible worldviews 'would have as large a civil-war potential, would be as great a strain on political consensus--including, perhaps, the willingness of the losers in the electoral-politics arena to accept the outcome of an election' as any previous alignment in American history. An endangered center could turn into a breeding ground for reactionary politics--perhaps even fascism.
Americans had put together a combustible mixture. 'What would happen should it be ignited would,' Burnham wrote, 'be anyone's guess.'" (166-167)
I took Prof. Shenk's history class at GW, ostensibly about the same topic that this book covers. I enjoyed the class, and thought the idea of studying American politics through the lens of ever-changing political coalitions was a unique way to understand our history and current political dysfunction.
I'm somewhat unsatisfied with the first half of the book, as it feels a bit too personality-driven and at times unfocused. There is a strong emphasis on the people who brought about the changes in coalitions, and much attention is devoted to their biographies, but I don't necessarily feel that I understand any better why and how the coalitions they formed came into being. I was hoping to have a better understanding as to the strategies employed by these masterful political organizers, but I don't have that, although I do know more now about people like Charles Sumner and Mark Hanna than I did before.
The book does have some gems, especially this very prescient passage about the collapse of the New Deal coalition:
"Eventually, amatuers on the left and right got their wish. The parties traded the core of their old coalitions, with Democrats picking up the Northeast and Republicans picking up the South and West. At the same time, the connection between income and partisan affiliation broke down, pushing working-class white people into the GOP and drawing educated professionals toward the Democrats.
The shift was already evident by the middle of the 1960s, thanks to the growing significance of a loosely connected collection of subjects that the political analysts Richard Scammon and Ben Watternberg dubbed "the Social Issue:" civil rights, drugs, crime, busing, welfare, the draft, protests in cities and on campuses. A vocal contingent of left-leaning observers quickly realized that their side might come out on the losing side of this realignment. In 1970, the political scientist Walter Dean Burnham predicted that dividing the parties around a 'polarized cultural conflict' would pit a Democratic alliance of elites and the marginalized against a threatened Republican majority, turning 'peripheral regions against the center, 'parochials' against 'cosmopolitans,' blue-collar whites against both blacks and affluent liberals... a top-bottom coalition against a 'great middle.'
Burnham doubted that anything good would come out of this change. If the country avoided a crisis, he believed it would probably descend into a soft authoritarianism, where responsibility for governing was handed over to a technocratic executive branch walled off from the public.
But what if there was a crisis, some catalytic event that forced a reckoning? Burnham warned that a political system divided between incompatible worldviews 'would have as large a civil-war potential, would be as great a strain on political consensus--including, perhaps, the willingness of the losers in the electoral-politics arena to accept the outcome of an election' as any previous alignment in American history. An endangered center could turn into a breeding ground for reactionary politics--perhaps even fascism.
Americans had put together a combustible mixture. 'What would happen should it be ignited would,' Burnham wrote, 'be anyone's guess.'" (166-167)
December 28, 2023
In the twilight of Biden's first term, it feels fairly evident that the dream of the Bernie Sanders 2016 and 2020 primary campaigns was a failure. We can describe it as a noble failure. We can tick off the gains that the left has made, but the bid to unite working-class BIPOC, working-class whites, and overeducated urbanites under 40 into a progressive coalition failed in large part because the working-class whites didn't show up. One need only look at John Fetterman's recent public betrayals of progressives to demonstrate that suburban/rural voters are not coming along for the ride.
In Realigners, Timothy Shenk examines key moments in American history that have led to political realignment, from Martin Van Buren to Phyllis Schlafley. This work provides something of a case study for the left's recent shortcomings. From slavery to the religious right, we see that these realignments only occur when the material interests of an existing coalition change and there is incentive to form a new coalition. As Shenk points out, those conditions did not and do not exist in the post-Obama era, at least not yet. While all of these realignments had central figures, these figures were reacting to an observable shift, not one they hoped to bring across through policy changes their opponents could prevent.
