1920

December 11, 2006
Pietrusza's (Rothstein) chronicle
\t\t of the presidential election of 1920 is absorbing, despite the subtitle's
\t\t rather tangential claim that the election involved six men who had served or
\t\t would serve as president: Harding, Wilson, Coolidge, Hoover and both Roosevelts
\t\t (though Teddy had died in 1919). This book isn't really about them, nor is it
\t\t merely the story of one electoral race. Rather, Pietrusza is telling a grander
\t\t tale, of a country toppling into "modernity, or what passed for it." In 1920,
\t\t the automobile had overtaken the horse, jazz and the fox-trot were replacing
\t\t the camp meeting as popular entertainment, people were learning to buy on
\t\t installment, and more and more of those fox-trotting shoppers lived in cities.
\t\t Presidential candidates, for the first time, courted women voters. (Democrat
\t\t Cox was divorced, which was expected to play badly with the fairer sex.) Both
\t\t parties waffled on the so-called race question, seeking black votes while
\t\t either tacitly or explicitly endorsing white supremacy. Given Harding's
\t\t electoral victory and death during his term, Pietrusza could have devoted more
\t\t space to the abiding importance of this election. All in all, Pietrusza has
\t\t produced a broad, satisfying political and social history, in the style of
\t\t Doris Kearns Goodwin. 16 pages of b&w illus.

February 15, 2007
Lest anyone get the wrong idea, the United States did "not" have six presidents in 1920. The author stretches the truth a bit to dramatize a historical anomaly: six mena sitting president, former president, and four eventual presidentscompeted in the 1920 presidential election. Actually, President Woodrow Wilson was physically incapacitated at the start of the year, and Theodore Roosevelt had died in 1919, but the legacies of both presidents shaped the 1920 election campaign. Pietrusza ("Rothstein: The Life, Times, and Murder of the Criminal Genius Who Fixed the 1919 World Series") sufficiently contends that this election marked the birth of modern American politics. Each of the main characters is introduced sequentially, with brief biographical information, beginning with Wilson and his failed attempt to have his League of Nations treaty adopted by the Senate, to TR and his split with Taft and the mainstream Republican Party, to Warren Harding, winner of the election, to Coolidge, Harding's vice president and successor upon death, to Hoover and finally FDR. Pietrusza wisely includes considerable information on Eugene Debs, the Socialist candidate that year. The many issues and forces that swirled during that time, from the fear of Communists and Socialists and the terrorism they allegedly perpetrated to technological advances and Prohibition, make for a fascinating and compelling tale of an often-overlooked election in our history. Highly recommended.Thomas J. Baldino, Wilkes Univ., Wilkes-Barre, PA

Copyright 2007 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2007
Under the slogan "Let us return to normalcy," Republican Warren Harding crushed Democrat James Cox in the 1920 presidential election. Taking the politics-minded back to that poll, this account handicaps the field of contestants for each major party's nomination. While not neglecting the third-party standard bearers, such as the Socialist Party's jailed Eugene Debs, Pietrusza homes in on the Republican and Democratic nomination races. Remember Leonard Wood? William McAdoo? They were the leading contenders in 1920, whose dark-horse rivals played for deadlocked party conventions and stampeded toward a compromise candidate. This political formula, with its smoke-filled rooms, sets up Pietrusza's narrative structure, which he fills in with relevant biography, headline news of 1920, incidents on the campaign trail, and contemporaries' acid commentary about the caliber of Harding and Cox. In addition to dramatizing the election's yielding, in various manners, of four future presidents (Harding, Coolidge, Hoover, and FDR), Pietrusza recounts how two past executives (Wilson and TR) strangely angled for one more term in 1920. An ably popular treatment that fans of campaign histories will enjoy.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2007, American Library Association.)