| . |
| A dazzling panorama of presidential personalities, ambitions,
plots and
counter-plots—
and of a newly-modern America at the crossroads—grounded in solid historical research, insightful social commentary, a compelling and innovative structure, and riveting historical profiles. In 1920, a record six past, present, or future chief executives eye the great prize of the Presidency, each with a unique style and vision of the office and the nation: Theodore Roosevelt: The Rough Rider himself. President. Historian. Cowboy. Police Commissioner. Trust-Buster. Explorer. Naturalist. Big-Game Hunter. Noble Prize-winner. He has been president once—and wants the job again. Only the hand of God can keep him from the White House in 1920. Woodrow Wilson: Brilliant, eloquent, progressive, and self-confident. But also bigoted, self-centered, stubborn, and messianic. He desperately plans for a League of Nations to prevent future wars, but lacks the diplomatic and political skills to sell the idea either at home or abroad. In the bargain, he fatally compromises article after article of his Fourteen Points and sows the seeds of another war. “Woodrow Wilson is an exile from the hearts of his people,” says Eugene V. Debs, “The betrayal of his ideals makes him the most pathetic figure in the world.” An October 1919 stroke leaves him too crippled to lead the nation, but the nation is never told. Fantastically, he clings to hopes of an unprecedented third term. Warren G. Harding: Ohio small-town newspaper editor, Republican politician, and serial adulterer. His strengths: he looks like a president, sounds like a president (if you don’t listen too carefully), and is sufficiently vague on the issues to be nominated. “America’s present need,” he intones, “is not heroics, but healing; not nostrums but normalcy.” America agrees. Calvin Coolidge: Silent Cal. The taciturn Vermonter who became Massachusetts’s coldly efficient governor. His actions during the September 1919 Boston police strike (“There is no right to strike against the public safety by anybody, anywhere, anytime”) make him presidential timber. In Chicago, the GOP convention stampedes and anoints him its vice-presidential candidate. Herbert Hoover: The Great Engineer. International gold mining adventurer. Multi-millionaire. Savior of war-ravaged Europe’s starving masses. A political progressive and member of the Wilson administration. A national hero. In 1920 Hoover wants to be president but has one big problem: he can’t decide if he’s a Republican or a Democrat. Franklin D. Roosevelt: Wilson’s ambitious, but not yet properly-seasoned, under secretary of the Navy. If the Republicans can’t nominate a dead Roosevelt, the Democrats will nominate a live one—Franklin—for vice-president. |
| . |
| . |
| . |
| "A rousing chronicle. . . Pietrusza . . . adds color and dimension with smart discussions of Prohibition, women’s suffrage, immigration, civil rights, the League of Nations and labor strife, and he offers animated portraits of William Jennings Bryan, Carrie Chapman Catt, Henry Ford, Marcus Garvey, Sacco and Vanzetti, William Randolph Hearst, H.L.
Mencken and many others. A hugely fascinating episode in American history, told with insight and great humor, by an author in command of his subject." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review) "absorbing . . . a broad, satisfying political and social history, in the style of Doris Kearns Goodwin." —Publishers Weekly "a colorful, nonacademic account . . . Most of all, there are the characters. Pietrusza draws them sharply: the imperious Wilson, the obliging Harding, the dour and honest Coolidge and the ambitious and dissembling Franklin Roosevelt. Fans of political history will enjoy this book." —Seattle Times "Fascinating and compelling . . . Highly recommended." —Library Journal “I just finished 1920 and liked it a lot . . . a fine job in capturing the personalities of an interesting cast of political characters and the era in which they lived.” —President George W. Bush "The President passed on your book after he finished it . . . I dipped into 1920 and found myself devouring it in one weekend. A great read—chock full of great insights and brilliant portraits. Thanks for a wonderful volume . . a great read." —Karl Rove "An ably popular treatment that fans of campaign histories will enjoy." —Booklist "A terrific and fun read." —Bloomberg Radio "More than just a story of six men who either already had been president or would be, this is the story of America as it moved into the modern age." —Denver Post "a very vivid portrait of each of these presidents." —Ann Compton, ABC News "Through a lens trained on a long-ago election, David Pietrusza's 1920: The Year of Six Presidents, delivers a rich and compelling narrative of American politics. Exploring a year when giant figures of American history were waxing and waning, he deftly explains how we ended up with a presidential showdown between two largely unknown—yet surprisingly randy—editors of small-town Ohio newspapers, which Warren Harding won principally by being "nice." —David O. Stewart, author of The Summer of 1787: The Men Who Invented the Constitution "Sweeping and original." —The History Book Club "In 1920: The Year of the Six Presidents, writer David Pietrusza shows the right way to pull together disparate characters into a coherent narrative. . . .this book portrays an America that has stopped looking backward and has begun to