Summer Reading for Potus Geeks: Political Nastiness
For those who believe that nastiness in presidential elections are a product of the recent past, guess again. Name-calling and dirty tricks have been around since the first contested election of 1800. Here are a few suggestions for summer reading for those who want to know more about the unseemly side of past election campaigns.
Anything For a Vote by Joseph Cummins: The author dispels the myth that dirty politics are something new. He looks at every contested presidential election and reviews all of the smear campaigns and bad behavior in past presidential elections. Some of the more ridiculous and outrageous incidents include the campaign of 1836 when Congressman Davy Crockett accused candidate Martin Van Buren of secretly wearing women’s clothing (“He is laced up in corsets!” Crockett told his audience). Full of sleazy and shameless anecdotes from every presidential electionthis book is a valuable reminder that history does repeat itself and even the most famous presidents are not above reproach when it comes to the dirtiest game of all—political campaigning.
Adams vs. Jefferson: The Tumultuous Election of 1800 by John Ferling: This was a nasty one. John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, two heroes of the Revolutionary era, former friends, now bitter enemies, were locked in a fierce battle between the Federalists and the Republicans. The election of 1800 became even more bitter as it ended in a deadlocked Electoral College and led to a crisis in which the young republic teetered on the edge of collapse. Federalists, led by Adams, were conservatives who favored a strong central government. Republicans, led by Jefferson, accused the Federalists of betraying the Revolution of 1776 and backsliding toward monarchy. The campaign itself was filled with mud-slinging, scare tactics, and backstabbing. The low point came when Alexander Hamilton printed a devastating attack on Adams, the head of his own party. Tensions ran so high that the Republicans threatened civil war if the Federalists denied Jefferson the presidency. Ferling's pages bring to life all the outsized personalities and the hotly contested political issues. He shows not only why this moment was important in its time, but how strongly these issues and conflicts resonate with our own time.
The Birth of Modern Politics: Andrew Jackson, John Quincy Adams, and the Election of 1828 by Lynn Hudson Parsons: The 1828 presidential election pitted Major General Andrew Jackson against incumbent John Quincy Adams. It was the contest in which an uneducated, hot-tempered Tennessee frontiersman, hailed by his supporters as a genuine man of the people, defeated a New England "aristocrat" whose education and political résumé were as impressive as any ever seen in American public life. It was also the election that introduced a number of campaign tactics, including coordinated media, get-out-the-vote efforts, fund-raising, organized rallies, opinion polling, campaign paraphernalia, ethnic voting blocs, "opposition research," and smear tactics. This book reveals how, despite their vastly different backgrounds, the two opponents began with many of the same values, admired one another, and had often been allies in common causes. But by 1828, they were plunged into a heated competition that ushered in a style of politics that is still with us today.
Fraud of the Century: Rutherford B. Hayes, Samuel Tilden, and the Stolen Election of 1876 by Roy Morris Jr.: This was the closest and most controversial election in US history, even closer than Bush v. Gore. The bitter 1876 contest between Ohio Republican Governor Rutherford B. Hayes and New York Democratic Governor Samuel Tilden was considered by some to be a symbolic and metaphoric final battle of the Civil War. Although Tilden received about 265,000 more popular votes than Hayes, and needed only one more electoral vote for victory, contested returns in three southern states still under Republican-controlled Reconstruction governments ultimately led to Hayes's being declared the winner after four tense months of political warfare and threats of violence that brought armed troops into the streets of the nation's capital.
Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion: The Making of a President, 1884 by Mark Wahlgren Summers: In the presidential election of 1884, Grover Cleveland ended the Democrats' twenty-four-year presidential drought by defeating Republican challenger James G. Blaine. It is an election remembered less for its political significance than for the mudslinging and slander that characterized the campaign. Summers examines this election and looks not only at its vitriol but also at the evolution in politics that came about as a result.
The Eighteen-Day Running Mate: McGovern, Eagleton, and a Campaign in Crisis by Joshua Glasser: Today vice-presidential candidates go through a thorough vetting process, but in 1972, Democratic candidate George McGovern took the word of his running mate Thomas Eagleton that the latter had no skeletons in his closet. When opposition research uncovered Eagleton's psychiatric history, McGovern convinced his Democratic vice-presidential running mate to withdraw from the ticket. This fascinating book tells the full story behind Eagleton's rise and fall as a national candidate. Within days of Eagleton's nomination, anonymous sources brought to light his history of hospitalizations for “nervous exhaustion and depression” and past treatment with electroshock therapy. Glasser investigates a campaign in disarray and explores the perspectives of the campaign’s key players, how decisions were made and who made them, how cultural attitudes toward mental illness contributed to the crisis. The author relies on personal interviews with McGovern, campaign manager Gary Hart, political director Frank Mankiewicz, and many other participants inside and outside the McGovern and Eagleton camps—as well as extensive unpublished campaign records, to capture the political and human drama of Eagleton's brief candidacy.
