Good morning! It’s Friday, which would normally mean recapping what Congress is up to — but Congress is on recess! So, like last week, I’m bringing you another episode of the Wake Up To Politics Book Club, a special feature for paid subscribers.
Today’s episode is an interview with Benn Steil, author of the fascinating book “The World That Wasn’t: Henry Wallace and the Fate of the American Century.”
One of my main goals with WUTP is trying to bring historical context to current events: you can see that in pieces like my Tuesday feature on presidential candidates seeking out non-traditional media spaces through history. In a time when so many things are called “unprecedented,” I think that pursuit of context has never been more important.
In my opinion, there’s no way to build that context base for yourself without reading books. WUTP Book Club is my way of letting you into the books I’m reading — to discuss them, talk with the authors, and look at what lessons we can draw from them to apply to the present day. In Wallace’s case, there is a lot that is relevant: about ideological splits in the Democratic Party, about Russian collusion, about the pursuit of peace in a time of war.
Above you’ll find my interview with Benn. Below are some more thoughts on the book. I hope you enjoy — and I hope you learn. I know I did.
Vice presidents might not be good for much, but they make for great what-ifs.
Imagine how differently Reconstruction would have gone if the soon-to-be-shot Abraham Lincoln had kept Hannibal Hamlin, the staunch abolitionist, as his vice president, instead of trading him for Andrew Johnson, the southern segregationist, in his second term.
Or what if William McKinley’s first VP, the pro-business conservative Garret Hobart, hadn’t died in office, and lived long enough to become president after McKinley was assassinated? Would the Progressive Era ever have gotten off the ground without the leadership of Theodore Roosevelt, the man who took Hobart’s place? Bye-bye, trust-busting; bye-bye, national parks.
And, finally: what if the vice president during Franklin Roosevelt’s third term, Henry Wallace, had still been in place during his fourth, when FDR died in office? Wallace believed fiercely that the U.S. should maintain a cozy relationship with Russia after World War II. Would the Cold War still have broken out? Would the consequential post-war institutions of the Truman presidency — NATO, the Marshall Plan — ever have emerged?
It’s that final hypothetical that animates this week’s addition to the Wake Up To Politics Book Club: “The World That Wasn’t: Henry Wallace and the Fate of the American Century” by Benn Steil.