The Triumph of William McKinley: Why the Election of 1896 Still Matters by Karl

Description: The Triumph of William McKinley by Karl Rove A fresh look at President William McKinley from New York Times bestselling author and political mastermind Karl Rove--"a rousing tale told by a master storyteller whose love of politics, campaigning, and combat shines through on every page" (Doris Kearns Goodwin, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Team of Rivals). The 1896 political environment resembles that of today: an electorate being transformed by a growing immigrant population, an uncertain economy disrupted by new technologies, growing income inequality, and basic political questions the two parties could not resolve. McKinleys winning presidential campaign addressed these challenges and reformed his party. With "a sure touch [and] professional eye" (The Washington Post), Rove tells the story of the 1896 election and shows why McKinley won, creating a governing majority that dominated American politics for the next thirty-six years. McKinley, a Civil War hero, changed the arc of American history by running the first truly modern presidential campaign. Knowing his party needed to expand its base to win, he reached out to diverse ethnic groups, seeking the endorsement of Catholic leaders and advocating for black voting rights. Running on the slogan "The People Against the Bosses," McKinley also took on the machine men who dominated his own party. He deployed campaign tactics still used today, including targeting voters with the best available technology. Above all, he offered bold, controversial answers to the nations most pressing problem--how to make a new, more global economy work for every American--and although this split his own party, he won the White House by sticking to his principles, defeating a champion of economic populism, William Jennings Bryan. Rove "brings to life the drama of an electoral contest whose outcome seemed uncertain to the candidate and his handlers until the end" (The New York Times Book Review) in a "lively and...rigorous book" (The Wall Street Journal) that will delight students of American political history. FORMAT Paperback LANGUAGE English CONDITION Brand New Author Biography Karl Rove served as Senior Advisor to President George W. Bush from 2000-2007 and Deputy Chief of Staff from 2004-2007. He now writes a weekly op-ed for The Wall Street Journal and is a Fox News contributor. Before he became known as "The Architect" of President Bushs 2000 and 2004 campaigns, Rove was president of Karl Rove + Company, an Austin-based public affairs firm that was involved in over seventy-five campaigns for Republican candidates for president, governor and senator, as well as handling non-partisan causes and non-profit groups. Review "The Triumph of McKinley is the Triumph of Karl Rove. This is a rousing tale told by a master storyteller whose love of politics, campaigning, and combat shines through on every page. Both the man and his times are brought to such vivid life that I felt myself catapulted back to the turn of the last century. And it was great fun to be there!"--Doris Kearns Goodwin, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Team of Rivals"The Triumph of William McKinley is not only readable but also engrossing, a rare relevant history of the mechanics of politics. It educates todays America about politics of another time that are important to understanding our own America and a past now almost completely lost to the public memory."-- "New York Journal of Books""The Triumph of William McKinley ultimately is another reminder of the valuable lessons of the past, not to mention the reality that there is nothing in the world today that hasnt happened before, no matter the pesky belief that the world revolves around us."-- "Fort Worth Star-Telegram""[Roves] richly detailed, moment by moment account in The Triumph of William McKinley brings to life the drama of an electoral contest whose outcome seemed uncertain to the candidate and his handlers until the end. But there is more to this book than simply recounting the details of what was arguably the countrys first modern presidential campaign. . . . The significance of Roves book outruns this ambition. For it implicitly raises questions about the causes of electoral success and the rhythms of partisanship. . . . All that said, as Rove demonstrates, candidates and campaigns do matter. The durable electoral and policy outcomes produced by McKinleys victory over a dramatically dissimilar vision remind us how much can be at stake in a presidential election at a time of political polarization."-- "New York Times Book Review""A brilliant new book on the first modern presidential campaign. . . . Its a pleasure to read and piquantly relevant to today. . . . Rove delved deep into the primary sources and has produced a work that is meticulously researched . . . well written, and extremely discriminating with an eye for the telling detail. There are many fascinating, unjustly forgotten sagas from American political history revealed. . . . Rove provides a wonderful blend of narrative, scholarship, and knowing mastery of political campaign strategy. If you find politics, political intrigue, or American history compelling you will devour The Triumph of William McKinley."