Customer Reviews

Campaigning for President - Political Memorabilia From the Nation's Finest Private Collection

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I first read about "Campaigning for President" in a newspaper article a few weeks ago and knew I had to get my hands on this book. Wow... all 291 pages devoted to one man's collection begun almost four decades ago, which now exceeds over one million items! Jordan Wright has set out to enlighten us about the presidential past and he has succeeded in a big way. Not surprisingly, (as the dust jacket mentions) he is in the process of creating a permanent Museum of Democracy to house these unique and valuable treasures.

"Campaigning for President" opens literally at the beginning...1789... when George Washington became president. He really never ran for office as much as he attained it, but his successors had a field day in creatively boosting their own chances while downgrading their opponents. Along the way author Wright offers hundreds of items for our viewing...Andrew Jackson's razor sharpener, William Henry Harrison's log cabin brooch, U.S. Grant's cardboard shirt collar, a Teddy Roosevelt glasses stickpin and countless buttons, paper lanterns, umbrellas and just about anything else that one could have thought of to promote their candidate. My favorite is the James A. Garfield metal nose-thumber...as the author states: "depressing a lever in the candidate's heel sprang the rude toy into action". If one thinks today's politics are at an all-time low, this book will remind you that for two hundred years, Americans have taken a less-than-high road when it comes to campaigns and their associated memorabilia.

"Campaigning for President" is well laid out and the photos are nicely reproduced. Wright's brief comments about the issues that were discussed in each election are an integral part in giving readers a perspective on that particular year. I did come across a couple of mislabeled items (in 1880 and 1884) but that in no way takes anything away from this tremendous book by Jordan Wright. I highly recommend it, especially in this highly-charged presidential election year.

Jordan Wright has become one of the most entertaining presidential historians in America, in part through his passion for politics and willingness to share his own collection of over a million items. None of this would matter if he didn't have anything of interest to say. He has written a richly illustrated book, which includes photographs of some of the most important items in the collection. The political memorabilia includes posters, flags, dolls, parade gadgets, food products and of course buttons that he has assembled since 1968.

This book provides a wonderful insight into American history and I strongly recommend this book for older children as well as adults.

In this book Jordan Wright, through his eloquent and entertaining prose, does a terrific job of bringing to life otherwise forgotten artifacts of past presidential elections and inaugurations. The book is also an extraordinary window into the fierceness with which prior presidential candidates attacked each other and puts the occasional rancor of the current election into perspective. CAMPAIGNING FOR PRESIDENT is entertaining reading for children and political historians alike.

Jordan M.Wright has a very extensive collection of american political memorabilia..Photographed,and printed on high quality paper,and then bound into a large,coffee table book these photographs are nice to look at.It is a pity then that Mr.Wright chose to write his own text to go along with the photographs of the items from his collection,for Wright is neither an historian nor a writer...
Much of what Wright has to say is written in a sneering,smirking,and in some cases insulting tone which,I suppose,Mr.Wright mistook for humour..History should never be boring,but it ought to be objective and some of the comments made by Wright regarding the individuals who ran for the office of president are hardly so...U.S.Grant,civil war general and twice president of the united states is described as"guppy Grant" a term that is unique,in that I can find no reference elsewhere associating Grant with a tropical fish,other than here in Wright's book..Likewise,every solid historian,when mentioning the response James Garfield gave when nominated,unexpectedly,for president at the 1880 republican convention,indicated that while Garfield was a Sherman supporter,and had heard words which mentioned him as a"dark horse" possibility,he did not consider his nomination possible and was both shocked and distraught when in fact it happened..Wright,in recounting this episode sums it up as follows;"Wishing to remain loyal to Sherman,Garfield hilariously jumped up in the midst of the immense hall full of bearded fifty-somethings and shouted 'i won't permit it'..hardly the case,but this passage sums up Wright's approach to history...
...and while on the subject of"..bearded fifty somethings" one can even fault Wright for not knowing his own collection,for there,on page 70 ,detailing the campaign of 1880,between Garfield and Winfield Scott
Hancock we have a stickpin described as a"Garfield stickpin"..Clearly it bears the bearded but distinctive visage of Benjamin Harrison and the numbers 1888,and is in fact a memento of the presidential contest from that year,which pitted Harrison against Grover Cleveland..Clearly,Mr.Wright,when confronted with items in his collection featuring"bearded fifty somethings" has some difficulty telling one from another,perhaps a plus for a collector of memorabilia but very much a minus for an historian...

