Julian E. Zelizer

Elected to Congress in 1978, Gingrich quickly became one of the most powerful figures in America not through innovative ideas or charisma, but through a calculated campaign of attacks against political opponents, casting himself as a savior in a fight of good versus evil. Taking office in the post-Watergate era, he weaponized the good government reforms newly introduced to fight corruption, wielding the rules in ways that shocked the legislators who had created them. His crusade against Democrats culminated in the plot to destroy the political career of Speaker Wright. While some of Gingrich's fellow Republicans were disturbed by the viciousness of his attacks, his party enjoyed his successes so much that they did little collectively to stand in his way. Democrats, for their part, were alarmed, but did not want to sink to his level and took no effective actions to stop him. .

Newt Gingrich, the Fall of a Speaker, and the Rise of the New Republican Party

Burning Down the House

A historian analyzes the political challenge of how America can improve the institutions that compose representative democracy, pointing out that reform is slow and multidimensional, and how it has failed to make Congress more efficient or powerful during the latter half of the twentieth century.

The Struggle to Reform Congress and Its Consequences, 1948-2000

On Capitol Hill

Sean Wilentz

Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.

the 39th President, 1977-1981

Jimmy Carter : The American Presidents Series

A First Historical Assessment

Presidency of Donald J. Trump

Kevin M. Kruse

America's top historians set the record straight on the most pernicious myths about our nation's past The United States is in the grip of a crisis of bad history. Distortions of the past promoted in the conservative media have led large numbers of Americans to believe in fictions over facts, making constructive dialogue impossible and imperiling our democracy. In Myth America, Kevin M. Kruse and Julian E. Zelizer have assembled an all-star team of fellow historians to push back against this misinformation. The contributors debunk narratives that portray the New Deal and Great Society as failures, immigrants as hostile invaders, and feminists as anti-family warriors--among numerous other partisan lies. Based on a firm foundation of historical scholarship, their findings revitalize our understanding of American history. Replacing myths with research and reality, Myth America is essential reading amid today's heated debates about our nation's past.

Historians Take on the Biggest Legends and Lies about Our Past

Myth America

In a book based on original archival findings, a prize-winning historian and author of Taxing America offers a sweeping history of the interplay between United States domestic politics and foreign policy since World War II.

The Politics of National Security--from World War II to the War on Terrorism

Arsenal of Democracy

"A gripping and troubling account of the origins of our turbulent times.” —Jill Lepore, author of These Truths: A History of the United States When—and how—did America become so polarized? In this masterful history, leading historians Kevin M. Kruse and Julian E. Zelizer uncover the origins of our current moment. It all starts in 1974 with the Watergate crisis, the OPEC oil embargo, desegregation busing riots in Boston, and the wind-down of the Vietnam War. What follows is the story of our own lifetimes. It is the story of ever-widening historical fault lines over economic inequality, race, gender, and sexual norms firing up a polarized political landscape. It is also the story of profound transformations of the media and our political system fueling the fire. Kruse and Zelizer’s Fault Lines is a master class in national divisions nearly five decades in the making.

Fault Lines: A History of the United States Since 1974

Leading historians offer the first look at Biden’s four years in the White House The Presidency of Joseph R. Biden presents a first draft of history by providing insights into how this one-term president fits within the broader historical forces shaping the United States in the twenty-first century. Acclaimed political historian Julian Zelizer brings together some of today’s leading scholars to give balanced and strikingly original assessments of the major issues of the Biden years, from education and reproductive rights to the economy, labor relations, climate policy, race, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the culture wars. These incisive essays trace the full arc of Joe Biden’s presidency from its early successes to the setbacks that ultimately consumed it. His domestic legislative achievements were hailed by some as the most momentous of any American presidency since the Great Society while his foreign policy ably met the challenges posed by the nation’s great power rivals. Yet by late 2024, Biden’s legacy was in tatters, overshadowed by immigration, inflation, the war in Gaza, and the president’s obvious physical decline. Written in a clear and accessible manner, The Presidency of Joseph R. Biden moves beyond the day-by-day journalistic coverage to provide the first comprehensive scholarly account of the Biden administration’s achievements and eventual downfall. With contributions by Kathryn Cramer Brownell, María Cristina García, Joel K. Goldstein, Michael Kazin, Daniel C. Kurtzer, Joyce Mao, Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, Khalil Gibran Muhammad, Timothy Naftali, Ekaterina Pravilova, Noah Rosenblum, Paul Sabin, Timothy Stewart-Winter, Sean H. Vanatta, John Witt, and Mary Ziegler.

