Synopses & Reviews
In such popular television series as
The West Wing and
24, in thrillers like Tom Clancy’s novels, and in recent films, plays, graphic novels, and internet cartoons, America has been led by an amazing variety of chief executives. Some of these are real presidents who have been fictionally reimagined. Others are “might-have-beens” like Philip Roth’s President Charles Lindbergh. Many more have never existed except in some storyteller’s mind.
In The Presidents We Imagine, Jeff Smith examines the presidency’s ever-changing place in the American imagination. Ranging across different media and analyzing works of many kinds, some familiar and some never before studied, he explores the evolution of presidential fictions, their central themes, the impact on them of new and emerging media, and their largely unexamined role in the nation’s real politics.
Smith traces fictions of the presidency from the plays and polemics of the eighteenth century—when the new office was born in what Alexander Hamilton called “the regions of fiction”—to the digital products of the twenty-first century, with their seemingly limitless user-defined ways of imagining the world’s most important political figure. Students of American culture and politics, as well as readers interested in political fiction and film, will find here a colorful, indispensable guide to the many surprising ways Americans have been “representing” presidents even as those presidents have represented them.
“Especially timely in an era when media image-mongering increasingly shapes presidential politics.”—Paul S. Boyer, series editor
“Smith's understanding of the sociopolitical realities of US history is impressive; likewise his interpretations of works of literature and popular culture. . . .In addition to presenting thoughtful analysis, the book is also fun. Readers will enjoy encounters with, for example, The Beggar's Opera, Duck Soup, Edward Bellamy's Looking Backward, Philip Roth's Plot against America, the comedic campaigns of W. C. Fields for President and Pogo for President, and presidential fictions that continue up to the last President Bush. . . . His writing is fluid and conversational, but every page reveals deep understanding and focus. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers.”—CHOICE
Review
“A fresh angle on a popular topic.”—Publishers Weekly
Review
“A generation before A. Philip Randolph, Adam Clayton Powell Jr., and Ella Baker, there was George Edwin Taylor. Rich in detail, this compelling story sheds light on black labor struggles in the Upper Midwest and brings to life an American civil rights hero and pioneer of independent black politics at the turn of the twentieth century.”—Omar H. Ali, author of In the Balance of Power: Independent Black Politics and Third Party Movements in the United States
Review
“A dense, terrific book . . . . Smith draws upon dozens, even hundreds, of largely forgotten satires, fantasies, pulp novels, B-movies, and online film reviews to relate the contested image of the presidency both to the immediate political conditions and to shifts in genre.”—Gregory P. Downs, American Quarterly
Review
“The best piece of historical detective work I have seen since John Hope Franklin’s work on George Washington Williams. At every turn it brings new findings and insights about the political experiences of African Americans. Superb and pioneering work.”—Hanes Walton Jr., author of American Politics and the African American Quest for Universal Freedom
Review
“An excellent biography of a forgotten but important leader.” —The Annals of Iowa
Review
“Mouser’s biography is a triumph of detective work conducted over many years. . . . [T]hanks to Mouser’s quoting of many of Taylor’s editorials and political platforms in full, we do get a chance to ponder his political statements in detail and thus get a glimpse into a world of northern black politics that has so often been neglected.”—Stephen Tuck, Presidential Studies Quarterly
Review
"As Mouser shows, Scott spent his life figuring outand#151;and satisfyingand#151;men's interests with liquor, gambling, and women, and . . . [he] refused to be complicit in backing politicians who took him and the broader base of first-generation black voters for dupes. . . . Scott saw the political game for what it was: a game of power."and#151;Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Review
"The work of a master historian and storyteller. Mouser's rich and nuanced scholarship adds clarity and depth to our understanding of African Americans and third-party politics, bringing us into the wider, complex, and contradictory world which Scott was both a product of and helped to produce."and#151;Omar H. Ali, author of In the Lion's Mouth: Black Populism in the New South, 1886and#150;1900
Review
"This is a fascinating and informative look into the life of a forgotten but important African American leader. . . . Scott emerges as a powerful, interesting, and even enigmatic leader working on both sides of the law to further his own interests and those of the larger African American community."and#151;Roger Bridges, Illinois State University
