William McKinley and His America (Hardcover)

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Product Description

When George W. Bush won the White House, he was the first incumbent Republican governor elected president since William McKinley in 1896. William McKinley was the last of the Civil War veterans to reach the White House. Known widely as the Major, in honor of his military rank, he rose through Congress to head the crucial Ways and Means Committee where, in the early 1890s, he passed a strong and popular tariff bill. That success caught the eye of Marcus Hanna, a Cleveland industrialist with a passion for politics and an ambition to help make and elect a president. Democrats complained that McKinley was a mere puppet of the wealthy Hanna, but historians generally believe they were a well-matched team of two strong-willed men. With Hanna's help, McKinley was elected governor of Ohio in 1892. In 1896 McKinley swept away all rivals to win the presidential nomination on the first ballot. Faced in the general election by the well-respected and highly toured orator William Jennings Bryan, Republicans adopted their "Front Porch Campaign." Thousands of citizens from across the country were brought to McKinley's home in Canton for a handshake and a few words. Hanna arranged for this USD3-5 million campaign to be paid for by big business, with oil baron John D. Rockefeller writing the largest check. McKinley's military service and his support among veterans were significant factors in his campaign. He became the first presidential candidate in a generation to win a majority of the popular vote. McKinley was a popular president. Pushed reluctantly into the Spanish-American War, McKinley was instrumental in starting America on the path to becoming a global power. He was reelected by a landslide, and in 1901, after delivering a speech at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, he was assassinated by anarchist Leon Czolgosz. McKinley's vice president. Theodore Roosevelt became the nation's 26th president. H. Wayne Morgan's extensively revised and expanded edition of McKinley and His America will prove to be a welcome resource to historians and scholars.

About the Author

H. Wayne Morgan is professor emeritus of history at the University of Oklahoma and is author of several books on Kenyon Cox.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 672 pages
• Publisher: Kent State University Press; Revised edition (January 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0873387651
• ISBN-13: 978-0873387651
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 5.9 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #307,254 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding Biography, October 30, 2007

By	Sean Claycamp (overland park, ks) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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I read this bio in my ongoing project of reading a biography on every President. This was an outstanding bio of what seems to be a very underrated man and President.

I didn't know anything about McKinley prior to reading Morgan's book. Other than he was assasinated in Buffalo and helped TR springboard to the Presidency.

I found his life to be very interesting and well detailed. The research was outstanding. The author spent enough time on some of the more laborious subjects such as the gold/silver debate. He also went into detail on the Spanish-American war and the issue in the Phillipines. These were subjects I was very interested in knowing more about and Morgan was sure to detail these which I appreciated.

I think he understood his reader pretty well in this bio. He did a nice job of detailing McKinley's early years and his relationship with friends and family.

As someone that has read a lot of Presidential bios this one was definitely worth reading.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An Excellent Overview of a Long-Forgotten and Under-Appreciated American President, May 17, 2008

By	Gary Strickland (Chandler, Arizona United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

In his "Preface to the Revised Edition," Professor Morgan asserts: "I should emphasize that this is a biography not a history of the period." However, the only disappointing facet of the treatment is that the author provides more background than biography. While he presents a man of character, little in-depth material is offered addressing the roots of that character development and its application in daily non-political affairs.

Perhaps the lacuna in the author's snapshot of the man is due to the paucity of revelatory material and McKinley's reticence to disclose his thoughts on a variety of issues. Perhaps it is a result of McKinley's focus.

Despite this failing, Professor Morgan has offered an insightful narrative, written in a very pleasing style, addressing the ride to eminence of a little-known American leader. Leaving aside the rather mundane discussion of McKinley's tariff and monetary principles, the book crests with the account of the President's foreign policy in the aftermath of the Spanish-American War.

On the whole, McKinley emerges as a great or near-great American figure, a man who consciously fulfilled what he considered his Providential destiny. That desitiny included the unification of American interests in the long-endured wake of the Civil War.

The book is spiced with sufficient anecdotal material (such as the President's resistence to tightened personal security measures in anticipation of his visit to the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, the road to assassination, with the words: "Who will attack me?" I haven't an enemy in the world.") to maintain the reader's anticipatory interest.

On the whole, "William McKinley and his America" is an excellent read. It fills a much-needed vacuum in the history of the American Presidency. And - with his last words, "It is God's way. His will, not ours, be done. Nearer My God to Thee," William McKinley revealed himself to posterity as the man of confidence and transcendental awareness that made his Presidential leadership right for the time.

11 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant Writing by H. Wayne Morgan, July 31, 2006

By	Maj Gen Jerry Holmes (Norman, OK USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Dr. Morgan is the type historian everyone should have in school. If I had studied history under Dr. Morgan, I might have majored in history rather than engineering. Dr. Morgan makes reading history fun and enlightening. He makes events come to life and makes one feel as if he is witnessing history first-hand.

If not for this book, I might have missed the great contributions of this American President.