Summer Reading for Potus Geeks: Also-Rans
Some of the men who ran for president but fell short also have pretty interesting stories that make for good summer reading. Off the top of my head I've just selected six books that you might want to check out for something a little different. The last two are especially of interest because they concerns candidates not of the mainstream parties. Here are a few suggestions:
1. Henry Clay: The Essential American by David and Jeanne Heidler: Poor Henry Clay, always a bridesmaid, never a bride. He ran for president three times, finishing last in a four candidate race in 1824, and losing to Andrew Jackson in 1832 and to James K. Polk in 1844. He also sought in party's nomination twice, in 1840 and 1848, but failed to secure it in these the two years that the Whigs actually won the big prize. Despite all of these losses, he is still considered to be the Great Compromiser, a canny and colorful legislator whose life parallels the story of his nation from its founding until the eve of the Civil War. He was Speaker of the House, senator, secretary of state, presidential candidate, and idol to the young Congressman Abraham Lincoln. The book presents Clay in his early years as a witty, and optimistic Virginia farm boy who at the age of twenty becomes an attorney. The authors describe Clay's amazing political career, including his participation in the deadlocked election of 1824, his marriage of 53 years to plain, wealthy Lucretia Hart, a union that produced eleven children. The book's supporting cast includes Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Andrew Jackson and Abraham Lincoln. It is well written and full of interesting anecdotes and insights about the man who, though never president, changed the lives of millions of Americans.
2. Thomas Dewey and His Times by Richard Norton Smith: Thomas Dewey lost the race for the presidency twice - in 1944 and 1948. The second time he was predicted to be the winner right up to election day. Smith tells not only these stories, but also about Dewey's life as a crusading, crime-busting district attorney, a successful Governor of New York and the man who modernized the Republican Party and allowed it to emerge from the Depression years. Dewey was a workaholic who graduated from the University of Michigan and Columbia University Law School in the 1920's. He briefly considered a career as a singer (apparently he had an amazing baritone singing voice) but decided that the law would be a more stable career. In 1928, he married a stage actress and began a promising legal career in New York City and in 1939 he bought a large farm 65 miles north of Manhattan and became a weekend gentleman farmer. Smith ably explains why, despite Dewey's honesty, intelligence, and leadership skills he was never able to win the White House. Smith drawn upon many wonderful quotes (Dewey's secretary said of her boss, "he was as cold as a February icicle"). He also describes the Republican Party in its wilderness years. The first chapter covering Election Night in 1948 is worth the price of the book alone. Smith's biography explains that there are many more dimensions to Dewey than history generally remembers.
3. Bryan: A Political Biography by Louis W. Koenig: Much like Henry Clay, William Jennings Bryan also took a number of unsuccessful runs at the presidency, losing twice to William McKinley, and finally to William Howard Taft. In this book Koenig tells the story of the young orator from Nebraska who won the hearts and minds of those attening the Democratic Presidential convention of 1896 with his Cross of Gold speech, and his career in between, up to his humiliating defeat by Clarence Darrow in the Scopes trial. This biography explores the life of the Great Populist whose ideas were often considered to be decades ahead of their time. The author notes how Bryan was the first Presidential candidate of a major party to advocate such reforms as the breaking up of trusts, the direct election of United States Senators, the graduated income tax, the regulation of banks and railroads, and female suffrage. This is the story of how Bryan was denounced from pulpits, attacked as a madman and anarchist by the establishment press and vilified by industry for the ideas he espoused.
4. Continental Liar from the State of Maine by Neil Rolde: "Blaine, Blaine, James G. Blaine, continental liar from the state of Maine!" So went an opposition taunt against the Republican Candidate who ran against Grover Cleveland in 1884, coming within less than 1100 votes of becoming the President (the margin by which he lost New York State). It has been called the dirtiest campaign in American history, with accusations of bad behavior lobbed in both directions. But there is more to the story of the man who may have been the most powerful politician of the Gilded Age. He was the secretary of state twice, he is credited with having pushed his nation on the path to becoming a world power, he was a powerful speaker of the house in Congress, and a United States senator. To his opponents he was Nixonian, hated even by certain members of his own party, while earning the strong support and admiration of many others. This is a fascinating biography of a man who dominated the American political stage for the last half of the nineteenth century.
5. Democracy's Prisoner: Eugene V. Debs, the Great War, and the Right to Dissent by Ernest Freeburg: Socialist Eugene V. Debs ran for President five times, the last time running his campaign from an Atlanta penitentiary, where he was incarcerated because he spoke out against the draft. Though labelled a criminal, Debs was beloved both by his fellow inmates as well as by his jailors, who allowed him to campaign from his prison cell. Many called Debs a traitor, but many others praised him as a man of conscience and a martyr to the cause of free speech. Nearly a million Americans voted for the man whom the government had branded an enemy to his country. Author Ernest Freeberg shows how the campaign to send Debs from an Atlanta jailhouse to the White House was part of a larger debate over the right to free speech in wartime. Debs was one of thousands of Americans arrested for speaking his mind during the war, while government censors silenced newspapers and magazines. In this excellent narrative, Freeberg tells us about an extraordinary episode in the history of free speech in America.
6. Notorious Victoria: The Life of Victoria Woodhull, Uncensored by Mary Gabriel: Victoria Woodhull was the first woman to run for president. What is more remarkable is that she did so at a time when women did not have the vote. She was also the first woman to address the U.S. Congress, and the first to operate a brokerage firm on Wall Street. Gloria Steinem once called her "the most controversial suffragist of them all." In this book, journalist Mary Gabriel provides a comprehensive account of one of history's most fascinating women, someone who, in an era of Victorian morality, was the most radical voice for women's equality.
