A meticulously researched, thought-provoking look at the mechanics of American politics.
Haynes presents a detailed account of the U.S. presidential nominating conventions and candidates from 1904-1944, with a particular emphasis on the Roosevelts.
The author, a former trial attorney, opens with the event that would change American politics “forever”: William McKinley’s assassination and the subsequent swearing in of Theodore Roosevelt as the country’s 26th president. From there, chapters exhaustively cover the intrigues and anecdotes from every subsequent nominating convention over a 40-year period. Lyrics to campaign songs introduce the sections, including gems like “Herbert Hoover promised us two chickens in each pot, / But breadlines and Depression were the only things we got.” The author discusses nominees for each party, as well as the sometimes dubious methods by which they were chosen—Franklin Roosevelt, for example, received swift backlash for trying to secretly change the two-thirds rule for the 1932 nomination, while Wendell Willkie, an active Democrat, managed to win the Republican nomination in 1940. Haynes also dives into the various social issues that affected each nomination process (such as the women’s suffrage movement and the voting rights of Blacks) and provides facts about the voting process itself. The book provides a truly astonishing amount of detail about the people, events, and settings for each convention, as evidenced by this description of Philadelphia’s Convention Hall (home to the 1940 Republican convention): “The arena, exposed to the sun during daytime, had a modest air conditioning system, but that provided little relief from outside temperatures that rose to ninety degrees on most days that the convention met, especially with more than 16,000 people packed inside. One observer called it ‘a filthy, sweaty hell of sealed-in heat.’” Some of these details may appeal to only the most hardcore history buffs, especially when delivered by the author’s largely dry narrative voice. But many of the anecdotes, like one describing alcohol flowing “freely for conventioneers” six months into Prohibition, paint a fascinating portrait of the time.
A meticulously researched, thought-provoking look at the mechanics of American politics.Pub Date: March 27, 2024
ISBN: 9781737766957
Page Count: 354
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.
Greed, depravity, and serial murder in 1920s Oklahoma.
During that time, enrolled members of the Osage Indian nation were among the wealthiest people per capita in the world. The rich oil fields beneath their reservation brought millions of dollars into the tribe annually, distributed to tribal members holding "headrights" that could not be bought or sold but only inherited. This vast wealth attracted the attention of unscrupulous whites who found ways to divert it to themselves by marrying Osage women or by having Osage declared legally incompetent so the whites could fleece them through the administration of their estates. For some, however, these deceptive tactics were not enough, and a plague of violent death—by shooting, poison, orchestrated automobile accident, and bombing—began to decimate the Osage in what they came to call the "Reign of Terror." Corrupt and incompetent law enforcement and judicial systems ensured that the perpetrators were never found or punished until the young J. Edgar Hoover saw cracking these cases as a means of burnishing the reputation of the newly professionalized FBI. Bestselling New Yorkerstaff writer Grann (The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession, 2010, etc.) follows Special Agent Tom White and his assistants as they track the killers of one extended Osage family through a closed local culture of greed, bigotry, and lies in pursuit of protection for the survivors and justice for the dead. But he doesn't stop there; relying almost entirely on primary and unpublished sources, the author goes on to expose a web of conspiracy and corruption that extended far wider than even the FBI ever suspected. This page-turner surges forward with the pacing of a true-crime thriller, elevated by Grann's crisp and evocative prose and enhanced by dozens of period photographs.
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.Pub Date: April 18, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-385-53424-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
A short, smart analysis of perhaps the most famous passage in American history reveals its potency and unfulfilled promise.
Words that made a nation.
Isaacson is known for expansive biographies of great thinkers (and Elon Musk), but here he pens a succinct, stimulating commentary on the Founding Fathers’ ode to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” His close reading of the Declaration of Independence’s second sentence, published to mark the 250th anniversary of the document’s adoption, doesn’t downplay its “moral contradiction.” Thomas Jefferson enslaved hundreds of people yet called slavery “a cruel war against human nature” in his first draft of the Declaration. All but 15 of the document’s 56 signers owned enslaved people. While the sentence in question asserted “all men are created equal” and possess “unalienable rights,” the Founders “consciously and intentionally” excluded women, Native Americans, and enslaved people. And yet the sentence is powerful, Isaacson writes, because it names a young nation’s “aspirations.” He mounts a solid defense of what ought to be shared goals, among them economic fairness, “moral compassion,” and a willingness to compromise. “Democracy depends on this,” he writes. Isaacson is excellent when explaining how Enlightenment intellectuals abroad influenced the founders. Benjamin Franklin, one of the Declaration’s “five-person drafting committee,” stayed in David Hume’s home for a month in the early 1770s, “discussing ideas of natural rights” with the Scottish philosopher. Also strong is Isaacson’s discussion of the “edits and tweaks” made to Jefferson’s draft. As recommended by Franklin and others, the changes were substantial, leaving Jefferson “distraught.” Franklin, who emerges as the book’s hero, helped establish municipal services, founded a library, and encouraged religious diversity—the kind of civic-mindedness that we could use more of today, Isaacson reminds us.
A short, smart analysis of perhaps the most famous passage in American history reveals its potency and unfulfilled promise.Pub Date: Nov. 18, 2025
ISBN: 9781982181314
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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