#43 The History of the Democratic Party w/ Bruce Schulman
The Road to Now
Benjamin Sawyer
4.8 • 628 Ratings
🗓️ 5 February 2017
⏱️ 52 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
As the Democratic Party recovers from an unexpected defeat in the 2016 election, it finds itself in search of new leaders who can bring the party through this time of crisis. History shows that parties can withstand hard times, but how did the oldest active political party in American history find itself on the verge of irrelevance? And are there historic precedents for where the party finds itself today? In this episode of The Road to Now, Dr. Bruce Schulman guides us through the history of the Democratic Party to help us answer these questions and more.
Dr. Bruce J. Schulman is the William E. Huntington Professor of History at Boston University. He is the author of multiple books on modern American history, including From Cotton Belt to Sunbelt (Oxford, 1991), Lyndon B. Johnson and American Liberalism (St. Martin's, 1994) and The Seventies: The Great Shift in American Culture, Society, and Politics (Free Press, 1991) which was named a 2001 New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Dr. Schulman is also a contributor to several major media outlets, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, & the Christian Science Monitor, and has served as expert consultant in productions by The History Channel and PBS.
The Road to Now is hosted by Bob Crawford of The Avett Brothers & Dr. Benjamin Sawyer of Middle Tennessee State University. For more on info on this episode and our podcast, check out our website: www.TheRoadToNow.com
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | As the Democratic Party recovers from its unexpected defeat in the 2016 election, |
| 0:04.0 | it finds itself in search of new leaders who can bring the party through this time of crisis. |
| 0:09.0 | History shows this is possible, but how did the oldest continuous political party in American history |
| 0:15.0 | find itself on the verge of irrelevance? |
| 0:18.0 | And what are the historic precedents for where the party finds itself today? |
| 0:22.4 | We asked Boston University history professor, Dr. Bruce Shulman, to guide us through the history |
| 0:29.0 | of the Democratic Party. |
| 0:40.3 | I'm Bob Crawford, and I'm Ben Sawyer and this is The Road to Now. |
| 0:43.5 | And the Road to Now has brought me to Pompano Beach, Florida, where I'm back to work, getting ready to do sound check here. |
| 0:51.5 | You may hear a kick drum in the background being checked out. So if you |
| 0:57.1 | hear any background noise, I'm in a working environment. That's right. Bob and I are both back |
| 1:03.3 | in working environments. And it's interesting because we both had some time off from having to |
| 1:09.0 | be anywhere for the last few months. |
| 1:11.6 | And I've been back to school now for a couple of weeks. |
| 1:14.0 | Loving my classes, it's funny. |
| 1:16.0 | You know, when I get a break over Christmas, go home and see my family and everything, |
| 1:20.2 | it's wonderful. |
| 1:21.2 | But when I get back to classes, I'm so much happier. |
| 1:23.9 | I love my university and I love my students. |
| 1:26.6 | And Bob has even more people |
| 1:28.6 | in attendance whenever he goes on in front of a crowd. It's just, I think we're both lucky. |
| 1:33.5 | It's definitely a contrast to being at home and being with my family, and then you go to work, |
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