01/15/2024
Journalist Traub (What Was Liberalism?) offers an admiring biography of firebrand politician Hubert Humphrey (1911–1978). Raised in a small South Dakota community, Humphrey attended the University of Minnesota. In 1945, he became the mayor of Minneapolis, and his considerable support of the city’s oppressed Black and Jewish communities made him a national liberal figure. In 1948, his impassioned speech at the Democratic National Convention led to the party’s adoption of a vigorous civil rights platform, despite the opposition of the Truman administration. That same year, Humphrey won a seat in the U.S. Senate, where he was eventually lead author of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Elected vice president in 1964, Humphrey had a fraught relationship with President Lyndon Johnson, who “wanted a servant, not a copilot.” Humphrey’s support for the war in Vietnam tarnished his progressive legacy and contributed to his 1968 presidential election defeat by Richard Nixon, according to Traub, who leaves no doubt of his affection for his subject—he describes Humphrey as not only “extraordinary” and “abundantly gifted,” but “profoundly good.” Detailed coverage of Humphrey’s career after he left the Senate makes this a valuable complement to Samuel G. Freedman’s Into the Bright Sunshine, which focused on the previous periods of the politician’s life. (Feb.)
Compelling… Traub has rendered here a sensitive, vivid and sometimes poignant portrait of a political crusader.”—Wall Street Journal
“A brisk, engaging biography of Humphrey with an urgent underlying message for today’s liberals.”—New York Times Book Review
“Deft and thoughtful… Traub argues that studying the life of Humphrey—the late mayor of Minneapolis, senator, and vice president—is instructive, cautionary, and inspiring. His thesis is correct on all three counts.”—Washington Monthly
“Readers who want to dive deep into Humphrey's world will appreciate Traub's thorough reporting… It's at its best when bringing history to life with fascinating anecdotes.”—Minneapolis Star-Tribune
“Perceptive and beautifully written.”—Air Mail
“Excellent… Brings the spirit of Humphrey’s politics to life in ways that go beyond a simple tally of his achievements and failings.”—Liberal Patriot
“In the mode of Robert Caro… This corrective, vivid biography expands readers' knowledge of Humphrey.”—Booklist (Starred)
“A welcome resurrection of the life of an often-forgotten but significant political figure… An astute analysis of one of the last New Dealers.”—Kirkus (Starred)
“In True Believer, Traub traces not just Hubert Humphrey’s life but the rise and fall of mid-20th century liberalism with all of its courage, promise, triumphs, contradictions, compromises, limitations, and myopic insufficiencies exemplified in the talents, fortunes, and failures of one man.”—New York Journal of Books
"A masterful biography of Hubert Humphrey that presents him as a fascinating, three-dimensional figure, not the cardboard cutout later generations may know."—Peter Baker, chief White House correspondent for the New York Times
“An admiring biography of firebrand politician Hubert Humphrey.”—Publishers Weekly
“A flattering look at a liberal political figure. Fans of American political history will appreciate this one.”—Library Journal
“Hubert Humphrey’s life precisely overlapped the rise and fall of big-government liberalism as the dominant creed in American politics. James Traub’s wise and absorbing biography of Humphrey never stints in crediting him with helping shape that political moment, and never flinches from showing how little he was able to do to resist its passing. True Believer brings to life an unjustly forgotten politician and reminds us that it is possible for a politician to be an honorable and good-hearted person.”—Nicholas Lemann, author of Transaction Man
“The best biographies offer not only a portrait of a fascinating historical figure—but also a window into their era and a mirror that helps us understand our own. Traub’s True Believer succeeds on all three counts. It is a riveting account of one of the greatest presidents America never had.”—Yascha Mounk, author of The Great Experiment
“Traub is known as both an exemplary political biographer and an astute analyst of American liberalism. Both sets of talents are on display in True Believer, which brilliantly captures Humphrey, midcentury liberalism’s most powerful public champion—with all his righteousness, decency, and hunger to improve regular people’s lives, but also his struggles and failures. The triumphs and tragedy of Humphrey, Traub shows us in this compulsively readable story, are also those of liberalism itself.”—David Greenberg, author of Calvin Coolidge
02/15/2024
Award-winning journalist Traub (foreign policy and intellectual history, NYU Abu Dhabi; Judah Benjamin) explores the life of politician Hubert Humphrey. He started his career by running for mayor of Minneapolis; eventually became a two-term U.S. senator representing Minnesota; and served as the country's 38th vice president, during the Lyndon B. Johnson administration. Traub focuses on their fraught relationship and how Johnson tended to overshadow and belittle Humphrey. Throughout his career, Humphrey, known for his promotion of liberal values and tendencies towards compromise, campaigned for civil rights, nuclear disarmament, and labor rights. He ran for president several times, but the changing opinions of the electorate and ideological shifts contributed to his losses. His promotion into Democratic Party leadership led to his taking positions that were more toward the center, and many of his ideologically minded supporters grew disenchanted with him. Traub argues that Humphrey was tied to Johnson's disastrous handling of the Vietnam War, and he struggled to shake that legacy as well. VERDICT A flattering look at a liberal political figure. Fans of American political history will appreciate this one.—Rebekah Kati
★ 2023-11-14
A welcome resurrection of the life of an often-forgotten but significant political figure.
Veteran journalist Traub, author of What Was Liberalism? and The Freedom Agenda, delivers a memorable, admiring portrait of Hubert Humphrey (1911-1978). Son of a small-town South Dakota pharmacist, Humphrey graduated high school as the class valedictorian. After dropping out of college during the Depression, he returned a few years later to complete three years of classwork in two years. He also worked in a drug store to support himself and his family, and he graduated Phi Beta Kappa and summa cum laude from the University of Minnesota. In graduate school, thesis advisers extolled his intelligence, enthusiasm, and charisma and suggested that politics would be a better fit than academia. He became a rising force in the Democratic Party, and in 1945, he “became the youngest person ever elected as mayor of Minneapolis.” He made headlines during the 1948 Democratic National Convention, fighting successfully to substitute a strong civil rights plank for the usual platitudes. President Harry Truman tried to discourage this approach; southerners hated it and formed the Dixiecrat Party, which, pundits agreed, guaranteed Truman’s defeat. Traub agrees with most scholars that Humphrey’s effort helped in the north more than it hurt in the south. Elected senator by a landslide in 1948, he proposed many liberal reforms. Working with his mentor Lyndon Johnson, he was able to pass some of them. Yearning for the presidency, Humphrey worked hard to become vice president as a means of obtaining the funds, nationwide organization, and visibility necessary for a campaign. Assuming the vice presidency in 1964, he was marginalized, exerting little influence over the U.S.’s disastrous involvement in Vietnam. Concluding this highly readable biography, Traub suggests that it was not rising conservatism but the antiwar movement that assured Humphrey’s defeat in 1968.
An astute analysis of one of the last New Dealers.