craft a new country and a new world role." —The Washington Times "An absolutely wonderful book . . . I loved [it], absolutely marvelous, absolutely wonderful research . . . just a great read, marvelously done, brilliantly constructed and really integrates the entire story of one year—1920. . . . if I were teaching a history class of early twentieth century America this is the book I would use. . . . It reads like a novel but it's fact . . . a great book." —John Rothman KGO (San Francisco) "I just love 1920: The Year of Six Presidents by David Pietrusza. It's not historical fiction, but plain old history that zips along like good fiction. I just wish I'd read it before I wrote my book." —Jonah Goldberg, National Review Online " . . . a campaign like no other before or since. David Pietrusza, a seasoned crime-and-mystery writer, builds the suspense of the 1920 campaign so effectively that the reader easily suspends, for the moment, knowledge of the outcome, as if it were still about to happen. . . [Pietrusza] organizes the story in a way that produces high drama." —The Weekly Standard "With a storyteller’s eye for characters and drama, Pietrusza re-creates America at a post-World War I turning point, when the country wanted steady leadership but got scandal instead." —Washington CEO Magazine "outstanding . . . fascinating" —Al Kresta, Ave Maria Radio "a fine and lively recommendation both for high school and college collections strong in American history and politics in particular, or even public lending libraries." —California Bookwatch “David Pietrusza’s new book—1920 The Year of Six President’s—is awesome! David writes history with such clarity and insights, you don’t want to put the book down. You’ll feel the same way.” —Pat Williams Author and Vice President, Orlando Magic "Pietrusza's volume brings the vivid history of the 1920 election to life. Both entertaining and insightful, it provides exceptionally well crafted "mini" biographies of the Six Presidents and how their careers intersected that year. The narrative is rich and compelling as it peeks into the backrooms and describes the national mood. Pietrusza's handling of the personalities, issues, trends and techniques that went on to define American politics in the first half of the 20th century is to be recommended to anyone with an interest in presidential biography or U.S. political history." —Dr. Ron Faucheux Author; Former Editor-in-Chief, Campaigns and Elections Magazine and Campaign Insider newsletter; Former Louisiana legislator and Secretary of Commerce "David Pietrusza’s remarkable new book 1920: The Year of Six Presidents is exactly the way history should be written. It is riveting, involving, filled with verifiable fact and compelling anecdote. It makes the era come alive [and] challenges presumptions about well-known figures . . ." —Glenn Raucher West Side Y's Writer's Voice "Pietrusza . . . doesn't play favorites . . . a multi-faceted—and somewhat tragic, given the ultimate fates of Wilson, Harding, and Hoover—view of a stormy epoch in 20th century American history. Highly recommended" —Dr. Christopher Barat Villa Julie College "fast paced highly readable" —Caffeinated Politics Blog "fast paced highly readable" —Caffeinated Politics Blog |
 |
 |
|
| David Pietrusza's 1920: The Year of the Six Presidents A Selection of the History Book Club Kirkus Reviews "Best Books of 2007" Basic Books ISBN # 0786716223 |
 |
| Featured on C-SPAN (BookTV)'s After Words, interviewed by ABC News Correspondent Ann Compton Order a DVD |
| . |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| . |
| From the Publisher: The presidential election of 1920 was among history’s most dramatic as six once-and-future presidents—Wilson, Harding, Coolidge, Harding, Hoover, and Teddy and Franklin Roosevelt—jockeyed for the White House. With voters choosing between Wilson’s League of Nations and Harding’s frontporch isolationism, 1920’s election shaped modern America like no other. 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. We 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 By the Numbers
: •100,000 Members of the Ku Klux Klan • 556 radicals deported to Russia • 531 Electoral votes • 61 lynchings • 44 Ballots at the Democrat National Convention • 14 Points • 10 Ballots at the Republican National Convention • 7 First Ladies • 6 Presidents in the Running • 4 Presidential Mistresses • 2.7% Beer • 2 Constitutional Amendments • 2 Handbills Alleging the Next President was Black • 2 Italian anarchists arrested for a murder in South Braintree, Massachusetts • 1 President of Africa • 1 Attorney General’s home bombed • 1 Wall Street bombing • 1 Presidential candidate residing in Atlanta Federal Penitentiary • 1 Catholic Placed in Nomination for the Presidency • 1 Commercial Radio Station on the air • 1 Illegitimate Child • 1 Lawsuit by a Vice-Presidential Nominee • 1 Presidential Son-in-Law • 1 Fraudulent Pulitzer Prize • 1 League of Nations • 1 World War |
|
 |
|
| "amazing . . .For anyone seriously interested in seeing today's Iowa Caucuses/ New Hamp. Primaries/Super Tuesdays, they MUST, as a student of yesterday's political intrigue, read "1920". —dennismansfield.com "detailed and insightful" —Ohio Valley Educational Cooperative "a compelling narrative . . .well-written, well-researched . . . well worth the time of anyone interested in American political history." —belowthebeltway.com "A good read" —Bill Gruver, The Arizona Report |