Another in a ground-breaking series of political biographies from the University of Michigan Press,
Mr. Democrat
tells the story of Jim Farley, Franklin Roosevelt’s campaign manager. In the New Deal years, Farley experienced unprecedented success as a campaign manager. Yet he has been largely overlooked by historians. Like his modern counterpart Karl Rove, Farley enjoyed unparalleled power as a party chairman. Unlike Rove, however, Farley presided over two landslide presidential campaigns. More importantly, Farley - again unlike Rove - was involved in the creation of a new majority in American politics as the emergence of the New Deal transformed the political landscape for decades to come.
Mr. Democrat
is timely and indispensable not just because Farley was a fascinating and unduly neglected figure, but also because an understanding of his career advances our knowledge of how, why, and with what consequences the character of the Democratic Party and American politics changed in the age of the New Deal.