Truman Defeats Dewey

Donaldson (Abundance and Anxiety: America 1945 to 1960), an associate professor of history at Xavier University, gets his title by playfully inverting the Chicago Tribune headline made famous by President Truman after his victory in the 1948 presidential election. Unlike Gullan in The Upset That Wasn't (see above), Donaldson concentrates on the issues of the campaign, not the personalities. He focuses on Truman's obstacles: an economy in reconversion, labor unrest and disgruntled farmers. He shows how the GOP ""misread its results"" when it took control of Congress in 1946 and how Truman turned the tables on the ""do nothing [80th] congress."" He looks at the third-party candidates, the much ""martyred"" Henry Wallace and break-away Dixiecrat Strom Thurmond. Donaldson also shows how Truman built coalitions with labor and blacks largely because both groups had ""no place to go,"" while Dewey ran a ""lethargic, issueless campaign"" that did not attack Truman on either domestic or foreign policy issues. There are also two chapters on the romancing of Dwight D. Eisenhower by both parties. Special emphasis is placed on the evolution of the Democratic Party as it left behind the Solid South and became the party of civil rights. This is a nitty-gritty political handbook to the issues in the election of 1948. Photos. (Dec.)