Politics and Vision: The ADA and American Liberalism, 1947-1985

Founded in 1947, the Americans for Democratic Action (ADA) was at the forefront of the movement toward "Vital Center" liberalism and over the next two decades emerged as the most forceful advocate of many ideas cherished by liberals. With such prominent members as Walter Reuther, David Dubinsky, Eleanor Roosevelt, John Kenneth Galbraith, Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., and James Loeb among its ranks, the ADA strove to strike a balance between its commitment to abstract ideals of social justice and its sense of the politically possible. How that balance was maintained following World War II and shattered during the Vietnam era, and how it continues to pose the central problem of liberal politics, is the compelling subject of Steven M. Gillon's book. Tracing the rise of a younger, more visionary faction of reformers who attempted to forge a new liberal coalition in the 1960s, Gillon shows how the Vietnam War prompted many liberals to redefine modern liberalism, reconsider its agenda, and rethink the role of the coalition originally forged during the Great Depression.