Review
andquot;Although Nebraska has honored George W. Norris by inducting him into the Nebraska Hall of Fame, naming school districts and public power districts for him, and preserving his McCook home, this book will help Nebraskans and others remember why.andquot;andmdash;James E. Potter, Nebraska History
Review
andquot;George Norris, Going Home reveals Norris as an energetic visionary who fought passionately for the improvement of everyday American life for all citizens. This portrayal serves as a timely reminder of how much a good politican can accomplish.andquot;andmdash;Travis Amundson, Nebraska Life
Review
"Nebraskans need to remember George Norris. He truly was one of our great citizens. This book is a very enjoyable journey through those memories."and#8212;Francis Moul, Lincoln Journal Star
Review
and#8220;A remarkable account of the life of one of the most influential politicians in the last hundred years. . . . His extraordinary achievements for all American people offer a rare glimpse at what can be achieved when people and politicians put aside narrow interests. . . . Budig and Walton have produced a short and powerful document that draws on the reflections of the Senator and others who knew him at the end of his life. It would serve us well if a copy of this book were in every school library across the country.and#8221;and#8212;Richard Sterling, former president of the National Writing Commission
Review
andquot;A fascinating biography, adding important insight into the African American experience in Wisconsin as well as the broader histories of migration, race, and employment in the twentieth-century United States.andquot;andmdash;William P. Jones, author of The Tribe of Black Ulysses: African American Lumber Workers in the Jim Crow South
Review
andquot;A vivid and moving story, Sylvia Bell White's life tracks the roots and routes of many working-class black people of her generation. But she also shows her vibrant individuality, her refusal to be the typical or the representative woman, her determination to be herself.andquot;andmdash;William L. Andrews, series editor and coeditor of The Norton Anthology of African American Literature
Review
andldquo;If youandrsquo;re looking for something thatandrsquo;s different, powerful, and sometimes delightful, then youandrsquo;re going to love this book.andrdquo;andmdash;
The Washington InformerReview
andldquo;Whiteandrsquo;s story . . . is a powerful and moving one told in the voice of the remarkable woman who lived it.andrdquo;andmdash;
OnMilwaukee.comReview
andldquo;LePage intersperses richly researched historical context on the twentieth-century African American experience . . . . [and] helps convey and lend context to Bell Whiteandrsquo;s deep convictions about family, education and racism.andrdquo;andmdash;
Madison Magazineand#160;Review
andldquo;Hal Wert transports the reader back to a time when wheat paste campaigns were as incendiary and potent a political weapon as a Swiftboat ad is today. Psychedelic, defiant and poignant, the political posters Wert has gathered together in this book capture the zeitgeist of the era.andrdquo;andmdash;Daniel Joseph Watkins, author of Thomas W. Benton: Artist/Activist
Review
andldquo;This expertly curated collection of poster art is a vivid but poignant reminder of the turbulent years when politicians could dare to reflect the ideals of the counter-culture. Evocative and powerful, these rare artifacts bring historic dreams and doomed crusades back to life.andrdquo;andmdash;Peter Doggett, author of Thereandrsquo;s a Riot Going On
Review
andldquo;You donandrsquo;t have to be a George McGovern fan to appreciate Hal Wertandrsquo;s latest book, but if you are, youandrsquo;re in for a treat. Hal Wert combines art, music, politics, and history, along with a fascinating array of posters throughout the decades, to provide a visual feast with plenty of accompanying substance and historical context.andrdquo;andmdash;Laurie Langland, university archivist at Dakota Wesleyan University in Mitchell, South Dakotaand#160;
Review
andldquo;A valuable contribution to understanding and appreciating the power of pictorial imagery to persuade people.andrdquo;andmdash;Ann McGovern, daughter of George McGovern
Review
andldquo;Wert has assembled an impressive array of official and unofficial artworks that reveal the rich intersection of electoral, countercultural, and mass-movement posters that sought to reframe American society.andrdquo;andmdash;Lincoln Cushing, author of All of Us or None: Social Justice Posters of the San Francisco Bay Area
Synopsis
Elena Georgiou's debut collection of poems unveils the story of a vigorous soul's journey in and out of love. Whether her speaker is buying lunch at a falafel stand or bumping into the ghost of Marvin Gaye in the supermarket, Georgiou's zesty clarity prevails.
