Let the people rule : Theodore Roosevelt and the birth of the presidential primary

Title:

Author:

Cowan, Geoffrey, author.

ISBN:

9780393249842

Edition:

First edition.

Physical Description:

404 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm

Personal Subject:

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919.

Taft, William H. (William Howard), 1857-1930.

Subject Term:

Presidents -- United States -- Election -- 1912.

Primaries -- United States -- History -- 20th century.

Presidents -- United States -- Nomination -- History -- 20th century.

Presidential candidates -- United States -- History -- 20th century.

Political campaigns -- United States -- History -- 20th century.

Political culture -- United States -- History -- 20th century.

Geographic Term:

United States -- Politics and government -- 1909-1913.

Summary:

The exhilarating story of the four-month campaign that changed American politics forever. In 1912, Theodore Roosevelt came out of retirement to challenge his close friend and handpicked successor, William Howard Taft, for the Republican Party nomination. To overcome the power of the incumbent, TR seized on the idea of presidential primaries, telling bosses everywhere to "Let the People Rule." The cheers and jeers of rowdy supporters and detractors echo from Geoffrey Cowan's pages as he explores TR's fight-to-the-finish battle to win popular support. After sweeping nine out of thirteen primaries, he felt entitled to the nomination. But the party bosses proved too powerful, leading Roosevelt to walk out of the convention and create a new political party of his own. Using a trove of newly discovered documents, Cowan takes readers inside the colorful, dramatic, and often mean-spirited campaign, describing the political machinations and intrigue and painting indelible portraits of its larger-than-life characters. But Cowan also exposes the more unsavory parts of TR's campaign: seamy backroom deals, bribes made in TR's name during the Republican Convention, and then the shocking political calculation that led TR to ban any black delegates from the Deep South from his new "Bull Moose Party."

Holds:

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Library	Call Number	Status
Searching... R.H. Stafford Library (Woodbury)	324.973 COW	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

Let the People Rule tells the exhilarating story of the four-month campaign that changed American politics forever. In 1912 Theodore Roosevelt came out of retirement to challenge his close friend and handpicked successor, William Howard Taft, for the Republican Party nomination. To overcome the power of the incumbent, TR seized on the idea of presidential primaries, telling bosses everywhere to "Let the People Rule." The cheers and jeers of rowdy supporters and detractors echo from Geoffrey Cowan's pages as he explores TR's fight-to-the-finish battle to win popular support. After sweeping nine out of thirteen primaries, he felt entitled to the nomination. But the party bosses proved too powerful, leading Roosevelt to walk out of the convention and create a new political party of his own.

Using a trove of newly discovered documents, Cowan takes readers inside the colorful, dramatic, and often mean-spirited campaign, describing the political machinations and intrigue and painting indelible portraits of its larger-than-life characters. But Cowan also exposes the more unsavory parts of TR's campaign: seamy backroom deals, bribes made in TR's name during the Republican Convention, and then the shocking political calculation that led TR to ban any black delegates from the Deep South from his new "Bull Moose Party."

In this utterly compelling work, Cowan illuminates lessons of the past that have great resonance for American politics today.

Author Notes

Geoffrey Cowan , former president of the Annenberg Foundation Trust at Sunnylands and the Annenberg Family Chair in Communication Leadership at the University of Southern California, is the best-selling author of The People v. Clarence Darrow. He lives in Los Angeles.

Reviews (4)

Publisher's Weekly Review

In this timely, engaging story of Teddy Roosevelt's role in changing how political parties choose their presidential nominees, Cowan (The People v. Clarence Darrow), director of the Annenberg School's Center on Communication Leadership and Policy at the University of Southern California, presents the 26th president as a conflicted, reluctant champion of popular democracy. Roosevelt served nearly two full terms as president (1901-9) before taking a hiatus from politics. Friends and supporters urged him to run again in 1912 to keep the Republican Party on a reformist course. However, Roosevelt's personally groomed successor, William Howard Taft, refused to give up hopes for a second term, setting the stage for a fight at the nominating convention. Roosevelt knew he had to capitalize on his popularity, so the manner of choosing delegates and who they represented was critically important to securing the nomination. Cowan writes with a Rooseveltian verve, focusing on the political processes without losing sight of the major personalities who were involved as Roosevelt, Taft, and Robert La Follette jockeyed for the 1912 nomination. He also portrays Roosevelt as an opportunist who manipulated race and gender issues to further his candidacy. Roosevelt introduced an important change to the nominating process, but Cowan shows that it cost him and the Republicans the White House. Illus. (Jan.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Kirkus Review

