Politics today doesn't look much like it did fifty years ago. Electorates that were once divided by economics--with blue-collar workers supporting leftwing parties while the wealthy trended right--are now more likely to split along cultural lines. Campaigns have gone high-tech, hoping to use big data and sophisticated mathematical models to turn electioneering into a science. Meanwhile, a permanent class of political consultants has emerged, replacing the ward-heeling party hacks of yesteryear with teams of pollsters, message gurus, and field operatives. Taken together, all this amounts to a silent revolution that has transformed politics across much of the globe.

The two leading political consultants in their time who have led this transformation are Stan Greenberg and Doug Schoen. They were Zeligs of the international center-left, with an eerie talent for showing up at just the right moment to see history being made. But they could not stand each other. The mutual disdain was, partly, a result of professional jealousy, of decades spent nursing private grievances while competing for the same clients. But it grew out of a deeper conflict, a clash of political visions that raised fundamental questions about democracy itself. Left Adrift is about that battle--and the world it made.

Tim Shenk is an assistant professor of history at George Washington University and co-editor of Dissent, the longest running democratic socialist journal in the United States. His last book, Realigners: Partisan Hacks, Political Visionaries, and the Struggle to Rule American Democracy, is now out in paperback.

Shenk will be in conversation with E.J. Dionne Jr.. Dionne is a distinguished university professor in the Foundations of Democracy and Culture at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy, and a senior fellow and W. Averell Harriman Chair in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution. He is also a syndicated columnist for the Washington Post. He is the author or co-author of nine books including, most recently, 100% Democracy: The Case for Universal Voting, coauthored with Miles Rapoport. Others include New York Times Bestseller Why the Right Went Wrong, Our Divided Political Heart, and Why Americans Hate Politics. He is the co-editor with John DiIluio of What’s God Got to Do With the American Experiment?  His media career also includes 20 years with NPR, and 14 with the New York Times, including stints in Paris, Beirut, and Rome.

This event is free with first come, first serve seating.