The Reading Warehouse

If post-1960s America belongs to the conservative movement, Andelic asks, how do we account for the failure of so much of the conservative agenda--especially the shrinking of the federal government? Examining the Democratic Party's unusual durability in Congress after 1974, Donkey Work disrupts the narrative of inexorable liberal decline since the 1970s and reveals the ways in which liberalism and conservatism actually developed in tandem. The book traces the evolution of ideologies within the Democratic Party, particularly the emergence of "neoliberalism," suggesting that this political philosophy was as much an anticipation of America's "right turn" as a reaction to it; as factions vied for control of the party, Congress itself both strengthened and weakened liberal resistance to the conservative movement.

By putting the focus on Congress and legislative politics, in contrast to the "presidential synthesis" that dominates US political history, Andelic's book offers a new, deeply informed perspective on two turbulent decades of American politics--a perspective that alters and expands our understanding of how we arrived at our present political moment.