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1920: The Year of the Six Presidents | 
 enlarge | Author: David Pietrusza
Publisher: Basic Books
Category: Book
List Price: $18.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  26 reviews
Sales Rank: 627770
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 592
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.4
ISBN: 0786721022
Dewey Decimal Number: 973
EAN: 9780786721023
ASIN: 0786721022
Publication Date: April 7, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Condition: New Book. Fast Shipping. May have small remainder mark.
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Product Description
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.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 21 more reviews...
 Great Election Year Story July 24, 2008
You have probably been wondering if you were ever going to see a book review again from me. I admit, I have not been reading much lately. I won't bore you with my excuses, but I have been busy. It's a fun read. There were six presidents (past and future) involved in the 1920 election and we get glimpses of each of them. This election tale is especially interesting given the amount of hoopla surrounding the 2008 election.
The book starts off well, but once Harding is chosen as the Republican nominee (did this give it away?) the book spends several chapters not going anywhere - mainly other side issues in the election itself. Interesting, but not a compelling read. Overall, I enjoyed it and learned a little bit too.
A very good history of its subject May 19, 2008
Pietrusza has written a very good account of the 1920 American Presidential election. It is not a general history of the era; other events are only mentioned as background to the election. As Pietrusza notes, there were six men involved in the 1920 election who were, had been, or would be President: Wilson, the incumbent who wanted a third term; Theodore Roosevelt, who was the Republican front-runner at the time of his death; Hoover, who was sought as a candidate by both major parties; Harding and Coolidge, who were the eventual Republican Presidential and Vice-Presidential nominees; and Franklin Roosevelt, the Democratic Vice-Presidential nominee. Pietrusza also includes other major figures like Carrie Chapman Catt, James Cox, Eugene Debs, Henry Ford, Marcus Garvey, Will Hays, William Randolph Hearst, Frank Lowden, William McAdoo, Mitchell Palmer, and Leonard Wood. Pietrusza's work is well written and well informed - perhaps surprisingly so as most of his past books have been about baseball not politics.
I'd only offer two caveats: One is that Pietrusza's account is slanted towards the right - he doesn't ignore the faults of Republicans but he generally downplays them while focusing more attention on the faults of the Democrats. There are frequent descriptions of the personality flaws and deceitful acts of Wilson, Cox, and FDR while the equivalent descriptions of Coolidge, Harding, and Hoover are more likely to mention their virtues and cases where they followed their principles. The bias isn't overwhelming - the good and bad of both sides get mentioned - but the balance is tilted to the right.
My second caveat is a more trivial one - Pietrusza has a habit of inserting punctuation into quotes in a particularly obtrusive manner. A quote like "I may not be able to say all I think but I am not going to say anything I do not think" will be printed as "I may not be able to say all I think[,] but I am not going to say anything I do not think". Ideally, Pietrusza should have left the original text alone. If he couldn't bear to do so, he should have gone ahead and added the punctuation directly into it. His repeated use of bracketed commas is jarring.
a smoke-filled room March 3, 2008
This book focuses on the presidential election of 1920. It goes into extroadinary depth on the subject and sheds light on our confusing and corrupt 'democratic' traditions, where wealthy, powerful men choose mediocre 'yes men' behind closed doors as party candidates. Before smoking bans, these places were called 'smoke filled rooms'. Warren Harding, tangible proof that the superdelegate system is complete crap, floats to the top of the political septic tank and gets scooped up for the election. For another interesting read on Harding and this time period, see:
Alcohol, Boat Chases, and Shootouts! How the U.S. Coast Guard and Customs Fought Rum Smugglers and Pirates (Part I: 1919-1924)
 A Snapshot Of America March 2, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
The Election of 1920 is unique in American history. Never before had so many men who either had been, or one day would be, President vied for the office at the same time.