Shenk reminds us that even the greatest people in history are subject to forces beyond their control and while much has happened that is politically impactful from the rise of DSA to the emergence of the Squad, these events do not necessarily imply that a greater shift is just around the corner. In what is perhaps the highlight of the book, Shenk turns his gaze on 2008-2022 Democratic politics to examine why the Clinton coalition has not been successfully realigned despite the events of Occupy and the subsequent economic frustrations. Shenk quotes someone who believes Obama was president "too soon." It appears that we can add Bernie and the Squad to figures who emerged to meet the moment and found that the moment wasn't strong enough.
In Realigners, Timothy Shenk examines key moments in American history that have led to political realignment, from Martin Van Buren to Phyllis Schlafley. This work provides something of a case study for the left's recent shortcomings. From slavery to the religious right, we see that these realignments only occur when the material interests of an existing coalition change and there is incentive to form a new coalition. As Shenk points out, those conditions did not and do not exist in the post-Obama era, at least not yet. While all of these realignments had central figures, these figures were reacting to an observable shift, not one they hoped to bring across through policy changes their opponents could prevent.
Shenk reminds us that even the greatest people in history are subject to forces beyond their control and while much has happened that is politically impactful from the rise of DSA to the emergence of the Squad, these events do not necessarily imply that a greater shift is just around the corner. In what is perhaps the highlight of the book, Shenk turns his gaze on 2008-2022 Democratic politics to examine why the Clinton coalition has not been successfully realigned despite the events of Occupy and the subsequent economic frustrations. Shenk quotes someone who believes Obama was president "too soon." It appears that we can add Bernie and the Squad to figures who emerged to meet the moment and found that the moment wasn't strong enough.
November 5, 2025
Shrenk gets to the nub of the issue. describing the essence of the “long arc of history.”
Shrenk's analysis of the Federalists versus the Jeffersonians (Republicans) is spot on. Both parties believed the other was a threat to the republic. Additionally, he is right: when Jefferson assumed the presidency, he adopted the Federalist platform of tariffs, political retribution (Alien and Sedition Acts), and expanded executive power (i.e., the Louisiana Purchase and the prosecution of Aaron Burr).
Shrenk puts his political views on the table upfront, which is admirable. For the most part, I don’t see much evidence of his leftist leanings so far. My only quibble is that he called John Q. Adams an aristocrat. This is a misuse of the term. The Adams were of modest wealth, lived simply, and had no claims to title. The Adams were not pretentious and were anti-slavery and for the inalienable rights for all. I don’t think Shrenk would call FDR an aristocrat, even though he came from money, never worked for a living, and lived off his family's wealth. Calling JQA an aristocrat seems political.
The non-presidential look at political transformations was refreshing. The idea of a person who understands the nation's pulse and knows how to shape it is an interesting concept. I knew Sumner and Hanna were influential, but I always just thought Shafley was a gadfly. I believed Bannon was the Merlin behind Trump, but this book provides a new perspective.
I was surprised that Shenk was so negative on Obama. It raised the question of whether he was truly a realigner on par with the others. Certainly, Sumner and Hanna were influential for over 20 years. Obama came out of nowhere and, after eight years, was then overcome by Trump. It may be too early to assess.
Shrenk's analysis of the Federalists versus the Jeffersonians (Republicans) is spot on. Both parties believed the other was a threat to the republic. Additionally, he is right: when Jefferson assumed the presidency, he adopted the Federalist platform of tariffs, political retribution (Alien and Sedition Acts), and expanded executive power (i.e., the Louisiana Purchase and the prosecution of Aaron Burr).
Shrenk puts his political views on the table upfront, which is admirable. For the most part, I don’t see much evidence of his leftist leanings so far. My only quibble is that he called John Q. Adams an aristocrat. This is a misuse of the term. The Adams were of modest wealth, lived simply, and had no claims to title. The Adams were not pretentious and were anti-slavery and for the inalienable rights for all. I don’t think Shrenk would call FDR an aristocrat, even though he came from money, never worked for a living, and lived off his family's wealth. Calling JQA an aristocrat seems political.
The non-presidential look at political transformations was refreshing. The idea of a person who understands the nation's pulse and knows how to shape it is an interesting concept. I knew Sumner and Hanna were influential, but I always just thought Shafley was a gadfly. I believed Bannon was the Merlin behind Trump, but this book provides a new perspective.
