Presidential Campaigns: From George Washington to George W. Bush
- ISBN-10
- 0198037376
- ISBN-13
- 9780198037378
- Series
- Presidential Campaigns
- Category
- Political Science
- Pages
- 496
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2004-07-22
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press
- Author
- Paul F. Boller Jr.
Description
Were presidential campaigns always as bitter as they have been in recent years? Or is the current style of campaigning a new political development? In this revised and updated edition of Presidential Campaigns the answers to these questions are clear: the race for the presidency, although at times mean and nasty, has always been an endlessly entertaining and highly-charged spectacle for the American public. This book unveils the whole history of American presidential elections, from the seamless ascent of General George Washington to the bitterly contested election of George W. Bush, bringing these boisterous contests to life in all their richness and complexity. In the old days, Boller shows, campaigns were much rowdier than they are today. Back in the nineteenth century, the invective at election time was exuberant and the mudslinging unrestrained; a candidate might be called everything from a carbuncle-faced old drunkard to a howling atheist. But there was plenty of fun and games, too, with songs and slogans, speeches and parades, all livening up the scene in order to get people to the polls.Presidential Campaigns takes note of the serious side of elections even as it documents the frenzy, frolic and the sleaze. Each chapter contains a brief essay describing an election and presenting "campaign highlights" that bring to life the quadrennial confrontation in all its shame and glory. With a postscript analyzing the major changes in the ways Americans have chosen their Presidents from Washington's time to the present, Presidential Campaigns gives the reader a full picture of this somewhat flawed procedure. For all of its shortcomings, though, this "great American shindig" is an essential part of the American democratic system and, for better or for worse, tells us much about ourselves.
Get the book
Other editions
-
- 2004-07-22
- 496 pages
- Ebook
- Oxford University Press
-
- 2004-07-22
- 479 pages
- Paperback
- Oxford University Press
Similar books
-
The Timeline of Presidential Elections: How Campaigns Do (and Do Not) Matter
By Robert S. Erikson, Christopher WlezienIn other words, fundamentals matter, but only because of campaigns. Timely and compelling, this book will force us to rethink our assumptions about presidential elections.
-
Videostyle in Presidential Campaigns: Style and Content of Televised Political Advertising
By Lynda Lee Kaid, Anne JohnstonOne is the popularity of the president and voters ' approval of the president's job performance ( Brody & Sigelman , 1983 ; Sigelman , 1979 ) . Presidential popularity ratings often affect election outcomes for an incumbent president .
-
The American Campaign, Second Edition: U.S. Presidential Campaigns and the National Vote
By James E. CampbellReporting data and predicting trends through the 2008 campaign, this classroom-tested volume offers again James E. Campbell’s “theory of the predictable campaign,” incorporating the fundamental conditions that systematically affect ...
-
The Reasoning Voter: Communication and Persuasion in Presidential Campaigns
By Samuel L. PopkinThis book is a useful rebuttal to the cynical view that politics is a wholly contrived business, in which unscrupulous operatives manipulate the emotions of distrustful but gullible citizens.
-
Leading Men: Presidential Campaigns and the Politics of Manhood
By Jackson KatzThe question is why? In Leading Men, Jackson Katz argues that racial politics and economic anxieties are not enough to explain the dramatic gender divide in American voting patterns.
-
Notable Speeches in Contemporary Presidential Campaigns
By Robert V. FriedenbergFriedenberg examines William Henry Harrison's first ever speech by an American presidential candidate on behalf of his own candidacy as a prelude to the detailed examination of notable contemporary campaign...
-
Presidential Campaigns: Documents Decoded
By Daniel M. Shea, Brian M. HarwardCombining primary sources with expert commentary, this timely book probes critical moments in U.S. presidential elections in the last 20th- and early 21st-centuries, empowering readers to better understand and analyze the electoral process.
-
The American Campaign: U.S. Presidential Campaigns and the National Vote
By James E. CampbellThese bold arguments, based on careful, reflective analysis of campaigns and previous studies of them, refute both the common wisdom of political scientists that campaigns do not matter and the...
-
American Presidential Campaigns and Elections
By William G. Shade, Ballard C. CampbellPresidential campaigns and elections provide the drama and substance of America's democratic process.
-
Presidential Campaigns and Presidential Accountability
By Michele P. ClaibournFranz, Michael M., Paul B. Freedman, Kenneth M. Goldstein, and Travis N. Ridout. 2007. Campaign Advertising and American Democracy. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. Frey, Dieter. 1986. Recent Research on Selective Exposure to ...