But for an untimely death, Theodore Roosevelt would have been the presumptive Republican nominee and, given the political conditions of the time, probably would have returned to the White House. In the White House, Woodrow Wilson remained felled by a stroke but stubbornly held onto power and the idea that he could run for a third term. From New York, a young, vigorous Franklin D. Roosevelt laid the groundwork for what would become the longest Presidency in history. Herbert Hoover, the hero of wartime procurement and post-war famine relief, struggled to with the idea of whether he was a Republican or a Democrat. Up in Massachusetts, a mild-mannered Calvin Coolidge was on the verge of shocking everyone. And, in Ohio, Warren G. Harding, a man with a past so checked that he couldn't possibly be considered a viable candidate today, was convinced by party insiders that he could in fact be President of the United States.
In 1920: The Year Of The Six Presidents, David Pietrusza tells the story of this election, but, more than that, he tells the story of what was happening in America in the years after World War One and on the cusp of the Jazz Age. Through it all, Piestruza weaves together a compelling narrative that brings to life events whose consequences reverberated through the 20th Century.
There are plenty of surprises here. The stubbornness with which the ailing Woodrow Wilson, who probably should have been removed from office to begin with, pursued the idea of a third term in office (to the point where he was willing to sabotage the campaigns of Democratic rivals) was rather shocking, but it was also consistent with the unbending, uncompromising zeal with which he pursued the doomed League of Nations. Similarly, the star power of Herbert Hoover, who is remembered by history as one of America's great failed Presidents, is something that is missing from the version of history that is popular today. There was even, at the time, a suggestion that Hoover would run as a Democrat on a ticket with Franklin D. Roosevelt, the man who would replace him in 1932.
Pietrusza also writes about the great social issues of the day and how they impacted the Presidential election. Prohibition, once the cause of religious leaders and gadflys, had become so popular that even previously "wet" politicians felt compelled to support it and, in Harding's case, vote for the 18th Amendment in the Senate. Women's suffrage, which had been largely ignored by the Wilson Administration, picked up steam; but nobody really knew how it might affect the 1920 election. And, of course, race was an issue. Not just in the South but everywhere and, at one point, a crackpot Ohio college professor, aided by state Democrats, published several anonymous tracts claiming that Harding was 1/8th negro.
There are other stories throughout the book that bring the era to life. William Howard Taft meeting his old friend and rival Theodore Roosevelt in a Chicago hotel dining room and then crying publicly at TR's funeral in 1919. Eugene Debs sitting in an Atlanta Federal Prison while running what would prove to be the last Socialist Party Presidential campaign. Warren Harding having at least two affairs prior to running for office, one of which resulted in a child, and Franklin Roosevelt doing the same including one incident that resulted in the woman in question sailing to Europe, never to return.
I should also mention Calvin Coolidge. Silent Cal has generally been derided and dismissed by historians, but this books brings him to life and shows him to be a decent, honorable, hard-working man of the people.
There's more, of course, but you get the idea. This book is well-written, well-researched (except for a few mis-statements that clearly were missed by the editor such as when the 17th Amendment is mistakenly referred to as the 16th Amendment) and flows much faster than its 438 pages might indicate. It's well worth the time of anyone interested in American political history.
A very good effort February 23, 2008
Positives - covers the year it claims to cover well, including the cultural elements that shaped the election. Prose is entertaining as well as education. My, it was both a different time in terms of viewpoints, yet so similar to our own modern political mudslinging.
Negatives - Very focused on the six presidents, to the detriment of interesting side characters. This is a loose concept anyways, as TR died in 1919. Could have discussed a little more detail into the implications of the 1920 election, instead of just recounting the tale of Cal's swearing in and some other moments. A bit biased towards Coolidge and Hoover and against FDR (after all, the author sits on a Coolidge memorial board, so I am surprised there is not MORE bias). The Navy "gay chapter" was a bit uncalled for, should have just been included with the other smearing and scandals of the time.
Overall, worth a trip to the bargain bin, if you are interested in the era.
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