About the author

Nelson L. Dawson

Nelson L. Dawson holds a PhD from the University of Kentucky and taught college-level history for 30 years. He also served as Director of Research and Interpretation for the Kentucky Historical Society and held other leadership positions in Kentucky history societies.

Dr. Dawson has been editor of the Filson History Quarterly and, most recently, The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society. He has published three previous books in addition to contributing articles to a variety of US history journals.

Democracy Betrayed

Name: Democracy Betrayed
Price: 21.95 USD
Availability: InStock
Author: Nelson L. Dawson
ISBN: 9781628944259

A History of the Democratic Party from Cotton Plantation to Urban Plantation

Price range: $21.95 through $31.95

Americans who came of age after 1960 have been shown a Democratic Party that sought to promote equality by giving people the tools to get out of poverty by providing subsidized housing, economic opportunity, aid to education, and other massive…

Book Type

Clear

Categories: Class Conflict, History: US, Political EconomyAuthor: Nelson L. Dawson SKU: democracy-betrayed Categories: Class Conflict, History: US, Political Economy Tags: African American political history, American history from founding to modern era, American political parties history, Andrew Jackson Democratic Party, Civil War era politics, conservative American history, Cotton to urban plantation, Democratic Party and race, democratic party history, government dependency critique, history of racism in politics, history of the Democratic Party, inner city poverty politics, Jim Crow Democrats, LBJ Great Society criticism, party of slavery, political betrayal of Black Americans, political exploitation of Black voters, race and politics in America, Reconstruction era politics, revisionist political history, slavery and American politics, Thomas Jefferson political legacy, urban poverty and politics, US party history 1800s Author: Nelson L. Dawson

Available from

Sound Bite

Contrary to its image as a heroic "party of the people," the Democrats have simply evolved from a racist party sustaining slavery and oppressing African-Americans in the Jim Crow South to a party which has abandoned them in today’s inner-city ghettos to ongoing social and economic deprivation.

The book traces the history of the party from its origins in the political philosophy of Thomas Jefferson to the end of Reconstruction, revealing a record quite different from common belief.

A concluding chapter extends the narrative to LBJ's Great Society in the 1960s, showing that the manifold failings of the party are not merely relics of a distant past but also illumine our politically contested present.

About the Book

Yet here we are today. The Democratic Party represents the ghastly end-product of a devolution which reflects all the current politically-correct distortions of plain common sense.

The book traces history and reveals the Democratic Party’s continuing cynical exploitation of today’s African Americans. Clearly, the Democratic Party has not been magically delivered from its sordid past rooted in slavery and segregation.

Despite this systemic failure, the Democratic Party has benefited from a pervasive politically correct mindset in both the popular culture and in academia. Most historians are sympathetic to the Party, overlooking and rationalizing its flaws.

This book is a needed corrective to the default perspective given in U.S. history textbooks and elsewhere, by providing a scholarly critique demonstrating that that perspective is indefensible. A well-documented analysis combining lively, accessible prose with thorough scholarship, the work will be of interest to the historical community as well as general readers interested in U.S. history and politics.

Since the book is critical of the Democratic Party, it will be of special interest to political conservatives. However, its purpose transcends partisanship. It is intended to provide a solid historical foundation which is essential for the cogent reevaluation of public policy. We cannot shape a viable future without confronting the realities of our past.

Table content

Introduction: We Are All Cleons NowChapter One: The Glorious Cause or a Kind of Revolution? 1776-1783Chapter Two: If You Can Keep It: The Making of the Constitution, 1783-1789Chapter Three: Party Games: The 1790s Chapter Four: Utopia in Power, 1800-1815Chapter Four: Utopia In Power, 1800–1815 51 Chapter Five: A Lucid Interval, 1815-1828Chapter Six: King Andrew and the People, 1828-1837Chapter Seven: Adrift: From Jackson to Polk, 1837-1844Chapter Eight: War, Arsenic, and Compromise, 1844-1850Chapter Nine: House Dividing, 1850-1860Chapter Ten: House Divided, 1860-1865Chapter Eleven: Massive Resistance: Reconstruction, 1865-1877Chapter Twelve: Ongoing Follies: To the Urban Plantation

About the Book

Nelson Dawson's book challenges the popular image of the Democratic Party as a long-standing champion of civil rights and the working poor. Instead, he argues that from its earliest roots in Jeffersonian political philosophy through Andrew Jackson's populist era, the Civil War, Reconstruction, and into the modern age, the party has consistently exploited African Americans rather than genuinely serving them. The central argument is blunt: the antebellum Democrats were the party of slavery and the Jim Crow South, and today's party has simply swapped the cotton plantation for what Dawson calls the "urban plantation" — inner-city communities kept dependent on government programs while remaining mired in poverty.

Dawson moves chronologically through American political history, covering pivotal moments like the drafting of the Constitution, the Jacksonian era, the sectional crises of the 1850s, the Civil War years, and the bitter battles over Reconstruction. He examines how Democratic politicians resisted Black political participation at every turn and how that pattern of resistance, he contends, eventually transformed into LBJ's Great Society programs — well-intentioned on the surface but, in Dawson's reading, a new form of political dependency.

The book draws on George Orwell's dystopian language to frame its introduction, invoking the ancient Athenian demagogue Cleon as a symbol of politicians who exploit democratic rhetoric for personal and party gain. Readers interested in American political history, the history of race in the United States, or revisionist takes on Democratic Party identity will find this a direct and pointed read that pushes back hard against mainstream historical narratives.

Additional information

Weight	N/A
Book Type	Ebook, ePub, Hard cover, Soft cover
Pages	250
Release Year	2020
BISAC I	HIS036000 HISTORY / United States / General
BISAC II	POL015000 POLITICAL SCIENCE / Political Process / Political Parties
BISAC III	POLITICAL SCIENCE / History & Theory