| Description |
1 online resource (1 audio file (7hr., 54 min.)) : digital. |
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digital digital recording rda |
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data file rda |
| Access |
Digital content provided by hoopla. |
| Performer |
Narrated by William Hughes. |
| Summary |
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-income 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. |
| System Details |
Mode of access: World Wide Web. |
| Subject |
Harrison, William Henry, 1773-1841.
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Presidents -- United States -- Election -- 1840.
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United States -- Politics and government -- 1837-1841.
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History.
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| Added Author |
Hughes, William, 1957- Narrator.
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hoopla digital.
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| ISBN |
9781982481032 (sound recording : hoopla Audio Book) |
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198248103X (sound recording : hoopla Audio Book) |
| Music No. |
MWT11699030 |
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