WHAT IT TOOK TO WIN, is a summation of the history of the Democratic party. I would highly recommend this for anyone interested in a more in depth look of the party rather than just relying on what you were taught in school.

My big take away is that since it's conception, the party has been practicing the same tactics and from the beginning, and that corruption and the lust for power being a major motivator is not a thing of the past, nor is it unique to modern times.

We often have tunnel vision when it comes to our lived experiences, and this book really illustrates how humans repeat the same behavior over and over again.

I appreciated the final 3rd of the book which explored how the support of labor/unions/workers is where the modern democratic party has found it's power, and that if they continue to turn their backs on that they will continue to lose the support of the people.

***Thank you to Tantor Audio for providing me with the audiobook for free via NetGalley for an unbiased review.

Michael Kazin’s history of the Democratic Party offers pretty much everything that you might need to know or analyze about Democratic Party history from the early republic through the twenty-first century. chapter that ends in 1932 develops feminists Frances Perkins and Belle Moskowitz as real change makers within the Party. though Kazin narrows his aims in the introduction, readers might feel like this book covers all. Kazin irons out how the party of enslavers changed slowly, yet dramatically over time.

*received for free from netgalley for honest review* Would have to reread this again because of how much info but very interesting book. Never read any book about the history of the democratic party and would read more after reading this.

Yeah no, I read a lot and I mean a lot. In the political genre. And this is just a whole lot of relieved just no. There’s a little show bowing here too.

What It Took to Win: A History of the Democratic Party traces the history of the self-declared "people's party" from the early years of Andrew Jackson all the way up to the election of Joe Biden. Kazin is surprisingly fair in his assessment of the party, refusing to shy away from the Democrats' long association with slavery and white supremacy, while also applauding their twentieth-century pursuit of civil and equal rights. He covers Jackson's influence at length before delving into Wilson's mixed legacy, FDR's triumphs, the realignment under LBJ, Jimmy Carter's short, befuddled tenure as Commander-in-Chief, and the ongoing debate over just how progressive Obama really was. (What It Took to Win is noticeably light on the Clintons, both Bill and Hillary, possibly because of their growing unpopularity in the post-MeToo world). There is an obligatory anti-Trump declaration towards the end, but Kazin is able to stay on track, preferring to discuss the Democrats rather than indulge in the national Trump obsession.

But while What It Took to Win is fair, it's also fairly boring. There are a few paragraphs about how the party needs to unify to remain victorious, and how they cannot continue to be the people's party without the support of the working class, but otherwise, this book lacks much of a thesis. It's merely an overview of the party's history, without the argument that makes a persuasive work or the little-known secrets of a scandalous tell-all. What It Took to Win will undoubtedly be a valuable resource for research, but it's less compelling as recreational reading.

Renowned historian Michael Kazin takes readers through an in-depth view and analysis of the formation of the Democratic Party in America. The Democratic Party is one of the world's oldest and largest political organizations, and its history is riddled with exercising and contesting power. Starting at its formation in the 1700s, Kazin takes readers through an unfiltered history of the inception and growth of the Democratic Party up until the election of Joseph Biden in 2020. In conjunction with a historical overview of the party, Kazin also presents an in-depth analysis of the party's quest for "moral capitalism" - a system that mixes entrepreneurial freedom with the welfare of workers and consumers. But the quest has been and continues to be anything but perfect. Built on an egalitarian view of policy, the Democratic Party has continuously championed the rights of the White working man while promoting and protecting infrastructure that is racist, sexist, ageist, and classist. Kazin presents the party's successes in policy, strategy, and reform through major players and key thinkers, including Martin Van Buren, Eleanor Roosevelt, Jesse Jackson, and Bill Clinton, all of whom have contributed significantly to the current-day Democratic Party.


If you're looking for an unfiltered, unpretty history of the Democratic Party, look no further because Kazin has got the book for you. I listened to the audiobook version of What It Took to Win, and it's a dense, insightful listen. The book focuses on the Democratic Party at a national focus and seldom features states politics or politicians unless directly related to a national movement. The sacrifice of state policy and politicians for a national overview makes sense given the book's premise, but the two are inherently intertwined and I would have liked to see either a deeper analysis of state-level politics as they relate to national movements instead of the picking-and-choosing that was done. Overall, I think I learned a lot from this book but I found a lot of the early-early politics were going over my head and I had to re-listen to a few chapters (specifically those that were pre-1920s). However, once the book got to the President Jimmy Carter era, I felt like I could easily follow and relate history to today. While I think What It Took to Win does a phenomenal job of covering the Democratic Party history in its entirety, it did gloss over key modern events/figures like Carter's appointment of Volker, the 2016 and 2020 elections, Madeleine Albright, and the formation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Granted, this book is already long, so if it were any longer it would probably be a textbook. Kazin is a progressive historian, so while I enjoyed the liberal analysis of the Democratic Party, I imagine not all readers will as figures such as Bernie Sanders are covered extensively while other figures, such as Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton, did not receive much attention given their prominence in contemporary democratic politics. While I would've liked to see more from this book, overall I liked What It Took to Win: A History of the Democratic Party. So if you're interested in political history, I would highly reading this book.


4/5


Thank you, Tantor Audio, for an advanced listening copy of What It Took to Win: A History of the Democratic Party in exchange for an honest review.

Interesting look at the history of the Democratic party, from the era of Thomas Jefferson and the Democratic Republicans to the modern day. Very interesting read for anyone interested in political theory or political history.