It's the Brian Larry Show on WNYC. Good morning again, everyone, with the Democratic Convention in Chicago this week in a year when Democrats have been divided over a war and the sitting Democratic

President was forced to end his re-election bid. People are making comparisons with 1968 when Lyndon

Johnson dropped out and anti-war protests outside the Chicago Convention of that year were a significant

part of the events of that week.

The comparisons only go so far, however, as the politics of the two wars are different,

the times are different in other ways, and the general vibe around the nominee is very

different now that the convention is underway. With us now is journalist and college professor

James Troub, who has published a book this

year about that 1968 Democratic nominee, Hubert Humphrey. It's called True Belie's Quest for a

more just America. Before we bring James Trow on, I want to play an archive clip from an earlier

Democratic convention at which Humphrey helped build his national reputation, not from 1968, but from 1948, when Humphrey, then the mayor of Minneapolis, delivered a history-making speech from the convention stage, urging his party to go all in on civil rights.

My friends, to those who say that we are rushing this issue of civil rights, I say to them,

we are 172 years late. To those who say, to those who say that this civil rights program is an infringement on state's rights, I say this,

the time has arrived in America for the Democratic Party to get out of the shadows of states' rights and to walk forthrightly

into the bright sunshine of human rights.

Huber Humphrey in 1948. We'll play a clip later by way of contrast from 1968 when he was the nominee, and boy,

was the context different then. But with us now is James Trowb, long-time journalist who is published

in the New York Times Magazine, the New Yorker in many other places, written eight previous books,

and teaches foreign policy and intellectual history at NYU Abu Dhabi, though his permanent home

is here in New York. James, thanks for coming on. Congratulations on the book and welcome back to WNYC.

Well, Brian, thank you, and I'm delighted to be here. Why in 2024 did you write a book about

Hubert Humphrey? Well, because of, actually because of Donald Trump, it's kind of the answer to everything, isn't it?

...