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FDR, Dewey, and the Election of 1944 Paperback – December 7, 2012
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Although the presidential election of 1944 placed FDR in the White House for an unprecedented fourth term, historical memory of the election itself has been overshadowed by the war, Roosevelt's health and his death the following April, Truman's ascendancy, and the decision to drop the atomic bomb. Today most people assume that FDR's reelection was assured. Yet, as David M. Jordan's engrossing account reveals, neither the outcome of the campaign nor even the choice of candidates was assured. Just a week before Election Day, pollster George Gallup thought a small shift in votes in a few key states would award the election to Thomas E. Dewey. Though the Democrats urged voters not to "change horses in midstream," the Republicans countered that the war would be won "quicker with Dewey and Bricker." With its insider tales and accounts of party politics, and campaigning for votes in the shadow of war and an uncertain future, FDR, Dewey, and the Election of 1944 makes for a fascinating chapter in American political history.
- Length
408
Pages
- Language
EN
English
- PublisherIndiana University Press
- Publication date
2012
December 7
- Dimensions
6.0 x 1.0 x 8.9
inches
- ISBN-100253009707
- ISBN-13978-0253009708
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Editorial Reviews
Review
"David M. Jordan tells the story of the 1944 presidential election, and he tells it very well. In a clearly written, well-researched narrative he describes the various contenders for the Republican nomination, which eventually went to Thomas E. Dewey."―Journal of American History
"This book alone proves Jordan has what it takes to allow the reader to check out of present day and visit a time period like no other in history. I commend him for that because he allowed me to do so."―thepoliticsofjamiesanderson.blogspot
"[Jordan's] writing style is superb. He has a sense of narrative cadence and a dramatic rhythm reminiscent of an earlier chronicler of presidential campaigns, Theodore White. . . . Jordan exudes a gift for characterization and an eye for a quotation."―Intl Social Science Review
"Jordan provides a detailed account of the 'infighting and horse-trading' of this hard-fought, wartime campaign."―Survival
"This is a fun volume on an often overlooked presidential contest. . . . This book is worth it for the political junkie who wants to check the 1944 election off their list."―Karl Rove
"[T]his book is informative, interesting (especially for the political history geek) and suspenseful in spite of the fact that we all know how the story is going to end."―bookish.livejournal.com
"A fast-moving, blow-by-blow account of the often neglected wartime campaign that pitted Franklin Delano Roosevelt against Republican Thomas E. Dewey, with pollsters divided to the very end. For political junkies there is suspense, backroom dealing, and surprises about both presidential and vice-presidential nominations, as well as where the parties would stand on the future both at home and abroad. And while today we worry about partisan extremism, in 1944 a sitting commander-in-chief and his administration were accused not only of domestic corruption but of military blunders that cost American lives, all while leading the country toward communism or monarchy."―Roger Lane, author of Murder in America: A History
"All presidential elections are important―and interesting. The 1944 election is no exception. It's a good story and Jordan tells it well."―Gary Donaldson, author of Truman Defeats Dewey
"David Jordan has produced a lucid, highly engrossing account of a fateful but little chronicled episode in American presidential politics. His narrative of the 1944 election campaign―written with savvy and encyclopedic range and featuring a large cast of personalities rendered in deft cameos―deserves a place alongside Theodore White's histories of how high and low character, fierce ambition, and dumb luck play their part in the nation's choice of its chief executive."―Richard Kluger, Pulitzer Prize-winning social historian
Review
David Jordan has produced a lucid, highly engrossing account of a fateful but little chronicled episode in American presidential politics. His narrative of the 1944 election campaign―written with savvy and encyclopedic range and featuring a large cast of personalities rendered in deft cameos―deserves a place alongside Theodore White's histories of how high and low character, fierce ambition, and dumb luck play their part in the nation's choice of its chief executive.
-- Richard Kluger ― Pulitzer Prize-winning social historianAbout the Author
David M. Jordan is author of Roscoe Conkling of New York: Voice in the Senate; Winfield Scott Hancock: A Soldier's Life (IUP, 1988); "Happiness Is Not My Companion": The Life of General G. K. Warren (IUP, 2001); and Occasional Glory: A History of the Philadelphia Phillies.
Product details
- Publisher : Indiana University Press; Reprint edition (December 7, 2012)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 408 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0253009707
- ISBN-13 : 978-0253009708
- Item Weight : 1.15 pounds
- Dimensions : 6 x 1 x 8.9 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #496,005 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #340 in Elections
- #562 in United States Executive Government
- #10,653 in Military History (Books)
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In 1944, the United States was heavily involved in World War II. In fact, it would be the first presidential election to take place during war since 1864. One of the key issues of the campaign was not so much the war itself, but who would be best to govern in the inevitable peace that followed.
The Republicans had some candidates to choose from. Wendell Willkie, who was the Republican nominee in 1940, attempted another run, but just did not find the support. Some also wanted to draft General Douglas MacArthur into running. Eventually, however, when the Republican convention took place in Chicago, the Republicans chose the Governor of New York Thomas E. Dewey as their nominee.
