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The Carnival Campaign: How the Rollicking 1840 Campaign of "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too" Changed Presidential Elections Forever
Current price:
$26.99
Publication Date: September 1st, 2016
Publisher:
Chicago Review Press
ISBN:
9781613735404
Pages:
288
Description
Americans have come to expect that the nation’s presidential campaigns will be characterized by a carnival atmosphere emphasizing style over substance. But this fascinating account of the pivotal 1840 election reveals how the now-unavoidable traditions of big money, big rallies, shameless self-promotion, and carefully manufactured candidate images first took root in presidential politics.
Pulitzer Prize–nominated former Wall Street Journal reporter Ronald G. Shafer tells the colorful story of the election battle between sitting president Martin Van Buren, a professional Democratic politician from New York, and Whig Party upstart William Henry Harrison, a military hero who was nicknamed “Old Tippecanoe” after a battlefield where he fought and won in 1811. Shafer shows how the pivotal campaign of “Tippecanoe and Tyler Too” marked a series of firsts that changed presidential politicking forever: the first presidential campaign as mass entertainment, directed at middle- and lower-income voters; the first “image campaign,” in which strategists painted Harrison as an everyman living in a log cabin sipping hard cider (in fact, he was born into wealth, lived in a twenty-two-room mansion, and drank only sweet cider); the first campaign in which a candidate, Harrison, traveled and delivered speeches directly to voters; the first one influenced by major campaign donations; the first in which women openly participated; and the first involving massive grassroots rallies, attended by tens of thousands and marked by elaborate fanfare, including bands, floats, a log cabin on wheels, and the world’s tallest man.
Some of history’s most fascinating figures—including Susan B. Anthony, Charles Dickens, Abraham Lincoln, Edgar Allan Poe, Thaddeus Stevens, and Walt Whitman—pass through this colorful story, which is essential reading for anyone interested in learning when image first came to trump ideas in presidential politics.
Praise for The Carnival Campaign: How the Rollicking 1840 Campaign of "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too" Changed Presidential Elections Forever
“Ron Shafer re-creates a precursor to the 2016 presidential campaign in stunning detail that makes for delightful reading. The Carnival Campaign is a masterpiece of historical reportage.”—Ronald Kessler, author of The First Family Detail, In the President’s Secret Service, and The Sins of the Father: Joseph P. Kennedy and the Dynasty He Founded
“Ron Shafer argues with clarity and a sly sense of humor that William Henry Harrison's fraudulent ‘log cabin and hard cider’ presidential campaign in 1840 (he was born in luxury and drank Madeira) set the tone for all the image-first campaigns that followed.” —James M. Perry, former chief political correspondent for the Wall Street Journal
"If you've ever wondered how our presidential campaigns came to be what they are now, read The Carnival Campaign. Ronald G. Shafer brings to life the raw emotions and coarse behaviors that toppled the incumbent President Martin Van Buren. This is gripping history." —Ralph Nader, author of Unstoppable: The Emerging Left-Right Alliance to Dismantle the Corporate State
"Ron Shafer's delightful book is replete with anecdotes, nicknames, quips, irony, and telling descriptions of large figures engaged in the long struggle to expand American democratic participation. For those who want the full narrative of the American experience, this book is both necessary and enthralling." —Robert W. Merry, author of A Country of Vast Designs: James K. Polk, the Mexican War, and the Conquest of the American Continent
“Seldom have I found history so entertaining. Despite its terrifying parallels with the current election, this book was a delight to read.” —The Internet Review of Books
“[Author Ronald] Shafer makes his readers feel that we are not alone—not the first, and sadly, not the last to be bamboozled.” —Kirkus Reviews
“Ron Shafer reminds us that what’s old is new again in his compelling yarn about the 1840 campaign, which set a standard for lies and mudslinging that remains with us today.” -- Dana Milbank, Washington Post columnist