I was surprised that Shenk was so negative on Obama. It raised the question of whether he was truly a realigner on par with the others. Certainly, Sumner and Hanna were influential for over 20 years. Obama came out of nowhere and, after eight years, was then overcome by Trump. It may be too early to assess.
March 19, 2025
So freaking good! This is a super engaging, accessible, and thorough political history of our country. Shenl tracks dominant American political coalitions from the ratification and early republican era to modern day. The most meaningful section to me was on Charles Sumner, who helped found the Republican Party around anti-slavery. Sumner should be regarded as one of the heroes of American history. The chapters on WEB Du Bois and Walter Lippman were also really fantastic. The final chapters on Obama is fascinating, and describes well why he ended up being such a disappointment for the country. Instead of the structural change he promised in his 2008 campaign or the working class populism he promised in his 2012 campaign, he fell into an ineffectual technocratic progressivism. Great read!
November 5, 2022
Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the audiobook ARC!
Realigners is a fantastic politics book. And I hesitate to even call it a politics book, because that gives the impression of an author dashing his current rants down on paper to get to press before the political climate cools or the mood swings. It's really much more of a historical study, with modern day examples and applications. I found so many interesting things that I've never known and/or considered before. Definitely a 5-star read.
Realigners is a fantastic politics book. And I hesitate to even call it a politics book, because that gives the impression of an author dashing his current rants down on paper to get to press before the political climate cools or the mood swings. It's really much more of a historical study, with modern day examples and applications. I found so many interesting things that I've never known and/or considered before. Definitely a 5-star read.
March 9, 2023
4.5 stars to be accurate
A very worthwhile read, although the theme doesn't always hold together. A good read just for the biographical snippets of people ("realligners") whose names you recognize but know nothing about, and those you thought you knew but where your knowledge was incomplete.
Shenk makes an excellent and mostly inspiring case that positive change is possible, if slow and difficult.
A very worthwhile read, although the theme doesn't always hold together. A good read just for the biographical snippets of people ("realligners") whose names you recognize but know nothing about, and those you thought you knew but where your knowledge was incomplete.
Shenk makes an excellent and mostly inspiring case that positive change is possible, if slow and difficult.
January 18, 2024
A detailed and incisive look into the shifting politics of America from its founding to the 2020 election told through the lives of historical figures.
Figures that often forced, reacted to,, or resisted the changing tides.
The throughline of left-leaning figures (from the founding to today, from politicians to academics and pundits) starting as bright eyed "radicals" and ending as pragmatic operators within machine politics OR despondent cynics especially resonated with me.
Figures that often forced, reacted to,, or resisted the changing tides.
The throughline of left-leaning figures (from the founding to today, from politicians to academics and pundits) starting as bright eyed "radicals" and ending as pragmatic operators within machine politics OR despondent cynics especially resonated with me.
February 19, 2023
Really interesting analysis of how the course of U.S. changed a certain inflection points, and how things could have been much different and better if we had a national will to deal honestly with our history.
Read
April 22, 2023OK this made me feel very hopeless and it was really long so I did not finish it. Part of my attempt to re-teach myself American history. Kind of felt like something you should read in a book club and discuss.
April 26, 2023
A study of members of the "democratic elite" from Madison to Obama who managed to build political coalitions large and effective enough to move America closer to (Charles Sumner), or further away from (Phyllis Schlafly) democracy.
January 3, 2026
This book was OK. It's really hard to fully grasp the understanding of and impact of these "realigners' in short paragraph. When I got the chapter on Obama, I had a better understanding how many things were glossed over. It's a nice overview of people I wasn't familiar with.
January 5, 2023
A look at democracy from the Republics beginning to 1/6. No consensus success but numerous attempts.
February 18, 2023
This is an interesting historical look at US politics. It was also depressing… seems like there is little hope for real change to ever take place.
February 21, 2023
Liked it a lot. Good history, and good profiles of political people.
December 17, 2025
Fascinating political history. Excellent narration. Listened as Audible.
December 18, 2025
Deeply biased but I loved it. Shenk is just such a fun writer.
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews