Don't Blame Us

Abstract

This book traces the reorientation of modern liberalism and the Democratic Party away from their roots in labor union halls of northern cities to white-collar professionals in postindustrial high-tech suburbs, and casts new light on the importance of suburban liberalism in modern American political culture. Focusing on the suburbs along the high-tech corridor of Route 128 around Boston, the book challenges conventional scholarly assessments of Massachusetts exceptionalism, the decline of liberalism, and suburban politics in the wake of the rise of the New Right and the Reagan Revolution in the 1970s and 1980s. Although only a small portion of the population, knowledge professionals in Massachusetts and elsewhere have come to wield tremendous political leverage and power. By probing the possibilities and limitations of these suburban liberals, this rich and nuanced account shows that—far from being an exception to national trends—the suburbs of Massachusetts offer a model for understanding national political realignment and suburban politics in the second half of the twentieth century.

From the outside in: suburban elites, third-sector organizations, and the reshaping of Philadelphia

“…2 Third, recent research indicates that suburbanites might provide an impetus for progressive policy change as the partisan composition of many American suburbs trends from Republican to Democratic. 3 Is there any evidence that suburban elites might be guiding at least some ThirdSector organizations in ways that benefit city dwellers, including those in underserved communities?…”

A “Most Conscientious and Considerate Method”: Residential Segregation and Integrationist Activism in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, 1960-1970

“…Unlike the open housing organizing historians have previously studied in elite, liberal locales such as Greensboro, North Carolina; suburban Boston; and Mount Airy, Philadelphia, Grosse Pointe represents an opposite case: a suburb notorious for its segregation. 75 Like their integrationist counterparts elsewhere, though, the HRC and OHC were concerned with African Americans' attainment of legal rights within existing institutions and on changing the hearts and minds of white Americans-what historian Abigail Perkiss refers to as a "Myrdalian vision of postwar racial justice." 76 Unlike the Point System, the HRC was mainly focused on fostering black-white integration, with little attention to whatever divisions existed among different ethnicities.…”

The Politics of the American Knowledge Economy

“…Clinton also astutely distanced himself from "Massachusetts liberal" Dukakis, while embracing virtually all of Dukakis's governing agenda. 120 Clinton's calculus paid dividends. He ultimately won the public endorsement of Xerox CEO Paul Allaire, Apple CEO John Sculley, Hewlett-Packard CEO John Young, and twenty-nine other IP executives.…”