Any of these books about any of these fascinating lives would make for great summer reading.
1. Henry Clay: The Essential American by David and Jeanne Heidler: Poor Henry Clay, always a bridesmaid, never a bride. He ran for president three times, finishing last in a four candidate race in 1824, and losing to Andrew Jackson in 1832 and to James K. Polk in 1844. He also sought in party's nomination twice, in 1840 and 1848, but failed to secure it in these the two years that the Whigs actually won the big prize. Despite all of these losses, he is still considered to be the Great Compromiser, a canny and colorful legislator whose life parallels the story of his nation from its founding until the eve of the Civil War. He was Speaker of the House, senator, secretary of state, presidential candidate, and idol to the young Congressman Abraham Lincoln. The book presents Clay in his early years as a witty, and optimistic Virginia farm boy who at the age of twenty becomes an attorney. The authors describe Clay's amazing political career, including his participation in the deadlocked election of 1824, his marriage of 53 years to plain, wealthy Lucretia Hart, a union that produced eleven children. The book's supporting cast includes Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Andrew Jackson and Abraham Lincoln. It is well written and full of interesting anecdotes and insights about the man who, though never president, changed the lives of millions of Americans.
2. Thomas Dewey and His Times by Richard Norton Smith: Thomas Dewey lost the race for the presidency twice - in 1944 and 1948. The second time he was predicted to be the winner right up to election day. Smith tells not only these stories, but also about Dewey's life as a crusading, crime-busting district attorney, a successful Governor of New York and the man who modernized the Republican Party and allowed it to emerge from the Depression years. Dewey was a workaholic who graduated from the University of Michigan and Columbia University Law School in the 1920's. He briefly considered a career as a singer (apparently he had an amazing baritone singing voice) but decided that the law would be a more stable career. In 1928, he married a stage actress and began a promising legal career in New York City and in 1939 he bought a large farm 65 miles north of Manhattan and became a weekend gentleman farmer. Smith ably explains why, despite Dewey's honesty, intelligence, and leadership skills he was never able to win the White House. Smith drawn upon many wonderful quotes (Dewey's secretary said of her boss, "he was as cold as a February icicle"). He also describes the Republican Party in its wilderness years. The first chapter covering Election Night in 1948 is worth the price of the book alone. Smith's biography explains that there are many more dimensions to Dewey than history generally remembers.
3. Bryan: A Political Biography by Louis W. Koenig: Much like Henry Clay, William Jennings Bryan also took a number of unsuccessful runs at the presidency, losing twice to William McKinley, and finally to William Howard Taft. In this book Koenig tells the story of the young orator from Nebraska who won the hearts and minds of those attening the Democratic Presidential convention of 1896 with his Cross of Gold speech, and his career in between, up to his humiliating defeat by Clarence Darrow in the Scopes trial. This biography explores the life of the Great Populist whose ideas were often considered to be decades ahead of their time. The author notes how Bryan was the first Presidential candidate of a major party to advocate such reforms as the breaking up of trusts, the direct election of United States Senators, the graduated income tax, the regulation of banks and railroads, and female suffrage. This is the story of how Bryan was denounced from pulpits, attacked as a madman and anarchist by the establishment press and vilified by industry for the ideas he espoused.
4. Continental Liar from the State of Maine by Neil Rolde: "Blaine, Blaine, James G. Blaine, continental liar from the state of Maine!" So went an opposition taunt against the Republican Candidate who ran against Grover Cleveland in 1884, coming within less than 1100 votes of becoming the President (the margin by which he lost New York State). It has been called the dirtiest campaign in American history, with accusations of bad behavior lobbed in both directions. But there is more to the story of the man who may have been the most powerful politician of the Gilded Age. He was the secretary of state twice, he is credited with having pushed his nation on the path to becoming a world power, he was a powerful speaker of the house in Congress, and a United States senator. To his opponents he was Nixonian, hated even by certain members of his own party, while earning the strong support and admiration of many others. This is a fascinating biography of a man who dominated the American political stage for the last half of the nineteenth century.
5. Democracy's Prisoner: Eugene V. Debs, the Great War, and the Right to Dissent by Ernest Freeburg: Socialist Eugene V. Debs ran for President five times, the last time running his campaign from an Atlanta penitentiary, where he was incarcerated because he spoke out against the draft. Though labelled a criminal, Debs was beloved both by his fellow inmates as well as by his jailors, who allowed him to campaign from his prison cell. Many called Debs a traitor, but many others praised him as a man of conscience and a martyr to the cause of free speech. Nearly a million Americans voted for the man whom the government had branded an enemy to his country. Author Ernest Freeberg shows how the campaign to send Debs from an Atlanta jailhouse to the White House was part of a larger debate over the right to free speech in wartime. Debs was one of thousands of Americans arrested for speaking his mind during the war, while government censors silenced newspapers and magazines. In this excellent narrative, Freeberg tells us about an extraordinary episode in the history of free speech in America.
6. Notorious Victoria: The Life of Victoria Woodhull, Uncensored by Mary Gabriel: Victoria Woodhull was the first woman to run for president. What is more remarkable is that she did so at a time when women did not have the vote. She was also the first woman to address the U.S. Congress, and the first to operate a brokerage firm on Wall Street. Gloria Steinem once called her "the most controversial suffragist of them all." In this book, journalist Mary Gabriel provides a comprehensive account of one of history's most fascinating women, someone who, in an era of Victorian morality, was the most radical voice for women's equality.
Any of these books about any of these fascinating lives would make for great summer reading.