Dewey Defeats Truman: The 1948 Election and the Battle for America’s Soul
A. J. Baime
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (July 2020)

Another brilliant achievement by a cutting-edge thinker who tells a great story

In 1948, I delivered 65 Chicago Daily Tribunes to subscribers in my neighborhood in South Chicago every morning before breakfast and then headed off to Myra Bradwell Elementary School. Although only twelve years old, I was not surprised when learning later from the Trib‘s infamous headline that Thomas Dewey had defeated Harry Truman. According to just about everyone, Dewey was heavily favored. Later that day, I was stunned to learn that in fact Truman won.

By now the facts are well-known but until now, I did not fully understand the the context within which various events occurred. These are among the subjects of greatest interest to me:

o Dewey’s strengths and vulnerabilities in a presidential campaign
o Truman’s
o Dewey’s opinion of Truman…and vice versa
o The significance of Strom Thurmond and his campaign (States’ Rights Democratic Party)
o The significance of Henry Wallace and his campaign (Progressive Party, “Gideon’s Army”)

o The respective roles that wife Bess and daughter Margaret played during the campaign
o What differentiated this presidential campaign from any/all of its predecessors
o What most voters probably did not know about what most concerned Dewey and Truman
o Why so many people (including his wife and daughter) were convinced that Truman would lose
o How/why he won

Baime explores each of these key areas as well as many others, enabling his reader to feel (to the extent possible) as if they were observing first-hand the 1948 campaign developed throughout its process. He also includes several dozen “behind the scene” glimpses into both Truman and Dewey campaigns and includes what were (for me at least) new insights into Truman’s grit and determination as well as Dewey’s warmth and (on occasion) cordiality. The major ideological conflicts were not between the two presidential candidates; rather, between them and right-wing conservatives in the GOP and “Dixiecrats” in the southern states.

I have read and reviewed all of A.J. Baime’s previously published books and think this one is the most entertaining as well as the most informative he has written…thus far.

In years to come, I will be eager to tag along again wherever his talents and curiosity take him.