In this illustrated history of American presidential elections, the focus is on campaign images that have been conveyed every four years through such artifacts as posters, buttons, and bumper stickers. For each election, a half-dozen pages of text and several pages of color photographs of artifacts provide a feeling for the mood of the times.
Each campaign, from the first in 1789 through the most recent in 1992, is treated separately in a lively essay by a historian, political scientist, or journalist. The writers' expertise is noted by their academic positions and publications. Editor Schlesinger has written extensively on the presidency and edited the four-volume History of American Presidential Elections, 17891968. Entries treat not just the winners of the elections; memorabilia related to other candidates, including third-party candidates, is displayed, too. Some items show local candidates. For example, a 1952 Wisconsin poster shows national Republican candidates Eisenhower and Nixon plus senatorial candidate Joseph McCarthy. Each volume has a bibliography arranged by election and its own index. An introduction by Schlesinger is repeated in each volume.
Users seeking to understand presidential elections through popular culture will find much enjoyment as they browse through the more than 1,000 attractive photographs of such housewares as pitchers and tankards, umbrellas, medals, banners, ribbons, snuffboxes, sheet music, and other memorabilia, all in full color. Each item is clearly identified.
Persons seeking brief material on the elections will find the essays helpful, but similar information can be found in other sources. The popular images so handsomely conveyed through the memorabilia are what make this book unique. Running for President will be a welcome addition to public and academic library circulating collections.
Until now, reference works about the presidency primarily analyzed the historical/constitutional implications of elections and the personalities of the candidates. This unique work captures the essence, the controversies, and the fun of presidential campaigns. Interpretive, readable essays about seven pages long focus on the "styles, tactics, and techniques" used to attract voters. An important corollary to the popular study of campaigns is the rise of the media, treated here at length. The contributors describe the significance of television, the decline of print journalism, the proliferation of polls, and the emergence of consultants and instant news during the post-1940s elections. The watershed election of 1992, as discussed by noted commentator John Chancellor, saw free-form communications between the public and the candidates-a populist trend that occurred at the expense of tightly controlled debates and talking heads, orchestrated by media pundits. The most significant feature of this reference is the 1,304 four-color illustrations of political paraphernalia-buttons, posters, bumper stickers, ceramic vases, hats, ties, goblets, clocks, and even a mechanical nose-thumber from the 1880 Garfield campaign. The illustrations are taken from items belonging to contributing editor David Frent, the owner of the world's largest collection of political memorabilia. Together the essays and pictures remind the reader that before television and movies, elections were the nation's entertainment. Although a comprehensive bibliography and an integrated index would have been helpful, this work is a most formidable and accessible preserver of the spirit of presidential campaigns. The one drawback is the weak biographical section; though highly qualified, the contributors rely too much on their own research and conclusions, slighting the work of others. An excellent complement to its more scholarly sister publication, The Encyclopedia of the American Presidency (LJ 1/94), this new resource will be relished by high school and college students, public historians, and collectors of political memorabilia alike. Highly recommended.
Karl Helicher, Upper Merion Twp. Lib., King of Prussia, Pa.Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
