The History of the Democratic Party: A Political Primer

By: Charles River Editors

Narrated by: Sabrina Z

Length: 3 hrs and 9 mins

Publisher's summary

"I hope the two wings of the Democratic Party may flap together." - William Jennings Bryan

As the oldest political party in the United States, the Democratic Party has been one of the nation's major political parties for over 150 years, and diverse men and ideas have fallen under its tent since the 19th century. Today the Democrats are generally viewed as proponents of a strong, centralized federal government, and yet the forerunner of the modern party was none other than Thomas Jefferson, the man most associated with states' rights and limited government.

With its Jeffersonian background, the party championed farmers, and Andrew Jackson's populist era made the Party home to urban workers and new immigrants. Eventually sectional splits weakened the Democrats, and when the fledgling Republican Party took power under Abraham Lincoln in 1861, it ushered in an era in which the Democrats only elected 2 presidents over a 70 year span. However, Reconstruction ensured that the Democrats maintained an almost unbreakable level of support in the old Confederate states, and they used the Solid South to wield power in Congress for decades.

One hundred fifty years after the Civil War, the Democratic Party's current voting bloc (strongly reliant on minorities) and their base of power (the Northeast and Midwest) are completely different than the 19th century's incarnation. Its platform has also been completely revamped. Both of those reversals are byproducts of Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal and Lyndon B. Johnson's Great Society, which continue to be the precedents current Democratic policies spring from.

©2012 Charles River Editors (P)2015 Charles River Editors

Disappointing

This is an excellent story but the ,reader sounds like a AI-with a female voice. Correction a female monotone, which is annoying

narrator voice was not impressive.

The narrator voice was too soothing. At times I got bored and forgot I was listening. Was not thrilled about narrator.

Historically interesting,

Greetings Audible listeners,

History on the Democratic Party is interesting to say the least. I never knew that there was a lot that goes into being an American politician let alone a public figure. Additionally, I never knew back in president Truman's and president Lincolns administrations. There was such a sect of the Democratic Party known as Democratic Republicans.

Furthermore, this proves that there are and still is such a thing as conservative Democrats. For example, FDR was a democratic republican. When he left office President Truman took over and although he more democrat than FDR was he did not change any of FDR's policies.

Which goes to show people like myself and other Americans that history does repeat itself and that whether the representative is Republican or Democrat. Once they get into that oval office they have to look at everything before they start governing the way they intended; that will determine the next course of action going forward as the newly elected President of the United States.

Examples, like this one is why I recommend that more Americans read up on their political history before they say one party is better than the other. Moreover, that is why I highly recommend every person that wants to have a political discussion or a history buff, argument. They need to read this book first.

terrible

the title says one thing but the content of the book is completely different. It goes through the democratic presidents. Nothing really about any other branch. The person who reads it aloud is also terrible. I spent the first chapter or two trying to figure out if it was a computer. So dry and boring, the reader.