The Presidency of Joseph R. Biden

A leader of the resurgence in American political history addresses issues of wide interest, including the rise of the welfare state, the history of Congress, the struggle over campaign finance, changing views about presidential power, national security and more.

The Revival of Political History

Governing America

Alan B. Cohen

David C. Colby

Keith A. Wailoo

For fifty years, Medicare and Medicaid have stood at the center of a contentious debate surrounding American government, citizenship, and health care entitlement. In Medicare and Medicaid at 50, leading scholars in politics, government, economics, health policy, and history offer a comprehensive assessment of the evolution of these programs and their impact on society -- from their origins in the Great Society era to the current battles over the Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare"). These highly accessible essays examine Medicare and Medicaid from their origins as programs for the elderly and poor to their later role as a safety net for the middle class. Along the way, they have served as touchstones for heated debates about economics, social welfare, and the role of government. Medicare and Medicaid at 50 addresses key questions for understanding the past and future of health policy in America, including: · What were the origins for these initiatives, and how were they transformed over time? · What marks have Medicare and Medicaid left on society? · In what ways have these programs produced innovation, even in eras of retrenchment? · How did Medicaid, once regarded as a poor person's program, expand its benefits and coverage over the decades to become the platform for the ACA's future expansion? The volume's contributors go on to examine the powerful role of courts in these transformations, along with the shifting roles of Congress, public opinion, and state governors in the programs' ongoing evolution. From Lyndon Johnson to Barack Obama on the left, and from Ronald Reagan to George W. Bush on the right, American political leaders have tied their political fortunes to the fate of America's entitlement programs; Medicare and Medicaid at 50 helps explain why, and how those ongoing debates are likely to shape the future of the Affordable Care Act.

America's Entitlement Programs in the Age of Affordable Care

Medicare and Medicaid at 50

Gareth Davies

A chronological collection of essays, America at the Ballot Box uses the history of presidential elections to illuminate both the fundamental character of American political democracy, and its evolution from the early Republic to the late twentieth century.

Elections and Political History

America at the Ballot Box

A biography of the rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, who became a symbol of the marriage between religion and social justice “When I marched in Selma, I felt my legs were praying.” So said Polish-born American rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907–1972) of his involvement in the 1965 Selma civil rights march alongside Martin Luther King Jr. Heschel, who spoke with a fiery moralistic fervor, dedicated his career to the struggle to improve the human condition through faith. In this new biography, author Julian Zelizer tracks Heschel’s early years and foundational influences—his childhood in Warsaw and early education in Hasidism, his studies in late 1920s and early 1930s Berlin, and the fortuitous opportunity, which brought him to the United States and saved him from the Holocaust, to teach at Hebrew Union College and the Jewish Theological Seminary. This deep and complex portrait places Heschel at the crucial intersection between religion and progressive politics in mid-twentieth-century America. To this day Heschel remains a symbol of the fight to make progressive Jewish values relevant in the secular world.

A Life of Radical Amazement

Abraham Joshua Heschel

"Donald Trump took office in 2017 amid an increasingly polarized political field. He quickly carved out a loyal base among the radical wing of the Republican party, dominated the news cycle with an endless stream of controversies, and, with the support of his voting base and party, presided over one of the most publicized, dramatic, and contentious one-term presidencies in American history. In The Presidency of Donald J. Trump, Julian Zelizer gathers leading American historians to put President Trump and his administration into political and historical context. These scholars offer strikingly original assessments of the central issues that shaped the Trump years, including the #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter movements, Trump's crusade against media he dubbed "fake news ," the border wall and immigration more broadly, the rapid rise of open white supremacy, the national COVID-19 response, the calls to "defund the police," the efforts to contest the outcome of the election, and the January 6th insurrection, among others. Together, these essays argue that the Trump presidency was not unprecedented, but it represented and emerged from the long-term development of the Republican Party and American polarization more broadly"--

The Presidency of Donald J. Trump

Kim Phillips-Fein

This book provides a sweeping interpretation of how business mobilized to influence public policy and elections since World War II.