The history of the 1912 battle among Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and Robert La Follette for the presidency of the United States, which gave birth to the first presidential primary. Cowan (Annenberg Family Chair in Communication Leadership/Univ. of Southern California; The People v. Clarence Darrow: The Bribery Trial of America's Greatest Lawyer, 1993, etc.) brings to life the wheeler-dealers, back-alley shenanigans, and political intrigue embedded within this legislative saga. He ably shows how the resulting primary system continues to affect our current political theater. Readers' perceptions of Roosevelt and his motivations may change a bit after reading Cowan's assessment of him. The author notes that his interest in writing the book lay in what transpired when Roosevelt created the Bull Moose Party, which bore the slogan of "the right of the people to rule," and then proceeded to exclude black delegations from the states comprising the Deep South. Though Cowan's portrait of Roosevelt forms the core of the book, the author fleshes out the personalities and motivations of many other influential characters. Cowan's straightforward explanation of the role played by the prominent newspapers of the era provides an entertaining lens for viewing how outside influences create opinion and help contribute to the process of a presidential election. Readers who may feel overwhelmed by today's political climate should take heart in noting how the past was not all that much different. "Insiders knew that the convention itselfthe fight over the temporary roll, over the permanent chairmanship, even over the credentials challengeswas theater, for effect, for public consumption," writes Cowan, whose use of material "from dozens of previously unknown and unused manuscript collections," adds depth to his portrait of Roosevelt and the social and cultural environments from which the presidential primary emerged. Political junkies will delight in this rollicking history containing lessons applicable to our contemporary political landscape. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Choice Review

The presidential campaign of 1912 is well-worked territory, but Cowan (Univ. of Southern California) offers a fresh angle. At the center of the story is former President Theodore Roosevelt, advocating an ambitious Progressive platform (including, somewhat halfheartedly, female suffrage) and indignant that his handpicked successor, William Howard Taft, had followed a different path on issues ranging from environmental policy to trust-busting. Because Taft and his allies controlled Republican Party machinery, TR's prospects for success at the GOP convention depended on showing strength in state primaries--then new and more the exception than the rule. Roosevelt won 9 of 13 primaries in 1912, fueling his bid, which came up just short. Cowan shows how this otherwise righteous Progressive's desire to win the nomination trumped his sense of fair play for African Americans. If nothing else, however, Roosevelt's fervent calls for the people to rule--and specifically, his demand that smoke-filled rooms be exchanged for primary contests in determining a party's nominee--laid the foundation for modern presidential politics. Impressively researched and lucidly argued, this book enriches understanding of the presidential game. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above. --Michael J. Birkner, Gettysburg College

Library Journal Review

The 1912 presidential election was the first one in which primaries played a significant role. Despite Theodore Roosevelt winning nine of the 13 Republican primaries, William H. Taft was renominated because of his strong support among delegates chosen at state nominating conventions, says Cowan (Annenberg Family Chair in Communication Leadership, Univ. of Southern California; The People v. Clarence Darrow), in this lively, deeply researched narrative, which takes readers from primary season through the convention, and to Roosevelt and his supporters bolting to form the upstart, progressive Bull Moose Party. Cowan is at his best when revealing Roosevelt's cynical manipulation of black voters, who were encouraged to become Bull Moosers in the North but were forbidden to become convention delegates if they lived in the Jim Crow South. Despite this ploy, Roosevelt was trounced in the South by Democrat Woodrow Wilson, the election's victor. Cowan concludes that the emergence of primaries was the election's enduring legacy. VERDICT Both general readers and historians will enjoy the book's you-are-there feel because of Cowan's excellent use of primary documents. See also Louis Gould's Four Hats in the Ring and Doris Kearns Goodwin's The Bully Pulpit, two works that capture the election's spirit and discuss in detail Roosevelt and Taft's volatile relationship.-Karl Helicher, Upper Merion Twp. Lib., King of Prussia, PA © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

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Reviews (4)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Kirkus Review

Choice Review

Library Journal Review

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