Free Library Event: Daniel Schlozman & Sam Rosenfeld, "The Hollow Parties"

Event Title: Daniel Schlozman and Sam Rosenfeld, The Hollow Parties: The Many Pasts and Disordered Present of American Party Politics Date & Time: Tues., May 21, 2023; 7:30 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. EST Cost: Pay As You Wish - however, you'll still need to register: [hidden] Books will be available for purchase at the library on event night. A book signing will follow the presentation. This program is free and open to the public and will meet in the auditorium of Parkway Central Library. Please use Wood Street entrance/exit. About the Author and the Book: In The Hollow Parties, Daniel Schlozman and Sam Rosenfeld present a comprehensive history of the rise of American mass party politics through the Jacksonian era up through the years of Barack Obama to the presidency of Donald Trump. They posit that today’s Democrat and Republican parties, at once overbearing and ineffectual, have emerged from the interplay of multiple party traditions that reach back to the founding, and they offer a vision for how these groups might fulfill their promise. The authors paint unforgettable portraits of figures such as Martin Van Buren, whose pioneering Democrats invented the machinery of the mass political party, and Abraham Lincoln and other heroic Republicans of that party’s first generation who stood up to the Slave Power. And they show how today’s fractious party politics arose from the ashes of the New Deal order in the 1970s. Activists in the wake of the 1968 Democratic National Convention transformed presidential nominations but failed to lay the foundations for robust, movement-driven parties. Instead, modern American conservatism hollowed out the party system, deeming it a mere instrument for power. An associate professor of political science at Johns Hopkins University, Daniel Schlozman studies political parties, American political development, social movements, and political history. He is the author of When Movements Anchor Parties: Electoral Alignments in American History (2015), a member of the Scholars Strategy Network, and a trustee of the Maryland Center for Economic Policy. Sam Rosenfeld is an associate professor of political science at Colgate University, where he researches party politics and American political development. He is the author of The Polarizers: Postwar Architects of Our Partisan Era (2017), and his writing has also appeared in The American Prospect, The New Republic, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Vox, among many other places. NOTE: The authors will be in conversation with Pennsylvania State Senator, Nikil Saval (D), who's also the author of Cubed: A Secret History of the Workplace (2014). About the Free Library Author Events: The Author Events program at the Free Library of Philadelphia offers the opportunity to engage in meaningful dialogue with today’s most celebrated voices in the humanities and sciences. For more information, call the Author Events Office at [hidden] or email [hidden] or go to [hidden] ......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... More Info below.