The Campaign of the Century: Upton Sinclair's Race for Governor of California and the Birth of Media Politics

by Greg Mitchell

A blow-by-blow account of the author of The Jungle's 1934 bid for governor of California describes the mudslinging campaign waged against him and how it was a precursor to today's media politics. 20,000 first printing. Tour.

Genres: History, Politics, Nonfiction, American History, American

665 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

About the author

Greg Mitchell (born 1947) is the author of more than a dozen books. His new book (2020) is "The Beginning or the End: How Hollywood--and America--Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb" (The New Press). His previous book, from Crown, has been optioned for a major movie. It is titled "The Tunnels" and explores daring escape tunnels under the Berlin Wall in 1962--and the JFK White House attempts to kill NBC and CBS coverage of them at the height of nuclear tensions.

Mitchell has blogged on the media and politics, for The Nation. and at his own blog, Pressing Issjes. He was the editor of Editor & Publisher (E&P), from 2002 to the end of 2009, and long ago was executive editor at the legendary Crawdaddy. His book "The Campaign of the Century" won the Goldsmith Book Prize and "Tricky Dick and the Pink Lady" was a New York Times Notable Book for 1998. He has also co-authored two books with Robert Jay Lifton, along with a "So Wrong For So Long" about the media and Iraq. His books have been optioned numerous times for movies (including "Joy in Mudville" by Tim Hanks). He has served as chief adviser to two award-winning documentaries and currently is co-producer of an upcoming film on Beethoven with his co-author on "Journeys With Beethoven."

Reviews

[Modbon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mitchell details the 1934 CA governor's race on practically a day-by-day basis. Fascinating insights into California politics, media manipulation (Hollywood's role in this election is huge and scary), and the personalities involved in it all. It just so happens that one of the candidates in this election, Raymond Haight, was my high school history teacher, so I began it with a biased interest, but it held me.

An argument can be made that some of the media tactics used in the 1934 election were revived with much success by Karl Rove and Co. Dirty people doing dirty deeds, oh my.

[Kempite · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an amusing and sometimes disturbing look at the game of politics which is based on the very ideological questions still dividing our nation today. A colorful account of California's 1934 gubernatorial race, a forerunner of today's high-decibel, high-tech electioneering. Upton Sinclair, author of the meat-packing expos‚ The Jungle and a prominent Socialist who became a Democrat only a year before the general election, electrified millions with his EPIC (End Poverty in California) movement--and at the same time alarmed, in Mitchell's words, ``an array of powerful enemies almost unparalleled in American politics,'' including William Randolph Hearst, Herbert Hoover, and film-mogul L.B. Mayer. Mitchell (Truth...and Consequences, 1981) follows the nine-week campaign almost day by day, from the morning after Sinclair's astonishing primary victory to his November defeat at the hands of the lackluster, reactionary GOP incumbent, Frank Merriam. In between, California became a laboratory for the modern negative mass-media campaign, as Sinclair's enemies wedded some tried-and-true tactics (slush funds, dirty tricks, voter intimidation, biased reporting by nearly all of the state's 700 newspapers) to some disturbingly effective new ones: a campaign consultant to manage a gubernatorial contest, polling, a direct-mail operation, even newsreels (precursors of TV commercials) that attacked Sinclair. For a history as epic as the campaign that inspired it, Mitchell has found additional dash and drama in a wealth of primary source materials, contemporary newspaper accounts, and interviews, unfolding the campaign through the eyes of dozens of politicians, entertainers, and other public figures, including FDR, Charlie Chaplin, Melvin Belli, Pat Brown, James Cagney, and H.L. Mencken. An entertaining chronicle of the consummation of the unholy alliance of Madison Avenue, Hollywood, and politics.

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting account of Upton Sinclair's almost successful run for governor of California. The lies they told about him remind me of similar lies told today about Obama. Of course, Sinclair was a Socialist, and proud of it, but he did run as a Democrat. His opponent was not even respected by fellow Republicans. Lively, day by day history that includes an interesting cast of characters: Charlie Chaplin, W.R. Hearst, FDR, H.R. Mencken, Katherine Hepburn, Earl Warren, many others.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book when it first came out and now that it is an e-book with some extra features I'm reading it again. The author brought it out again because of the events of 2011, especially the Occupy movement. I am excited to read it again.

And naturally I'm in the middle of another book or two. So many books to read.

[Jeff Schauer · Rating 3 out of 5]

A short review:
http://californiamwananchi.blogspot.c...

[Twain · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Rather strangely, but in keeping with the generally goofy character of the present campaign, the Democratic statesmen are doing their worst to defeat Mr. Sinclair, whereas the Republicans are doing their utmost to elect a man whom they frankly acknowledge to be an unfortunate mistake in a difficult time and for whom their most enthusiastic endorsement is a frank ‘Excuse it, please’ “ (p481). The previous statement is from Westbrook Pegler, a political satirist (and arguably a political hack)

The 1930s were fascinating and full of uncertainty, as left wing candidates gained popularity the capitalist class needed to figure out how to fight back. Enter writer, muckraker, and Socialist turned Democrat Upton Sinclair and his plan to End Poverty In California and use production for use, taxes, etc to meet the needs of the people. Sinclair is an author, and genuine outsider running on the Democratic ticket against the incumbent Merriman, a conservative Republican.