-- "Ralph Benko, Forbes.com""Having run--and won--two presidential campaigns, Karl Rove knows elections. The Triumph of William McKinley is a deeply informed and highly engaging account of one of the seminal elections in American history, the 1896 victory that ushered in more than a generation of Republican dominance. A vivid, intriguing and compellingly modern rendering of one of the most underappreciated episodes in American political history."--Charles Krauthammer, author of Things That Matter"Impressively thorough, often exceedingly well written, nearly clinical dissection of the election of 1896.... [The Triumph of William McKinley] can teach regular readers a great deal about what it takes to become president of the United States." -- "Charleston Post & Courier""Roves fascination with and understanding of how the [political] process has worked throughout our history shines through in his new book, The Triumph of William McKinley: Why the Election of 1896 Still Matters."-- "Dayton Daily News" Review Quote "This substantive book by a political practitioner will appeal to and inform all readers, especially aficionados of American political history." Excerpt from Book The Triumph of William McKinley CHAPTER 1 Sense of Duty On July 24, 1864, a twenty-one-year-old Union first lieutenant was sent on a suicide mission near Kernstown, Virginia. An officer in General George Crooks Army of the Kanawha, he was ordered to ride across an exposed battlefield swept by Rebel musket and artillery fire and tell the men of the 13th West Virginia to withdraw before they were overrun and cut to pieces by Confederates under General Jubal Early, who were close to splitting the Union left. If the Rebels succeeded in driving Union forces out of the Shenandoah Valley, they might threaten Washington, D.C., further erode Northern support for the war, undercut Lincolns reelection, and strengthen the Souths chances of ending the conflict through a negotiated settlement with a politically divided North. The lieutenant probably wasnt concerned about these details as he mounted his horse. He was focused on staying alive. Comrades saw him charge "through the open fields, over fences, over ditches" as cannon fire and bullets sprayed the battleground. His tent mate thought he had been hit by an exploding shell, but a "wiry little brown horse" emerged from the smoke with its rider erect and unhurt. He reached the West Virginians and ordered them to withdraw.1 The lieutenant, William McKinley Jr., was to become the twenty-fifth president of the United States. Upon returning from his ride, his commanding officer--Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes, himself a future president from Ohio--said, "I never expected to see you in life again."2 SOME HISTORIANS WRONGLY CREDIT McKinleys winning the White House in 1896 to Marcus Alonzo "Mark" Hanna, a wealthy iron and coal magnate turned political power broker. Others are content to overlook McKinley, instead spotlighting his second vice president and successor, Theodore Roosevelt. Yet in 1896 McKinley outmaneuvered the political bosses within his own party to win the Republican nomination and then defeated the Democrats young, charismatic spokesman for the rising Populist movement--William Jennings Bryan--for the presidency. In the process, McKinley modernized the Republican Party by attracting to it workers, new immigrants, and the growing middle class, allowing the GOP and its policies to dominate politics for the next thirty-six years. McKinley was the first president in more than two decades to win with a significant popular majority. He took office during a severe, prolonged depression that was quickly replaced by strong growth and prosperity on his watch. He annexed Hawaii and waged a short, successful war with Spain that freed Cuba and gave America control of the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Guam. He instituted policies that ensured America would be recognized as a global economic and military power. Enormously popular, he was easily reelected, only to die at an assassins hands six months into his second term.3 For much of the nineteenth century, the United States had been a nation divided. The period after the Civil War saw growing discord between the agrarian South and West and the industrialized North and East. There was friction between debtors worried about their mortgages and loans and the merchants, bankers, investors, and depositors who had lent them the money. There was increasing antagonism between labor and management, and profound disagreements over how the economy should be organized and its benefits distributed. All this was reflected in brutal political battles over esoteric issues like tariffs and currency that nonetheless deeply affected the lives of ordinary people. In many ways, these clashes werent about economics--they were about competing visions for America. Through the nineteenth century, the United States filled the frontier with settlers and established firm control over the continent. Yet these pioneers were rocked by periodic financial panics and lived on loans from merchants and bankers until their crops came in, leading some to blame Eastern financiers for fleecing them as they carved out lives far from the Eastern seaboards money centers. Some Americans resented those who appeared to dominate the nations political institutions, and as the century drew to a close, these critics became increasingly vocal. While an agrarian protest movement was sweeping the South, the Plains, and parts