There you have it, six suggestions for those of you wanting to read more about political nastiness in presidential election campaigns.
Anything For a Vote by Joseph Cummins: The author dispels the myth that dirty politics are something new. He looks at every contested presidential election and reviews all of the smear campaigns and bad behavior in past presidential elections. Some of the more ridiculous and outrageous incidents include the campaign of 1836 when Congressman Davy Crockett accused candidate Martin Van Buren of secretly wearing women’s clothing (“He is laced up in corsets!” Crockett told his audience). Full of sleazy and shameless anecdotes from every presidential electionthis book is a valuable reminder that history does repeat itself and even the most famous presidents are not above reproach when it comes to the dirtiest game of all—political campaigning.
Adams vs. Jefferson: The Tumultuous Election of 1800 by John Ferling: This was a nasty one. John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, two heroes of the Revolutionary era, former friends, now bitter enemies, were locked in a fierce battle between the Federalists and the Republicans. The election of 1800 became even more bitter as it ended in a deadlocked Electoral College and led to a crisis in which the young republic teetered on the edge of collapse. Federalists, led by Adams, were conservatives who favored a strong central government. Republicans, led by Jefferson, accused the Federalists of betraying the Revolution of 1776 and backsliding toward monarchy. The campaign itself was filled with mud-slinging, scare tactics, and backstabbing. The low point came when Alexander Hamilton printed a devastating attack on Adams, the head of his own party. Tensions ran so high that the Republicans threatened civil war if the Federalists denied Jefferson the presidency. Ferling's pages bring to life all the outsized personalities and the hotly contested political issues. He shows not only why this moment was important in its time, but how strongly these issues and conflicts resonate with our own time.
The Birth of Modern Politics: Andrew Jackson, John Quincy Adams, and the Election of 1828 by Lynn Hudson Parsons: The 1828 presidential election pitted Major General Andrew Jackson against incumbent John Quincy Adams. It was the contest in which an uneducated, hot-tempered Tennessee frontiersman, hailed by his supporters as a genuine man of the people, defeated a New England "aristocrat" whose education and political résumé were as impressive as any ever seen in American public life. It was also the election that introduced a number of campaign tactics, including coordinated media, get-out-the-vote efforts, fund-raising, organized rallies, opinion polling, campaign paraphernalia, ethnic voting blocs, "opposition research," and smear tactics. This book reveals how, despite their vastly different backgrounds, the two opponents began with many of the same values, admired one another, and had often been allies in common causes. But by 1828, they were plunged into a heated competition that ushered in a style of politics that is still with us today.
Fraud of the Century: Rutherford B. Hayes, Samuel Tilden, and the Stolen Election of 1876 by Roy Morris Jr.: This was the closest and most controversial election in US history, even closer than Bush v. Gore. The bitter 1876 contest between Ohio Republican Governor Rutherford B. Hayes and New York Democratic Governor Samuel Tilden was considered by some to be a symbolic and metaphoric final battle of the Civil War. Although Tilden received about 265,000 more popular votes than Hayes, and needed only one more electoral vote for victory, contested returns in three southern states still under Republican-controlled Reconstruction governments ultimately led to Hayes's being declared the winner after four tense months of political warfare and threats of violence that brought armed troops into the streets of the nation's capital.
Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion: The Making of a President, 1884 by Mark Wahlgren Summers: In the presidential election of 1884, Grover Cleveland ended the Democrats' twenty-four-year presidential drought by defeating Republican challenger James G. Blaine. It is an election remembered less for its political significance than for the mudslinging and slander that characterized the campaign. Summers examines this election and looks not only at its vitriol but also at the evolution in politics that came about as a result.
The Eighteen-Day Running Mate: McGovern, Eagleton, and a Campaign in Crisis by Joshua Glasser: Today vice-presidential candidates go through a thorough vetting process, but in 1972, Democratic candidate George McGovern took the word of his running mate Thomas Eagleton that the latter had no skeletons in his closet. When opposition research uncovered Eagleton's psychiatric history, McGovern convinced his Democratic vice-presidential running mate to withdraw from the ticket. This fascinating book tells the full story behind Eagleton's rise and fall as a national candidate. Within days of Eagleton's nomination, anonymous sources brought to light his history of hospitalizations for “nervous exhaustion and depression” and past treatment with electroshock therapy. Glasser investigates a campaign in disarray and explores the perspectives of the campaign’s key players, how decisions were made and who made them, how cultural attitudes toward mental illness contributed to the crisis. The author relies on personal interviews with McGovern, campaign manager Gary Hart, political director Frank Mankiewicz, and many other participants inside and outside the McGovern and Eagleton camps—as well as extensive unpublished campaign records, to capture the political and human drama of Eagleton's brief candidacy.
There you have it, six suggestions for those of you wanting to read more about political nastiness in presidential election campaigns.