Hubert Humphrey championed and embodied liberalism like no other individual in mid-20th century American life. He was a political warrior who spent his career fighting for the great liberal causes of his day—civil rights above all, but also anti-poverty programs, public education, and a foreign policy that was both strongly anti-Communist and deeply committed to foreign aid and democracy promotion. Yet his political legacy and accomplishments are too often overshadowed by his shattering loss in the 1968 presidential election, which marked the end of an era of liberal optimism in the U.S.

In TRUE BELIEVER: Hubert Humphrey’s Quest for a More Just America (Basic Books; on sale: February 13, 2024), veteran journalist James Traub presents a full-length biography of liberalism’s most ardent and eloquent defender, capturing the depth of his idealism, pragmatism, and his committed to the pursuit of a better and more just society.

Hubert Humphrey was among a generation of liberals shaped by the Great Depression, the New Deal and World War II. He regarded civil rights and racial justice as the supreme moral cause of our post-war life. As a young politician in 1948, he defied segregationists and forced the Democratic Party to commit itself to civil rights, and as a senator in 1964, he made good on that commitment by helping pass the Civil Rights Act. Despite this great triumph, Humphrey lived to become one of liberalism’s great tragic figures. Vietnam wrecked his reputation. As Lyndon Johnson’s vice president, Humphrey cast his lot with the pro-war establishment, leaving him open to attacks from both the Left and the Right and ultimately contributing to his humiliating 1968 election defeat.

Yet it was not only the war that destroyed Humphrey’s hopes: In TRUE BELIEVER, Traub demonstrates that in 1968 white working-class voters abandoned the Democratic party over anger at civil rights and leftist activism. Here was the germ of the intense polarization, the populist anger and the racial embitterment of our own time. Yet Humphrey never despaired. In his final episode, as a member once again of the U.S. Senate, Humphrey sought a way to restore faith among working class voters and thus heal our racial wounds, aims that his party still seeks to this day. At a time when the Democratic Party again finds itself caught between progressives and populists, Humphrey’s life offers lessons for how liberalism might flourish once again.

James Traub has spent the last forty years as a journalist for America’s leading publications, including the New Yorker and the New York Times Magazine. He now teaches foreign policy and intellectual history at NYU Abu Dhabi and writes for Foreign Policy. He has authored eight previous books on foreign and domestic affairs. He lives in New York City.

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