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Todesschnizzle t1_je4jprd wrote

Hello y'all, I just finished a Nixon Biography and it really piqued my interest about 20th century US politics, so I wanted to ask if there's any recommendations. I'm European and usually read books about European history, but I have a solid base when it comes to American history. I'm especially interested in elections and Party politics. stuff like nixons southern strategy or the party switch, failed presidential candidates as well as third party candidates and things like the new deal coalition. Also social issues like segregation or economic ones like the rise of neoliberalism. All of this in the time frame from including FDR to including Bill Clinton.

If anyone can recommend me books that touch on as many as these topics as possible, even if they initially don't go in depth, I would be very thankful. I can always look for a specific topic later if I find something that really interests me, but right now I would like to get a broad overview first.

Thank you very much and I hope all of you have a nice day

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bangdazap t1_je5dm2n wrote

David Halberstam - The Best and the Brightest. Looks at members of the US government that came into office with JFK in 1961 (and continued to serve with LBJ after 1963) and their failure to come to grips with the Vietnam War.

Edwin Black - War Against the Weak: Eugenics and America's Campaign to Create a Master Race.

Eric Rauchway - Why the New Deal Matters.

Landon R.Y. Storrs - The Second Red Scare and the Unmaking of the New Deal Left.

Robin D.G. Kelley - Hammer and Hoe: Alabama Communists during the Great Depression.

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spydermayhem t1_je5w3nf wrote

I'll throw in War in a Time of Peace: Bush, Clinton, and the Generals, also by David Halberstam. It is a very insightful look into the policies and pitfalls that came out of the early '90s.

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TheDeveloper1776 t1_je6g75i wrote

Nixonland by Rick Perlstein

George Wallace: American Populist

Also, totally unrelated to the historical era in which you specified, but if you want a great general overview of 1810-50 American politics “Heir’s to the Founders” by H.W Brands covers Daniel Webster, Henry Clay, and John Calhoun’s careers. The book goes through the 1812 era right up until 1850.

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No-Strength-6805 t1_je6yfbx wrote

William Leuchtenburgs ,In the Shadow of FDR:From Truman to George W. Bush , shows how every President has been influenced since FDR.

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Lucky_East7537 t1_je4pj00 wrote

Team of Rivals — a complete and detailed history of the Lincoln era. Doris Kearns Goodwin

Killing the Mob — A look into the infectious influence of the mob/corruption. Bill O’Reilly

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DukeofLexington t1_je75u2s wrote

The Unfinished Journey: America Since World War II by William H. Chafe

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BossRaeg t1_je58e26 wrote

May not be exactly what you’re looking for but Last of the Blue and Gray: Old Men, Stolen Glory, and the Mystery That Outlived the Civil War by Richard A. Serrano may still be of interest.

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CraftyRole4567 t1_je5exbi wrote

Hi! Thomas Segrue’s Origins of the Urban Crisis looks at how and why Black migrants from the South became concentrated in the Northern inner cities and what led to the 1960s and 70s riots in cities like Detroit… It’s a great overview of the politics and economics of segregation in the 20th century in the north. If you’re interested in segregation in the south, you really still can’t do better than Woodward’s classic The Strange Career of Jim Crow, which is also incredibly readable (it was written in the 50s, so it’s a little old-fashioned, but Woodward was trying to combat the argument of the south that segregation was natural and had always existed, and instead to explain its history).

Lisa McGirr’s Suburban Warriors: The Origins of the New Right is also a great book, she looks at the emergence of the new right from Goldwater through the southern strategy to Reagan, although she focuses more on the sort of grassroots side of it.

McGirr and Segrue are both academic writers, but very readable imo.

Alan Brinkley’s Voices of Protest: Coughlin, Long, and the Great Depression was written for a popular audience and has a lot on Huey Long’s run for president versus FDR. Overall it’s really good, although I think he isn’t really fair to the Irish-Americans, but that’s probably partly because my grandparents were Irish-Anerican and they despised Coughlin.

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