TRUE BELIEVER: HUBERT HUMPHREY’S QUEST FOR A MORE JUST AMERICA by James Traub is the story of an idea, as much as the story of a man. Hubert Horatio Humphrey was a good man, a flawed man: a living avatar of the FDR coalition that began to come apart in 1968 and by the time of his death, in 1978, had lost its appeal in the American mainstream. I’m not a historian so I can’t critique particular details but I came of age in the 1960s, so Traub’s explanation of what was happening behind the scenes during this period was eye-opening. Everyone loves a good let’s-dish-on-LBJ story, and this book has a healthy share of that, especially his sadistic treatment of his Vice President. As a reader, I was always hoping for Humphrey to do the right thing. He often did, but the instances of when he compromised and especially his waffling on the Vietnam War is how I remembered him, prior to reading this book. The book has disappointingly limited information about Humphrey’s domestic life during his adult life and sometimes bogs down in details of people around him politically. But it was an invaluable corrective to some of my hazy memories from the 1960s and 1970s and a crucial reminder to view today’s politics in this wider frame of liberalism, its failures and successes.

With thanks to Basic Books and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review