The Truman Library Institute has selected Henry Wallace’s 1948 Presidential Campaign and the Future of Postwar Liberalism (University of North Carolina Press, 2013) by Thomas W. Devine as the winner of the 2014 Harry S. Truman Book Award competition.

The Harry S. Truman Book Award recognizes the Institute’s selection of the best book published within a two-year period that deals primarily with some aspect of the life or career of Harry S. Truman or the history of the United States during the Truman presidency.

Thomas Devine is a Professor of History at California State University, Northridge (CSUN). Specializing in American history—including 20th Century U.S., Cold War Thought and Culture, U.S. Foreign Policy, and Youth Culture—Dr. Devine teaches both undergraduate- and graduate-level courses. He is a recipient of the University’s Distinguished Teaching Award.

Dr. Jeffrey Gall, chair of the Harry S. Truman Book Award committee, explained why Professor Devine’s book was the standout among a field of twenty-one entries. “Thomas Devine writes what one committee member calls “the definitive history of the Progressive Party of 1948.” Another member calls Henry Wallace’s 1948 Presidential Campaign and the Future of Postwar Liberalism “political history at its best” and “a deeply thoughtful and courageous book.”

The committee has considered several excellent studies of the 1948 presidential campaign over the past few years, but believes Devine’s comprehensive treatment of Wallace’s failed effort adds significantly to our understanding of this political event and time period, and thus makes an important historical contribution.

Henry Wallace’s 1948 Presidential Campaign and the Future of Postwar Liberalism gives readers a complete look at Wallace and his supporters, a contingent some commentators have referred to as “Gideon’s Army.” From Wallace’s decision to challenge Truman, to the fight over his party’s platform, to the Progressive Party convention, to the candidate’s courageous tour through the American South in what the author paints as a sincere but naïve attempt to bring together African Americans and white working class voters, to his failure on election day, Thomas Devine provides readers with a compelling study of a campaign that achieved very limited success in the short term, but impacted politics dramatically during the long postwar period.”

Dr. Gall is a Professor of History at Truman State University. Other members of the Harry S. Truman Book Award committee are Nick Cullather, Professor of History, Indiana University at Bloomington; Alonzo L. Hamby, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of History, Ohio University; R. Crosby Kemper, III, Chief Executive Officer, Kansas City Public Library System; Bryan F. Le Beau, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, University of Saint Mary, Leavenworth, Kansas; and Michelle Mart, Associate Professor, The Pennsylvania State University.

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The Truman Library Institute is a private, not-for-profit organization that supports the Harry S. Truman Library and Museum in Independence, Missouri (one of thirteen presidential libraries administered by the National Archives and Records Administration). Since 1959, the Institute’s Research and Awards Program has given support to students and scholars who otherwise might find it financially difficult to travel to the Truman Library to conduct research. Funding, combined with the rich archival resources of the Truman Library, continues to facilitate the important writing of articles, theses, doctoral dissertations and books on the Truman era.