1920 The Year of Six Presidents (Audible Audio Edition) David Pietrusza Paul Boehmer Audible Studios Books
Download As PDF : 1920 The Year of Six Presidents (Audible Audio Edition) David Pietrusza Paul Boehmer Audible Studios Books
The presidential election of 1920 was among history's most dramatic. Six once-and-future presidents--Wilson, Harding, Coolidge, Hoover, and Teddy and Franklin Roosevelt--jockeyed for the White House. With voters choosing between Wilson's League of Nations and Harding's front-porch isolationism, the 1920 election shaped modern America. Women won the vote. Republicans outspent Democrats by 4 to 1, as voters witnessed the first extensive newsreel coverage, modern campaign advertising, and results broadcast on radio. America had become an urban nation Automobiles, mass production, chain stores, and easy credit transformed the economy. 1920 paints a vivid portrait of America, beset by the Red Scare, jailed dissidents, Prohibition, smoke-filled rooms, bomb-throwing terrorists, and the Klan, gingerly crossing modernity's threshold.
1920 The Year of Six Presidents (Audible Audio Edition) David Pietrusza Paul Boehmer Audible Studios Books
David Pietrusza writes very well, which makes this book an easy and enjoyable read. The book is focused on the lead up to the 1920 election and the lives of the six presidents--Harding, Coolidge, Hoover, FDR, TR, and Wilson--who were important actors in that election. Although Teddy Roosevelt actually died (unexpectedly) in 1919, including him makes sense because, at least according to Pietrusza, at the time of his death he was favored to win the 1920 Republican nomination.Like most recent books, Pietrusza takes a dim view of Wilson, who brought Jim Crow to Washington, DC and the federal government, among other shortcomings. I hadn't realized that Wilson's health was precarious as early as his time as president of Princeton.
Like most good popular history, the book is filled with telling anecdotes. My guess is that anyone who is familiar with the period will find little that is new, although because I had only a rough familiarity with the events, I learned quite a lot.
Pietrusza relies heavily on existing accounts, although he does seem to have done research in newspapers of the time and indicates in his acknowledgements that he did some archival work. I didn't see much evidence of archival work in the narrative or the notes, although I wasn't expecting that the book would plow much new ground.
I would expect that anyone interested in U.S. political history during the first two decades of the twentieth century will enjoy this book.
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1920 The Year of Six Presidents (Audible Audio Edition) David Pietrusza Paul Boehmer Audible Studios Books Reviews
As an America Studies major and long time teacher of 20th century history, this was a book I had to read. This is certainly not the first election story since Theodore H. White set the example as to how to cover an election. Pietrusza did not surpass White, but he did write a fine book. I had not realized how many presidents past, present and future were around in 1920 so I read with great interest. (He did not include Taft in the count since he did not want to be president again. Harding, the winner of the 1920 election, will nominate Taft to the Supreme Court.) While I suppose the election is covered well--It did seem well research--the impact on the future was not clear. For example, the author kept referring to Harding's warmth and friendliness without explaining that his failure to read the low-character of men like McAdoo and Fall would taint his term in office with a major scandal which Harding would not have to deal with only because he died. Now you need to read about the Teapot Dome Scandal. Pietrusza seemed to want to write a tell-all approach on Harding and FDR's affairs, but since people at the time knew nothing about them, they were not a political issue for either man. Why put them in a book about the election? I seem very negative about the book, and I do not mean to be so. I learned or was reminded about the big issues of isolationism, racism, and women's suffrage. I had not realized how close the nation came to rejecting the suffrage amendment--one man in Tennessee made the difference! How amazing! I urge readers to follow this story with Frederick Lewis Allen's book Only Yesterday. This is the best story of the decade of the Roaring 20's and includes a chapter on Teapot Dome and other topics which 1920 will encourage you to learn more about.
Author David Pietrusza has become a prolific writer of American history. This work on the 1920's is particularly impressive--scholarly in its treatment (you'll see what occurred from opposing parts) with little or no discernible bias often found in historian's work. You'll also find an enjoyable dry quip at the end of each chapter.
My characterizations notwithstanding, the author covers the six men coveting the Presidency for the 1920 election TR (the Bully), Wilson (the Nut), Harding, Coolidge, Hoover, and FDR.
A seventh, Taft, was alive too and he is more than mentioned although it is clear he no longer covets the job.
It's an extraordinary time and you will learn more details on this 20-year period (1912-1932) than your high school or college history course can cover in a semester.
In reading, you'll learn Wall Street was bombed and that Sacco and Vanzetti were guilty, Harding was a womanizer and where the allegations that he was black came from, Wilson was detached from reality and even though he was in a disabled state wanted badly a third term; that TR, Coolidge and Hoover started as progressives and became conservative, and Wilson and FDR both became progressive. You'll also find that FDR was a womanizer as well and too full of himself, like Wilson, to be effective.
Herein lie 6 portraits of undeniably great Americans, their strengths and shortcomings, their wives, and with detail to enrich your understanding of the roaring twenties and that which led to feckless government during the great depression.
This is a better prelude to Amity Schlaes, The Forgotten Man, than Schlaes' own, Coolidge, which is a good start in its own right.
Am also reading Pietrusza's, Silent Cal's Almanack, right now. It's clear there's something to be learned from someone who quietly gets the work done and quite alot to learn about the roaring 20's including the good, the bad, and the downright ugly.
I bought the book in my capacity as the coach for my High School's Academic Social Studies team this year. Pleasantly, the book was a good read. In the past there have been one or two books the state has picked for the topic which read like stereo instructions. It was full of intrigue and a glimpse into a way of choosing the presidential candidates at the primary that doesn't happen anymore. Several men who may or may not be household names such as Warren G Harding and Calvin Coolidge were fleshed out for the modern audience, and it was fascinating to see how that time and that election continue to reverberate through time to this day. I also enjoyed the author's summary of the key players and what became of them. I will continue to read more from this author (such as his book on the 1948 election) after being introduced to him here with this educational and highly readable tome.
David Pietrusza writes very well, which makes this book an easy and enjoyable read. The book is focused on the lead up to the 1920 election and the lives of the six presidents--Harding, Coolidge, Hoover, FDR, TR, and Wilson--who were important actors in that election. Although Teddy Roosevelt actually died (unexpectedly) in 1919, including him makes sense because, at least according to Pietrusza, at the time of his death he was favored to win the 1920 Republican nomination.
Like most recent books, Pietrusza takes a dim view of Wilson, who brought Jim Crow to Washington, DC and the federal government, among other shortcomings. I hadn't realized that Wilson's health was precarious as early as his time as president of Princeton.
Like most good popular history, the book is filled with telling anecdotes. My guess is that anyone who is familiar with the period will find little that is new, although because I had only a rough familiarity with the events, I learned quite a lot.
Pietrusza relies heavily on existing accounts, although he does seem to have done research in newspapers of the time and indicates in his acknowledgements that he did some archival work. I didn't see much evidence of archival work in the narrative or the notes, although I wasn't expecting that the book would plow much new ground.
I would expect that anyone interested in U.S. political history during the first two decades of the twentieth century will enjoy this book.
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