In the spirit of full disclosure, when Jordan Wright, collector extraordinaire, dedicated archivist of political arcana, and self-appointed "keeper of the flame" of U.S. Presidential campaigns, knew of my personal interest in Levi P. Morton, he graced me with a gift: an original photogravure campaign button from Morton's successful Vice Presidential race. And so when Jordan recently asked me to share my thoughts about his new book, CAMPAIGNING FOR PRESIDENT: MEMORABILIA FROM THE NATION's FINEST PRIVATE COLLECTION, I could not contain my enthusiasm.

When was Levi P. Morton elected Vice President you may inquire? And here, dear reader, is where my teasing begins. I give you an obscure hint: "Morton's presidential running-mate's grandfather was also President of the United States?"

And now you are significantly perplexed. You ask for a second hint, which I deliver with glee: "This running-mate's grandfather's political nickname, when he ran for President in 1840, was Tippecanoe."

Are you terminally confused! You should be! But luckily for us all we have Jordan Wright and his new CAMPAIGNING FOR PRESIDENT, which covers our most important quadrennial political contests from 1796 to 2004.

His book, with more than 500 full-color illustrations, is a must read/own for students and teachers of U.S. presidential history, collectors of quadrennial election memorabilia and just plain old, run-of-the-mill, political junkies. Campaign banners, buttons, posters, flags, socks, gloves, shirts suspenders, fans, figurines, and medals to name a few, memorializing the past efforts of our Presidential candidates, each from his personal collection, are reproduced in this work

Based on the author's immense and unique personal collection of over one million objects, our nation would be poorer without this special edition. Replete with fascinating tales and little remembered facts about presidential elections and the candidates who competed, Jordan's work provides insight into our nation's most important achievement-our democratic republic (pun intended!).

And so we turn to page 84 of Campaigning for President to begin to unravel my riddle ... Levi Parsons Morton was elected our 22nd Vice President in 1888 and he was the Vice-Presidential running mate of Benjamin Harrison, whose grandfather was William Henry Harrison! Interestingly, in Jordan's personal collection, which I have had the pleasure of viewing, there is a flag with the 1888 campaign slogan: "Tippecanoe and Morton too." This was a reference to the earlier 1840 campaign slogan of Harrison's grandfather ... "Tippecanoe and Tyler too."

And so dear reader, I commend Jordan's book to you with my unalloyed enthusiasm, because it not only preserves our rich political past, but also, it may, just as importantly, help us understand and inform our expanding political future.

I think it was Artistotle who said that man is a political animal. Now if you want to see in living color and lively text just how animalistic it is to run for president in the United States, this is the book for you.

Tough campaigns are not new and it is well documented in this walk down memory lane.

Enjoy.

When I read about this book in the New York Times and saw pictures of a few of the items, I couldn't wait to get the book. It is astounding that one person could have collected so many varied items from all periods of our history. The current election cycle has grabbed everyone's attention and it is amazing to see how this has also been true in the past.
I am looking forward to seeing the actual items at The Museum of the City of New York and The Museum of Democracy.

A unique book and a fun guided walk through the campaigning process. Perfect as a gift for your politically obsessed father or friend, but readable and interesting enough to entice readers of any kind. Jordan Wright delivers a winner!

Every four years we go through the sometimes laborious process of electing a President. In addition to all the name calling, fund raising, campaigning, baby kissing, hand shaking, lying, truth stretching, and other nonsense comes an interesting aspect of the process: the memorabilia created along the way. We've all seen, and many of us worn, a "Vote for ...." button. Buttons are the most common item but author and collector Jordan M. Wright has taken it to a whole new level.

Wright began collecting political memorabilia as a boy by stopping at a Robert Kennedy for President headquarters. He would pick up the new buttons that were available each week. He even had the honor of meeting Kennedy at one point. Wright figured if the Kennedy campaign was giving away buttons, posters, stickers and more the other candidates such as McCarthy, Humphrey, and Nixon must be doing the same. So began the journey of a collector, future author, and dreamer who hopes to open the Museum of Democracy one day.

Wright has written a hugely interesting book. While mostly visual there is plenty to learn here and each election includes a brief overview. What you will mostly find here are interesting photos showcasing some of the most important and unusual items from Wright's collection. If you are looking for a price guide you should look elsewhere. Valuations are not addressed in this book.


From the exceedingly rare like the Abraham Lincoln for President flag that has his name spelled Abram, to the downright unusual like George Bush cigarettes to the plain weird like the Amy Carter at the White House play set you will find it here. If you are interested in politics at all you owe it to yourself to check out this fascinating book. It doesn't matter what your leanings are you'll find something interesting and possibly something against your nemesis. Being issued in 2007 the last election covered is Bush/Kerry.

This book has a lot of information in it for those interested in collection presidential memorabilia and those interested in advertising for campaigns. However, if you are in to just collecting pinbacks I'd recommend 100 years of political campaign collectibles over this book.