Oligarchs and Workers: The Democratic Party in the Last Century

With Democrats immersed in soul searching over what went wrong in 2024, historian Steve Babson will put the party’s identity crisis in context, identifying the key turning points when Democrats won a mass base in working class America— and then lost it. Since the Depression decade of the 1930s, when mass protest forced the Democrats into a shotgun marriage with militant workers, the party’s dominant elites have struggled with a diverse and changing base over the party’s stance on labor, civil rights, and corporate globalization. A lively discussion is anticipated!

Program will be on Saturday, January 25th from 3-5pm in the Galleria Room of the Main Branch.

Host or Publisher Main | Detroit Public Library