of the Midwest, labor was also organizing across the country, a result of increased industrialization.4 In 1896, McKinley emerged as a political leader uniquely suited for the moment. He understood and championed blue-collar voters while drawing support from captains of industry. He was from a small town in rural Ohio, but as president presided over a rapidly modernizing urban industrial power. His economic concerns appeared parochial, but he viewed them through a national lens. The last of the Civil War generation to occupy the White House, he helped unite the country after decades of division. A SHADOW HAS BEEN cast on McKinleys reputation by a remark he made that he learned more from people than from books. Though he was well read and well educated, biographers still assumed the throwaway line justified a narrative that William McKinley was not particularly thoughtful or intellectually curious. Yet his election is widely seen as one of the most consequential in American history, leading to a dramatic political realignment.5 So was McKinley a fortunate man who rose through luck and the guidance of others, as popular commentary suggests? Or was he a leader, very much in control of his own destiny, content to steer quietly but deliberately, focused on reaching goals more than on claiming credit? In fact, McKinley was a principled man with strong convictions. He was ambitious--most who attain the White House are--but for him, his ambition seems to have been chiefly driven by principles. Understanding McKinley starts with knowing his forebears, who sprang from Scotland, moved to Ireland, and then came to America, taking up residence in Pennsylvania and, finally, Niles, Ohio, where the future president was born January 29, 1843, the seventh of nine children.6 The Scotch-Irish made an impact on America that far outweighs their numbers. Settling on the frontier, many Scotch-Irish families cut farms out of dense forests while suffering hunger and deprivation and repelling Indian attacks. The story of McKinleys ancestors follows this narrative. He had men on both sides of his family who fought in the American Revolution, after which his forebears moved west to Ohio, when the state was still a fertile wilderness. His grandfather and father were ironmongers, digging ore out of hillsides, chopping wood, tending fires, and smelting metal in small furnaces.7 Hanna--who had a more mangled yet somewhat similar lineage--once said McKinley received all the Scottish reticence of their shared heritage, while he got all the Irishmans gregariousness. There was something to the remark. Hanna enjoyed politics jocular side, while McKinley remained personally reserved from childhood to the White House. Reserved shouldnt imply disengaged. The wife of McKinleys principal Ohio political rival once said he was a man who wore many "masks," making it hard to read his emotions or intentions. McKinleys reserved nature wasnt just artifice. It was the deliberate approach of a disciplined man who went about his business in a systematic way. He didnt let his emotions cloud sound decision making or affect his relations with others.8 McKinleys parents were Methodists and held a deep faith common on the frontier. His father was especially religious, writing his then-forty-one-year-old son in 1884 upon hearing of a family medical crisis to ask, "Is your faith strong[?]" Reserved like his son, Father McKinley was a frugal hard worker with a reputation for integrity. While not well educated, the elder McKinley nonetheless read widely and was fond of reciting favorite lines from a prized volume of Shakespeare.9 Young William was close to both his parents--especially his mother, as his father was often away on business. Nancy Allison McKinley descended from Puritans who fled Old World religious persecution and helped William Penn found Pennsylvania. In the New World, her ancestors maintained their faiths quiet intensity. Nancy had charge of the Niles Methodist church, keeping it clean and well maintained as if it were her home. A neighbor remembered she "ran the church, all but the preaching." Mother McKinley (as she became known) tended to ailing friends and boarded traveling ministers and teachers in the familys home. She also served as the small towns peacemaker, resolving quarrels and neighborhood disputes.10 In Niles, where the family lived until William Jr. was nine years old, the McKinleys occupied a long, narrow wood-framed home with a general store on one side--close quarters where a mother could keep her children constantly engaged in constructive activity. All her children had chores and were expected to rise early and turn in early. As a boy and young man, William would return home from school to Details ISBN1476752966 Author Karl Rove Short Title TRIUMPH OF WILLIAM MCKINLEY Pages 496 Publisher Simon & Schuster Language English ISBN-10 1476752966 ISBN-13 9781476752969 Media Book Format Paperback Year 2016 Publication Date 2016-07-12 Subtitle Why the Election of 1896 Still Matters Imprint Simon & Schuster DEWEY 324.97388 Audience General UK Release Date 2016-07-12 We've got this At The Nile, if you're looking for it, we've got it. With fast shipping, low prices, friendly service and well over a million items - you're bound to find what you want, at a price you'll love! TheNile_Item_ID:98382456;

Price: 46.18 AUD

Location: Melbourne

End Time: 2025-02-02T12:11:54.000Z

Shipping Cost: 0 AUD