Synopsis
More than one hundred years before Barack Obama, George Edwin Taylor made presidential history. Born in the antebellum South to a slave and a freed woman, Taylor became the first African American ticketed as a political party’s nominee for president of the United States, running against Theodore Roosevelt in 1904.
Orphaned as a child at the peak of the Civil War, Taylor spent several years homeless before boarding a Mississippi riverboat that dropped him in La Crosse, Wisconsin. Taken in by an African American farm family, Taylor attended a private school and eventually rose to prominence as the owner/editor of a labor newspaper and as a vocal leader in Wisconsin’s People’s Party. At a time when many African Americans felt allegiance to the Republican Party for its support of abolition, Taylor’s sympathy with the labor cause drew him first to the national Democratic Party and then to an African American party, the newly formed National Liberty Party, which in 1904 named him its presidential candidate. Bruce L. Mouser follows Taylor’s life and career in Arkansas, Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Florida, giving life to a figure representing a generation of African American idealists whose initial post-slavery belief in political and social equality in America gave way to the despair of the Jim Crow decades that followed.
Best Books for Special Interests, selected by the American Association for School Libraries
Best Books for Professional Use, selected by the American Association for School Libraries
Best Books for General Audiences, selected by the Public Library Association
Second Place, Biography, Society of Midland Authors
Honorable Mention, Benjamin F. Shambough Award, the State Historical Society of Iowa
Synopsis
A well-researched biography of William Thomas Scott, an entrepreneur and political activist with a past of gambling and vice trades. He was briefly the first African American nominee of a national political party for president of the United States until his controversial past led to his abrupt political downfall.
Synopsis
William Thomas Scott (1839and#150;1917) was an entrepreneur and political activist from East Saint Louis and Cairo, Illinois, who in 1904 briefly became the first African American nominated by a national party for president of the United States before his scandalous past forced him to step aside. A free man before the Civil War, Scott was a charismatic hustler who built his fortune through both vice trades and legal businesses including hotels, saloons, and real estate. Publisher and editor of the
Cairo Gazette and an outspoken advocate for equal rights, he believed in political patronage and frequently rebelled against political bosses who failed to deliver, whether they were white, black, Republican, or Democrat.
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Scott helped build the National Negro Liberty Party to forward economic, political, and legal rights for his race. But the hustling that had brought him business success proved his undoing as a national political figure. He was the NNLP's initial presidential nominee, only to be replaced by a better-educated and more socially acceptable candidate, George Edwin Taylor.
Synopsis
After forty years of congressional service, five terms in the House and five in the Senate, George William Norris (1861and#8211;1944) was going home to Nebraska. Norris had lost the 1942 Senate race and felt the defeat keenly. But as his train rolled westward, he was forcefully reminded of what his legislative efforts had wrought, from the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) to the Rural Electrification Act (REA), which brought power to the land unfolding before him. It is here that authors Gene A. Budig and Don Walton begin their journey with this great statesman, perhaps the last progressive Republican, a tireless champion of and#8220;public powerand#8221; and the common man.
This book carries readers back through Norrisand#8217;s career and accomplishments: the establishment of the TVA and the REA as well as the Twentieth Amendment to the Constitution and the shaping of Nebraskaand#8217;s unique unicameral legislature. Norris recalls the battles he waged, one of which landed him in John F. Kennedyand#8217;s Profiles in Courage, and the alliances he formed with leading political figures of his day, from Fiorello La Guardia to Franklin D. Roosevelt. The result is a contemporary perspective on a man who fiercely defended the public interest and followed his convictions to the lasting benefit of his state and his country.
