Pivotal Tuesdays: Four Elections That Shaped the Twentieth Century

by Margaret O'Mara

Serious and silly, unifying and polarizing, presidential elections have become events that Americans love and hate. Today's elections cost billions of dollars and consume the nation's attention for months, filling television airwaves and online media with endless advertising and political punditry, often heated, vitriolic, and petty. Yet presidential elections also provoke and inspire mass engagement of ordinary citizens in the political system. No matter how frustrated or disinterested voters might be about politics and government, every four years, on the first Tuesday in November, the attention of the nation—and the world—focuses on the candidates, the contest, and the issues. The partisan election process has been a way for a messy, jumbled, raucous nation to come together as a slightly-more-perfect union.

Pivotal Tuesdays looks back at four pivotal presidential elections of the past 100 years to show how they shaped the twentieth century. During the rowdy, four-way race in 1912 between Teddy Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, Eugene Debs, and Woodrow Wilson, the candidates grappled with the tremendous changes of industrial capitalism and how best to respond to them. In 1932, Franklin Roosevelt's promises to give Americans a "New Deal" to combat the Great Depression helped him beat the beleaguered incumbent, Herbert Hoover. The dramatic and tragic campaign of 1968 that saw the election of Richard Nixon reflected an America divided by race, region, and war and set in motion political dynamics that persisted into the book's final story—the three-way race that led to Bill Clinton's 1992 victory.

Exploring the personalities, critical moments, and surprises of these races, Margaret O'Mara shows how and why candidates won or lost and examines the effects these campaigns had on the presidencies that followed. But this isn't just a book about politics. It is about the evolution of a nation and the history made by ordinary people who cast their ballots.

Genres: Politics, History, School

248 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 1, 2015

Reviews

[Jean · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this might be a good book to read while observing the theatrics of the current election process and how it will affect the future of our country. Every four years the voters must focus on electing a new president. O’Mara’s book looks back at four pivotal presidential elections of the past 100 years to show how they shaped the twentieth century.

We are again facing some of the same issues, for example the 1912 election year discussion of what to do with large dominant corporations. We are also facing gigantic corporations controlling their sector but now it is globally. We had a severe recession after deregulating the banks from the 1932 reforms and last but not least racism and antisemitism have raised their heads again as in the 1950s-60s. On top of all this we are weary of long wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

I found it most interesting that O’Mara chose the 1912 four-way race between Teddy Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, Eugene Debs, and Woodrow Wilson. I have found this election most interesting and have read biographies of each of these men along with other books on the subject to help me understand the issues of this critical election. The candidates grappled with the tremendous change of industrial capitalism and how to respond to it. The next election O’Mara chose was in the heart of the depression in 1932 between Herbert Hoover and Franklin Roosevelt. They addressed ways to combat the depression and ways to prevent it from happening again. In 1968 the election campaign of Herbert Humphry verses Richard Nixon saw an America divided by race, region and the Viet Nam War. In 1992 there was the three-way race between George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Ross Perot.

The book is well written and researched. O’Mara discusses the politics but also explores their personalities, critical moments and surprises of each of these races. The author shows how candidates won or lost and how these campaigns effected the next presidential races. The author reveals the evolution of our nation and the importance of each person’s vote. Margaret O’Mara is a history professor.

I read this as an audiobook downloaded from Audible. If I had not been so interested in the topic of this book I would have stopped listening. There is something wrong with the quality of the sound; the sound seemed like it was far away. James Killavey’s narrative style was not appropriate for this academic book. Killavey has been narrating audiobooks for over twenty years so he either should have chosen a different style or the publisher should have chosen a different narrator.

I would recommend this be read in book or e-book format and skip the audiobook format because of poor sound and inappropriate narrative style.

[Margot · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was so, so, so excited to read this book when I bought it off Amazon, but I ended up being really disappointed. I thought looking at elections from the past would cue me, and society, into better understanding the politics of today. I was sorely mistaken. This book was overly wordy for no apparent reason. I would suggest the author try to make the writing more clear and concise; fancy words matter less than understanding.

I normally love historical non-fiction writing. In fact, it is one of my favorite genres! This book, thought, was honestly just confusing ...

[Lisa-Michele · Rating 4 out of 5]

An ingenious way to look at how we arrived at this absurd political place we now inhabit. I need answers. American politics is collapsing into chaos and I want to read the lessons of history to reassure myself that it will soon right itself. The verdict is mixed. O’Mara, a very cool history professor, studies the connective tissue between the elections of 1914 (Wilson v. TRoosevelt v. Taft), 1932 (FDR v. Hoover), 1968 (Nixon v. Humphrey), and 1992 (Clinton v. Bush v. Perot). I see the seeds of discontent being sown long ago.

The size and role of the federal government played a huge role even in the 1932 election, after which FDR dramatically made a New Deal. The same thread weaves into the 1960s with LBJ building the Great Society. LBJ presided over the chaos of the civil rights movement and the Vietnam discontent, so Goldwater rose up to activate the base that became the Reagan revolution. All of which illustrates that we were not necessarily any more unified then; we’ve always had racial and economic divides and fear-based thinking.

Is that the good news or the bad news? What surprised me was how the same issue persists throughout the past 100 years: how do we care for each other as individuals and as a government?

A powerful race subtext is woven into the political dialogue. These issues were left unresolved for us to suffer through again and again. Goldwater and Nixon spoke in code about law and order and individual rights, much the same way the pseudo-populist in today’s White House exploits fear of immigrants. Nixon appealed to the “forgotten man” and the “silent majority” in a take-your-country-back way that sounds all too familiar. What saddens me is that we are still there, still us v. them, still thinking there isn’t enough to go around. This book reminded me that Bill Clinton would be almost a Reagan Republican in today’s context, because he balanced the budget and reformed welfare. The parties have lost their way. When the same voters vote for Obama one time and Mr. T the next, they are not so much polarized as unbelieving and desperate. We all have a responsibility to vote for candidates who are willing to govern through persuasion and compromise, working on solutions not just slogans.

[loey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book as part of a poli-sci class. It's an easy read and the writing style is very engaging. It gives a detailed description of each of the elections it covers, and does a good job of showing how the US political parties have shifted in strategy and ideology over time. It is easy to tell that it was written in a pre-Trump political landscape, but that's through no fault of the author.

[Sarah Stook · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good but the blurb says it’s unbiased, which it wasn’t.

[Melinda · Rating 4 out of 5]

The one and only Jess gave me this book as a gift and it took me a while to read it due to 2016 election PTSD. The book details 4 elections in US history that shifted the dynamic of politics in one way or another. It definitely had a level of detail that was interesting without being bland, and now I just need to remember the fun facts I learned...

1912- Roosevelt, Taft, Debs, Wilson. Roosevelt and Taft end their friendship even though Roosevelt tapped him for succession. Industrialism. Wilson wins!
1932- FDR for the win! Bai Hoover.
1968- Nixon, oof. Illustrates how race defined how the republican party rules today.
1992- Modern day scandal becomes a spotlight. Clinton wins.

[Chris Cook · Rating 3 out of 5]

Let's just say this book explains a lot about what happened in the elections this year. Politics can be disturbingly repetitive...