The Democrats in Turmoil: The Bitter Fights to Select a Presidential Nominee, 1896-1924

(Hardback)

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Recounting the Democratic National Conventions in 1896, 1904, 1912, 1920, and 1924, this book details the bitter inner-party struggles that almost always led to Democratic losses in the fall. The Democrats couldnt win an election around the turn of the 20th centurynot because they couldnt find good candidates but because of the infighting and bitter nomination battles that took place prior to and during their national conventions. With the exception of 1912, when Woodrow Wilson won the presidency because of the rift between Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft (and 1916, when Wilson barely won reelection), the Democrats lost six of the eight presidential elections that took place between 1896 and 1924. In 1896, 1904, 1920 and 1924, that loss was directly attributable to the bruising convention fights that preceded the November general election. This book tells the story of each of these contentious conventionsthe issues facing the country heading into the conventions and the general election, the background and personalities of the men who fought for the nomination, and the tumultuous rivalries among Democratic factions in the face of the Republicans' relative unity.

Author Bio

Bradley C. Nahrstadt, a former attorney based in Illinois, USA, is the author of Alton B. Parker: The Man Who Challenged Roosevelt (2024) and author or coauthor of over ninety journal articles and more than forty book chapters on legal issues.