It is less than ninety days until election day in the United States, when Democrats hope to achieve one of the biggest sweeps of Congressional seats in recent American history. Many of these Democratic hopefuls are veterans. As longtime political strategist Joe Trippi put it back in March, these are candidates who are new to the electoral arena, people who “served the country without worrying about who’s a Democrat and who’s a Republican” and just want to “get the damn thing done.” And a record-breaking 40% of the Democratic House candidates this primary season are women, some of them veterans as well.

If the Democrats’ hopes are fulfilled, will this be unprecedented? Not really. On July 24 2018, we published an excerpt from a book written by historian John Lawrence, former chief of staff for Speaker Nancy Pelosi. In The Class of `74: Congress after Watergate and the Roots of Partisanship (Johns Hopkins, 2018), Lawrence tracks this earlier revolution, its achievements, and its flaws.

John sat down to talk to us about the book this week, and its implications for our current political situation.

To read this interview, published at Public Seminar on August 15, 2018, click here.