On the Democratic side, the incumbent president, Franklin Roosevelt, was immensely popular. So popular in fact that Democrats were afraid of what might happen if he chose not to run again because they would have no one else nearly as good. However, despite his health problems, Roosevelt did decide to seek another term. The only problem was finding a running mate. The current vice president, Henry Wallace, was not popular among top Democratic brass. Despite the fact that many Democrats did want him on the ticket, party bosses threw around other names. When the Democrats convened their convention, the slot would go to the senator from Missouri, Harry Truman.
In the general campaign that followed, the Democrats mainly ran on their record of the New Deal and the progress made in the war. The Republicans ran on the idea that a fourth term was too much and that the incumbent administration was incompetent.
In the end, when the United States voted on November 7, 1944, Franklin Roosevelt came out as the victor. Out of his four presidential elections, he won in 1944 by the closest margin, although still a substantial victory. As history went, Roosevelt would die mere months into his fourth term making Truman president, while Dewey would become much more famous for losing the 1948 election.
I found this to be an interesting look at one of the most overlooked presidential elections in U.S. history. My only criticism is that the author quite clearly favors Roosevelt over Dewey. He dings Dewey a few times for stretching the truth on the campaign trail, but never makes any such criticisms of Roosevelt. Other than that, I found this to be a very enjoyable book. I would recommend this book to those interested in American history or presidential history.
Among the most important things that are brought to light is the importance of Tom Dewey in the fashioning of the modern Republican Party. Although he himself was personally rejected twice by the American voters for the Presidency, he had major influence in the party and helped bring it out of the doldrums the Depression and the view held by many that they were responsible for it. Many of his top advisors went to work for Eisenhower when he was elected and even Richard Nixon, as President, offered to appoint Dewey to be a Justice in the US Supreme Court, although he turned it down. He offered the voters the view that the Republicans had learned from the mistakes of the Harding-Coolidge-Hoover era and that they accepted many of the reforms of the New Deal, but they would be in a position to run it more efficiently and would put the brakes on the most intrusive and undemocratic aspects of it. Whereas FDR and the Democrats benefitted from the view of many soldiers and their families that it was not a good idea to change the national leadership during a major war, which could end up prolonging it, the Republicans convinced a lot of people that it was not good to have someone in the White House who viewed himself as "President for Life" and that the New Deal had gotten out of control with the slogan that the Democrats had supposedly coined that their policy was "tax, tax, spend, spend, elect, elect" - in other words, that government should take everyone's money away in taxation, then hand some of it back to favored groups who then would feel that they have to keep voting the same people back into power in order to keep the handouts coming. This argument is in full force today, as well.
One thing I was not aware of was the strong feeling of anti-Communism that the conservatives in the US were feeling at the time, and Dewey and the Republicans tried to capitalize on it. I had thought that since the USSR was such an important ally of the US and Britain that anti-Communist feeling would have been subdued, but this was not the case, but it wasn't enough to get the voters to reject FDR and the Democrats. Another important but little known fact was that although on a nation-wide basis, the turnout for the election was over 60%, in the poll-tax states of the South, it was less than 20%. This was a real blot on American democracy in that not only was the poll-tax used to keep blacks in the South from voting, but it also served as a deterrent for
poor whites from going to the polls. I later found out that the US Supreme Court ruled in the 1930's that the tax WAS "constitutional" which was truly shocking for a country that prided itself on
being the first modern democracy. It wasn't until the Civil Rights movement of the 1960's that this stain on America was finally removed, once and for all, and that poor Southern whites benefitted from it as well, whether they realized it or not.
Another important thing I learned here is related to the famous question Americans and others ask regarding Winston Churchill's surprising (to them) defeat in the British Election of 1945 coming in spite of the fact that he was the revered and beloved war-time leader of Britain. The explanation is that while the majority of British voters respected him and even would have wanted him to
continue running the country's foreign affairs, he was viewed as being out of touch with the country's desires in the realm of post-war reconstruction and social reform and that was more important to them. Jordan, in this book, says that there was actually as similar view in the United States regarding FDR and his New Deal team and that had the war ended before the election,
Dewey would have had a significantly better chance of winning. Since people now had money in their pockets and wanted to enjoy themselves after years of austerity due to the Depression and the war, there was a desire to get away from the heavy governmental regulation and control the New Deal and the War brought with them. While, in the end, the Democratic cry to not "change horses in the middle of the stream" did swing most voters, the desire for change and relaxation of governmental control did finally express itself in the Republicans taking control of both the House of
Representatives and the Senate in the next mid-term elections which were held in 1946.
Although other reviewers have pointed out that the author is clearly sympathetic to Roosevelt, he does not hide FDR's dissembling and his making contradictory promises to people. FDR's message that "were he a delegate to the Democratic convention, he would support Henry Wallace for another term as Vice President" while at the same time working to get rid of him brings no credit to his reputation, yet Wallace himself seems to have been naively unaware of how much opposition there was to him. Bob Hanigan, the Democratic Party boss who worked to replace Wallace with Harry Truman on the ticket once joked that he wanted written on his grave stone "here lies the man who prevented Henry Wallace from becoming President of the United States!".