The book looks at Sinclair’s grassroots movement, the EPIC campaign and the hostility it faced from the people in power. From the coordinated attacks from every newspaper and magazine, to the development in political consulting in this campaign (the political consultants who beat Sinclair later went on to take money from private interest in order to prevent a bill that would nationalize US healthcare). There was also the movie industry doing propaganda shorts and threatening to leave California, and a large portion of elected Dems turning on Sinclair, excessive amounts of fear mongering, slush funds, threats of homeless people invading the state, trying to scare / block people from voting, to using religious appeals against Sinclair. The ruling class really took a war on all fronts approach to him

The book covers prominent writers, newspapers, hollywood studio execs, landlords, business owners, Republican strategists and democrats not on board with Sinclair working with republicans to elect an awful machine politician. It’s a fascinating day to day account of the campaign, outlining the coordination in the opposition to Sinclair and the planning that went into these well orchestrated attacks on him. You see what was coming out in the papers, in mailers, in shorts before movies, and reading exerts from speeches and radio. it really feels like you’re watching a campaign up close with a backstage pass.

Merriman was a loser so they tried to keep him out of the spotlight as much as possible and fear monger about Sinclair. The first time he’s really mentioned and people aren’t just talking about him is about page 337 which is about 60% into the book. Shows that he was a cutout for powerful interests by almost fully telling the story of the campaign without him

The book has fascinating characters in it from Will Hays to Forbes to William Fox to LB Mayer to William Randolph Hearst to Artie Samish to Irving Thalberg and a ton of others. Talks about hollywoods threat to leave as well as them docking workers pay to donate it to Merriman.

There’s also a focus on the White House, albeit more periodically than regularly, and how they came to the decision to not endorse someone to their left running in a historically Republican state against a conservative. Looks at some of the interesting dynamics going on with FDRs team that might have been the actual difference

The book shows the roots of modern political propaganda and you don’t have to look too hard to see how a lot of these tactics were employed against Bernie and other progressives over the years. Seems like a relative starting point for how modern political tactics and campaigns operate today. It’s a truly scary book and represents a true hinge point in history, not only what would have happened to a national progressive movement if Uppie was elected, but also what would have happened if these campaign tactics had not worked and were not more widely adopted after (although that might have inevitable).

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was one of those political stories I knew existed, but I'd only seen it referenced in passing across multiple other histories of the 30s. Upton Sinclair was a fascinating guy - a writer whose most famous book, The Jungle, at least used to be de rigueur in high school English classes, and which is more famous for changing the laws on meat production than any literary merits. He wrote dozens of novels and tracts, and ran political campaigns as a socialist before he realized that he needed to try out the same ideas under a new label, and became a Democrat to run for Governor in 1934.
Needless to say, big business didn't take kindly to any plans to end poverty, even during the Depression. Mitchell details all sorts of schemes, from the merely awful to the downright nefarious, to keep Sinclair out of office. There are few heroes in this book, and quite a few villains in Hollywood, the Press, the first political consultants,and even in Franklin Roosevelt's cabinet. Sinclair comes off as such a decent guy, an amiable sort who wanted to believe in the good nature of humanity even when he ran into so many brick walls of nastiness. I knew he didn't win, but Mitchell's day by day account of the campaign (mixed with occasional tidbits of other news, such as the capturing of the Lindbergh baby killer) kept making me root hard for him and hope that some miracle could change history by the end of the book.
Mitchell argues that Sinclair's campaign, while not politically successful, did help push FDR further leftward, and established more progressive policies in California for a long time.

[Mike Zickar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mitchell does a great job making this campaign a page turner by writing in short bursts, weaving together many different stories and tales big and small. The book had me laughing out loud frequently with great pacing and funny anecdotes.

The book's main character, Upton Sinclair, has a lot of supporting characters including FDR, James Farley, spiritualist Aimee Semple McPherson, Father Coughlin, Norman Thomas, William Randolph Hearst and so many more.

You already know the outcome of the tale in the book but Mitchell made me hungry for the next page throughout this long text.

[Alex Izydore · Rating 5 out of 5]

Genuinely one of the most fascinating insights into the origin of the modern political attack advertisement, and an extraordinarily illuminating example of Capital coalescing around itself to suppress anything that threatens it. Republicans and Democrats working in lock-step to ensure socialism could never gain a foothold in America. Arguably, this is a more relevant look into modern politics today than ever, and a must-read for anyone on the Left that fears the political ground shifting from underneath them.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars. Day by day recounting of the 1934 California gubernatorial race, one of the first big races in the country decided by the media and employing modern PR and Red Scare tactics. The book is well-written and very interesting but somewhat long. Sinclair himself comes across as admirable and idealistic, socially conscious but too naive for gutter politics.

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really good and engrossing. A bit overly long though.

[Frankrrrr · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great writer decides to run for political office based on the ideas he has espoused in his books for years and scares the bejesus out of the powers that be.