The Upset That Wasn't: Harry S Truman and the Crucial Election of 1948

Gullan, Harold I.

ISBN 10: 1566632064 / ISBN 13: 9781566632065

Published by Ivan R. Dee, Chicago, 1998

About this Item

No edition or printing stated. Inscribed and signed by the author on the front endpaper: "As Harry Truman said, anyone who is not faithful in his family deligations really can't be trusted in any other way. / for P-- / and our mutual affection for . . . horticulture. / Fondly, / Harold Gullen." The book is unmarked, slight spine slant; corners sharp, spine ends unbumped. The dust jacket is not price-clipped (original price $24.95); Brodart protected. Seller Inventory # 005064

Bibliographic Details

Title: The Upset That Wasn't: Harry S Truman and ...

Publisher: Ivan R. Dee, Chicago

Publication Date: 1998

Binding: Hardcover

Condition: Near Fine

Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine

Signed: Signed by Author(s)

About this title

Synopsis:

In this persuasive reappraisal of Truman's 1948 victory, Harold Gullan argues that it was neither the “greatest upset in American political history” (as popular mythology would have it) nor merely a successful extension of the coalition built by Franklin Roosevelt (as many historians contend). Aided by so many fortuitous circumstances, Gullan declares, Truman should have won by an even larger margin. Despite the near unanimous opinion of polls, pundits, and publications favoring Thomas E. Dewey, a win by Dewey would have been the authentic upset. Making his case, Mr. Gullan surveys Truman's background and recreates the happy but anxious years just after the war, as well as the events of this remarkable campaign. He shows why, in retrospect, the results of 1948 make it―along with 1932 and 1968―one of the three most important elections in the twentieth century. Party loyalties gave way to independent voting, personal campaigning to the primacy of television; the cold war was enshrined as policy; and the bulwarks of New Deal legislation were preserved but little expanded. The Upset That Wasn't was published on the fiftieth anniversary of this historic election.

About the Author:

Harold I. Gullan studied at Johns Hopkins, St. Joseph's, and Temple universities, and is now an independent scholar living in Philadelphia. His work on presidential politics has appeared in the Presidential Studies Quarterly.