I also have to agree that the book seems to mostly ignore the effect that developments on the battle front and other international affairs had on public opinion. The writer does point out that Dewey put a pro-Zionist plank in the Republican platform which then seems to have pushed the Democrats to do the same but I think such a momentous act should have been described in greater detail, seeing as how this lead directly to United States support for the creation of the state of Israel during the next Presidential term in addition to the fact that FDR completely repudiated it secretly in a meeting with Saudi King Abdel-Aziz ibn Saud shortly after FDR started his fourth term, but which President Truman rescusitated later on.
All-in-all, this is a very informative and easy-to-read book. I recommend it to anyone interested in 20th century American history.
As this well-written, fast-paced book shows, the 1944 election was surprisingly close and foreshadowed much of the American elections in the second half of the twentieth century.
Thomas Dewey, the Republican presidential candidate in 1944 (and 1948) unsuccessfully tried to walk the tightrope between the Republican Party's coastal, liberal, internationalist wing and its Midwestern, conservative, isolationist wing, foreshadowing the tensions between the neoconservatives (e.g., Bush) and paleoconservatives (e.g., Buchanan) in the 1990s and 2000s.
Franklin Roosevelt, meanwhile, successfully walked the tightrope between the Democratic Party's left-wing, labor-based wing and its right-wing, Southern wing, foreshadowing the Dixiecrat rebellion of 1948 and the eventual shift of the South into solidly Republican territory in the last third of the twentieth century.
Most interestingly, the author provides evidence that by the 1940s, the liberal and conservative wings of each party were beginning to recognize their ideological affinities. By the mid-1940s, two world wars, the railroad, the telegraph, the radio, and the motion pictures had nationalized American politics, turning the two parties from loose vehicles for winning elections into ideological homogenous political parties.
Top reviews from other countries
Jordan takes us through the nomination process for both parties in interesting detail. For the Republicans, it seems that a coronation of Thomas Dewey is inevitable, but Dewey has promised his own state that he will complete his term as Governor. The fine line is that he will not seek the nomination, but will accept it if drafted, something that the powers that be in the GOP bring about, in spite of strong contenders from the left (Wendell Willkie) and from the right (Governor John Bricker.)
For the Democrats, two issues must resolve themselves: (1) Will FDR's health permit his serving a fourth term? (2) Will the Democrats dump flaky Vice-President Henry Wallace from the ticket, and if so, who will replace him? Jordan takes us through these processes with the same anticipation as those awaiting these decisions at the time must have felt. He explains how and why Harry Truman came to be chosen as Roosevelt's running mate, and provides us with good insight into all of the back room dealings and how FDR craftily made all possible running mates feel as if they had his support, when in fact he was leaving that decision to others.
The story of the campaign is interesting in itself. Although polling wasn't the same art or science that it is today, reputable pollsters differed on the outcome right up to election day. Jordan provides a vivid picture of the campaigning. At times it appears that both candidates have the advantage, although the state by state analysis appears to contradict this and seems to give an advantage to Roosevelt. The major issues of the campaign are addressed: who can best manage the war as well as the post-war economy, what the post-war world order will look like, domestic policies and the real or imagined threat of communist influence at home.
One problem with this book is that Jordan does little to hide his preference between the two candidates. Roosevelt is portrayed as the more honourable, at least in his public addresses, while Dewey is portrayed as a cold fish: all storefront, no store. Jordan takes great pains to point out inaccuracies in Dewey's rhetoric, while we are to assume that FDR was not guilty of any misleading throughout the campaign. While attempting to state the arguments made by both campaigns, he presents the case for Roosevelt much stronger than for Dewey and by the end of the book there is no doubt which of the two men Jordan idolizes and which he views as inferior. His portrayal of Dewey is at odds with other biographies of the famed New York crime-buster.
The book gives a good flavour of the times when it comes to cultural, sporting and entertainment doings, but seems to downplay the influence of the war on the home front. Little if any mention is made of how D-Day may have affected the voters or the campaign, and other military victories are mentioned only in passing. The book gives the impression at times that all was business as usual in the campaign, and that it was easy to forget that there was still a war going on, aside from the obvious restriction it placed on Roosevelt's ability to campaign.
Setting those criticisms aside, this book is informative, interesting (especially for the political history geek) and suspenseful despite the fact that we all know how the story is going to end.
The story of the eventual choice of Harry Truman as FDR's number 2 has been told many times though it remains fascinating enough in the retelling by Mr.Jordan.
Most students of US politics agree that FDR was an outtanding President.Whilst I largely go along with this judgement it has to be said that dealing with the great man could at times be a tricky business.FDR clearly hated to disappoint people so that everyone left the Oval Office satisfied he or she had got what they wanted.Only later did it become apparent that this was not necessarily the case.
A worthwhile read of largely familiar events.The cover with a wonderful illustration by Norman Rockwell is quite superb.