Business and American Politics Since World War II

What's Good for Business

New Directions in Policy History

Harvard University Press

Bruce J. Schulman

Bruce J.. Schulman

William E Huntington Professor of History Bruce J Schulman

Professor of History and Public Affairs Julian E Zelizer

Often considered a lost decade, a pause between the liberal Sixties and Reagan’s Eighties, the 1970s were indeed a watershed era when the forces of a conservative counter-revolution cohered. These years marked a significant moral and cultural turning point in which the conservative movement became the motive force driving politics for the ensuing three decades. Interpreting the movement as more than a backlash against the rampant liberalization of American culture, racial conflict, the Vietnam War, and Watergate, these provocative and innovative essays look below the surface, discovering the tectonic shifts that paved the way for Reagan’s America. They reveal strains at the heart of the liberal coalition, resulting from struggles over jobs, taxes, and neighborhood reconstruction, while also investigating how the deindustrialization of northern cities, the rise of the suburbs, and the migration of people and capital to the Sunbelt helped conservatism gain momentum in the twentieth century. They demonstrate how the forces of the right coalesced in the 1970s and became, through the efforts of grassroots activists and political elites, a movement to reshape American values and policies. A penetrating and provocative portrait of a critical decade in American history, Rightward Bound illuminates the seeds of both the successes and the failures of the conservative revolution. It helps us understand how, despite conservatism’s rise, persistent tensions remain today between its political power and the achievements of twentieth-century liberalism.

Making America Conservative in the 1970s

Rightward Bound

"Zelizer takes the full measure of the entire story [of Johnson's liberal agenda] in all its epic sweep. Before Johnson, Kennedy tried and failed to achieve many of these advances. Our practiced understanding is that this was an unprecedented liberal hour in America, a moment, after Kennedy's death, when the seas parted and Johnson could simply stroll through to victory. As Zelizer shows, this view is off-base: in many respects America was even more conservative than it seems now, and Johnson's legislative program faced bitter resistance"--Amazon.com.

Lyndon Johnson, Congress, and the Battle for the Great Society

The Fierce Urgency of Now

An original and engaging account of the Obama years from a group of leading political historians Barack Obama's election as the first African American president seemed to usher in a new era, and he took office in 2009 with great expectations. But by his second term, Republicans controlled Congress, and, after the 2016 presidential election, Obama's legacy and the health of the Democratic Party itself appeared in doubt. In The Presidency of Barack Obama, Julian Zelizer gathers leading American historians to put President Obama and his administration into political and historical context. These writers offer strikingly original assessments of the big issues that shaped the Obama years, including the conservative backlash, race, the financial crisis, health care, crime, drugs, counterterrorism, Iraq and Afghanistan, the environment, immigration, education, gay rights, and urban policy. Together, these essays suggest that Obama's central paradox is that, despite effective policymaking, he failed to receive credit for his many achievements and wasn't a party builder. Provocatively, they ask why Obama didn't unite Democrats and progressive activists to fight the conservative counter-tide as it grew stronger. Engaging and deeply informed, The Presidency of Barack Obama is a must-read for anyone who wants to better understand Obama and the uncertain aftermath of his presidency. Contributors include Sarah Coleman, Jacob Dlamini, Gary Gerstle, Risa Goluboff, Meg Jacobs, Peniel Joseph, Michael Kazin, Matthew Lassiter, Kathryn Olmsted, Eric Rauchway, Richard Schragger, Paul Starr, Timothy Stewart-Winter, Thomas Sugrue, Jeremi Suri, Julian Zelizer, and Jonathan Zimmerman.

Julian E. Zelizer

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