| A dazzling panorama of presidential personalities, ambitions,
plots and
counter-plots—
and of a newly-modern America at the crossroads—grounded in solid historical research, insightful social commentary, a compelling and innovative structure, and riveting historical profiles. In 1920, a record six past, present, or future chief executives eye the great prize of the Presidency, each with a unique style and vision of the office and the nation: Theodore Roosevelt: The Rough Rider himself. President. Historian. Cowboy. Police Commissioner. Trust-Buster. Explorer. Naturalist. Big-Game Hunter. Noble Prize-winner. He has been president once—and wants the job again. Only the hand of God can keep him from the White House in 1920. Woodrow Wilson: Brilliant, eloquent, progressive, and self-confident. But also bigoted, self-centered, stubborn, and messianic. He desperately plans for a League of Nations to prevent future wars, but lacks the diplomatic and political skills to sell the idea either at home or abroad. In the bargain, he fatally compromises article after article of his Fourteen Points and sows the seeds of another war. “Woodrow Wilson is an exile from the hearts of his people,” says Eugene V. Debs, “The betrayal of his ideals makes him the most pathetic figure in the world.” An October 1919 stroke leaves him too crippled to lead the nation, but the nation is never told. Fantastically, he clings to hopes of an unprecedented third term. Warren G. Harding: Ohio small-town newspaper editor, Republican politician, and serial adulterer. His strengths: he looks like a president, sounds like a president (if you don’t listen too carefully), and is sufficiently vague on the issues to be nominated. “America’s present need,” he intones, “is not heroics, but healing; not nostrums but normalcy.” America agrees. Calvin Coolidge: Silent Cal. The taciturn Vermonter who became Massachusetts’s coldly efficient governor. His actions during the September 1919 Boston police strike (“There is no right to strike against the public safety by anybody, anywhere, anytime”) make him presidential timber. In Chicago, the GOP convention stampedes and anoints him its vice-presidential candidate. Herbert Hoover: The Great Engineer. International gold mining adventurer. Multi-millionaire. Savior of war-ravaged Europe’s starving masses. A political progressive and member of the Wilson administration. A national hero. In 1920 Hoover wants to be president but has one big problem: he can’t decide if he’s a Republican or a Democrat. Franklin D. Roosevelt: Wilson’s ambitious, but not yet properly-seasoned, under secretary of the Navy. If the Republicans can’t nominate a dead Roosevelt, the Democrats will nominate a live one—Franklin—for vice-president. |
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| "A rousing chronicle. . . Pietrusza . . . adds color and dimension with smart discussions of Prohibition, women’s suffrage, immigration, civil rights, the League of Nations and labor strife, and he offers animated portraits of William Jennings Bryan, Carrie Chapman Catt, Henry Ford, Marcus Garvey, Sacco and Vanzetti, William Randolph Hearst, H.L.
Mencken and many others. A hugely fascinating episode in American history, told with insight and great humor, by an author in command of his subject." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review) "absorbing . . . a broad, satisfying political and social history, in the style of Doris Kearns Goodwin." —Publishers Weekly "a colorful, nonacademic account . . . Most of all, there are the characters. Pietrusza draws them sharply: the imperious Wilson, the obliging Harding, the dour and honest Coolidge and the ambitious and dissembling Franklin Roosevelt. Fans of political history will enjoy this book." —Seattle Times "Fascinating and compelling . . . Highly recommended." —Library Journal “I just finished 1920 and liked it a lot . . . a fine job in capturing the personalities of an interesting cast of political characters and the era in which they lived.” —President George W. Bush "The President passed on your book after he finished it . . . I dipped into 1920 and found myself devouring it in one weekend. A great read—chock full of great insights and brilliant portraits. Thanks for a wonderful volume . . a great read." "An ably popular treatment that fans of campaign histories will enjoy." —Booklist "A terrific and fun read." —Bloomberg Radio "More than just a story of six men who either already had been president or would be, this is the story of America as it moved into the modern age." —Denver Post "a very vivid portrait of each of these presidents." —Ann Compton, ABC News "Sweeping and original." —The History Book Club "An absolutely wonderful book . . . I loved [it], absolutely marvelous, absolutely wonderful research . . . just a great read, marvelously done, brilliantly constructed and really integrates the entire story of one year—1920. . . . if I were teaching a history class of early twentieth century America this is the book I would use. . . . It reads like a novel but it's fact . . . a great book." —John Rothman, KGO "With a storyteller’s eye for characters and drama, Pietrusza re-creates America at a post-World War I turning point, when the country wanted steady leadership but got scandal instead." —Washington CEO Magazine "David Pietrusza’s remarkable new book 1920: The Year of Six Presidents is exactly the way history should be written. It is riveting, involving, filled with verifiable fact and compelling anecdote. It makes the era come alive [and] challenges presumptions about well-known figures . . ." —Glenn Raucher West Side Y's Writer's Voice "A good read" —Bill Gruver, The Arizona Report |
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| David Pietrusza's 1920: The Year of the Six Presidents A Selection of the History Book Club Carroll & Graf Publishers ISBN # 0786716223 |
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| Featured on C-SPAN (BookTV)'s After Words, interviewed by ABC News Correspondent Ann Compton Order a DVD |
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