The Election of 1920 is unique in American history. Never before had so many men who either had been, or one day would be, President vied for the office at the same time.
But for an untimely death, Theodore Roosevelt would have been the presumptive Republican nominee and, given the political conditions of the time, probably would have returned to the White House. In the White House, Woodrow Wilson remained felled by a stroke but stubbornly held onto power and the idea that he could run for a third term. From New York, a young, vigorous Franklin D. Roosevelt laid the groundwork for what would become the longest Presidency in history. Herbert Hoover, the hero of wartime procurement and post-war famine relief, struggled to with the idea of whether he was a Republican or a Democrat. Up in Massachusetts, a mild-mannered Calvin Coolidge was on the verge of shocking everyone. And, in Ohio, Warren G. Harding, a man with a past so checked that he couldn’t possibly be considered a viable candidate today, was convinced by party insiders that he could in fact be President of the United States.
In 1920: The Year Of The Six Presidents
There are plenty of surprises here. The stubbornness with which the ailing Woodrow Wilson, who probably should have been removed from office to begin with, pursued the idea of a third term in office (to the point where he was willing to sabotage the campaigns of Democratic rivals) was rather shocking, but it was also consistent with the unbending, uncompromising zeal with which he pursued the doomed League of Nations. Similarly, the star power of Herbert Hoover, who is remembered by history as one of America’s great failed Presidents, is something that is missing from the version of history that is popular today. There was even, at the time, a suggestion that Hoover would run as a Democrat on a ticket with Franklin D. Roosevelt, the man who would replace him in 1932.
Pietrusza also writes about the great social issues of the day and how they impacted the Presidential election. Prohibition, once the cause of religious leaders and gadflys, had become so popular that even previously “wet” politicians felt compelled to support it and, in Harding’s case, vote for the 18th Amendment in the Senate. Women’s suffrage, which had been largely ignored by the Wilson Administration, picked up steam; but nobody really knew how it might affect the 1920 election. And, of course, race was an issue. Not just in the South but everywhere and, at one point, a crackpot Ohio college professor, aided by state Democrats, published several anonymous tracts claiming that Harding was 1/8th negro.
There are other stories throughout the book that bring the era to life. William Howard Taft meeting his old friend and rival Theodore Roosevelt in a Chicago hotel dining room and then crying publicly at TR’s funeral in 1919. Eugene Debs sitting in an Atlanta Federal Prison while running what would prove to be the last Socialist Party Presidential campaign. Warren Harding having at least two affairs prior to running for office, one of which resulted in a child, and Franklin Roosevelt doing the same including one incident that resulted in the woman in question sailing to Europe, never to return.
I should also mention Calvin Coolidge. Silent Cal has generally been derided and dismissed by historians, but this books brings him to life and shows him to be a decent, honorable, hard-working man of the people.
There’s more, of course, but you get the idea. This book is well-written, well-researched (except for a few mis-statements that clearly were missed by the editor such as when the 17th Amendment is mistakenly referred to as the 16th Amendment) and flows much faster than its 438 pages might indicate. It’s well worth the time of anyone interested in American political history.