Synopsis
Raised with twelve brothers in a part of the segregated South that provided no school for African American children through the 1940s, Sylvia Bell White went North as a teenager, dreaming of a nursing career and a freedom defined in part by wartime rhetoric about American ideals. In Milwaukee she and her brothers persevered through racial rebuffs and discrimination to find work. Barred by both her gender and color from employment in the cityandrsquo;s factories, Sylvia scrubbed floors, worked as a nurseandrsquo;s aide, and took adult education courses.and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; When a Milwaukee police officer killed her younger brother Daniel Bell in 1958, the Bell family suspected a racial murder but could do nothing to prove itandmdash;until twenty years later, when one of the two officers involved in the incident unexpectedly came forward. Danielandrsquo;s siblings filed a civil rights lawsuit against the city and ultimately won that four-year legal battle. Sylvia was the driving force behind their quest for justice.and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Telling her whole life story in these pages, Sylvia emerges as a buoyant spirit, a sparkling narrator, and, above all, a powerful witness to racial injustice. Jody LePageandrsquo;s chapter introductions frame the narrative in a historical span that reaches from Sylviaandrsquo;s own enslaved grandparents to the nationandrsquo;s first African American president. Giving depth to that wide sweep, this oral history brings us into the presence of an extraordinary individual. Rarely does such a voice receive a hearing.
Winner, Book Award of Merit, Wisconsin Historical Society
Synopsis
South Dakota senator George McGovernandrsquo;s 1972 presidential bid was one of the most memorable campaigns in American political history. Despite McGovernandrsquo;s landslide loss to the incumbent Richard Nixon, McGovernandrsquo;s campaign attracted widespread grassroots support, and his campaign posters represent a landmark in the history of U.S. campaign memorabilia in terms of the sheer number and quality of posters produced in support of the candidate. Like Barack Obamaandrsquo;s run for the presidency in 2008, McGovernandrsquo;s campaign stoked the imagination of the artistic community. World-famous artistsandmdash;including Andy Warhol, Alexander Calder, Larry Rivers, Sam Francis, Thomas W. Benton, Sister Corita, and Paul Davisandmdash;produced posters in support of McGovern that captured a generationandrsquo;s efforts to bring about major political change.and#160;George McGovern and the Democratic Insurgents, with nearly three hundred stunning images, provides an illustrated journey through the protest and psychedelic rock posters of the 1960s, the posters of Eugene McCarthyandrsquo;s 1968 presidential campaign, the poster explosion of George McGovernandrsquo;s 1972 campaign, and the best campaign posters from 1976 to 2012. A historical examination of the graphic precedents for this politicized art form, Hal Elliott Wertandrsquo;s collection offers readers a singular insight into artistic invention and activism in the United States.
About the Author
Hal Elliott Wert is a professor of history at the Kansas City Art Institute. He is the author of Hoover, the Fishing President: Portrait of the Private Man and His Life Outdoors and Hope: A Collection of Obama Posters and Prints. Frank Mankiewicz (1924and#8211;2014) was a journalist, served as the presidential campaign press secretary for Sen. Robert F. Kennedy in 1968 and as the campaign director for 1972 presidential nominee George McGovern, and was a former president of National Public Radio. Robert Chase Heishman is an artist living and working in Chicago, Illinois. His work is held in the collections of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art and the Walker Art Center.
Table of Contents
Foreword by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
Prefaceand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
Acknowledgmentsand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
List of Abbreviationsand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
and#160;
Introduction: Scott's Foundational Yearsand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
1 A Gambler's World of Liquor, Vice, and Hometown Politics in the Postand#150;Civil War Eraand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
2 Covering His Past with Rebellion and Journalism, the Early 1880sand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
3 Reinvention as a Respectable Democrat, 1884 to 1893and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
4 Scott's Frenetic Decade, 1893 to 1904and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
5 The National Negro Liberty Party and the Debacle of the 1904 Electionand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
6 Hard Landing and Slow Recovery in Springfieldand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
Conclusion: More Complicated Than Thatand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
and#160;
Notesand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
Bibliographyand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
Index