Let the People Rule: Theodore Roosevelt and the Birth of the Presidential Primary

by Geoffrey Cowan

Overview

"The best new discussion of the primary system." —Jill Lepore, author of These Truths

In 1912, Theodore Roosevelt came out of retirement to challenge William Howard Taft for the Republican nomination. TR seized on the campaign theme “Let the People Rule”—a cry echoed in today’s elections—and through the course of his run helped create thirteen new primaries. Though he won most of the primaries, party bosses proved too powerful, and Roosevelt walked out of the convention to create his own Bull Moose Party—only to make the shocking political calculation to ban black delegates from his new coalition. In Let the People Rule, Geoffrey Cowan takes readers inside the dramatic campaign that changed American politics forever.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393353693
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	01/17/2017
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	432
Product dimensions:	8.20(w) x 5.40(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Geoffrey Cowan, former president of the Annenberg Foundation Trust at Sunnylands and the Annenberg Family Chair in Communication Leadership at the University of Southern California, is the best-selling author of The People v. Clarence Darrow. He lives in Los Angeles.

Editorial Reviews

"A lively, relevant primer in the sausage-making of candidate selection…Few historians have given this shameful chapter in the Progressive Party the attention that it deserves."

Los Angeles Times - Thomas Curwen

"A fresh and perceptive look… Based on extensive research in original sources, Let the People Rule laces striking information on TR’s race against President Taft with new insights and a fresh and important analysis. Let the People Rule is the book to read on Roosevelt’s pivotal year."

Lewis L. Gould

"Lively and detailed history…Besides the sheer action afforded by the vivid narrative and larger-than-life personalities, this book offers obvious parallels with current political fights and illuminates their origins."

Martha Minow

"Dazzling…Cowan brings fresh depth and breadth to this sordid tale."

Wall Street Journal - Robert Merry

"Admirably nuanced."

Ari Berman

"Rips the lid off of the 1912 presidential election. Cowan brilliantly illuminates everything from the birth of the political primary system to the disenfranchisement of African Americans to egos writ large. The narrative has a marvelous flow and the research is superb."

Douglas Brinkley

"The political process as Hunger Games: no matter which tribute emerges as victor, the Gamemaker has the power. Teddy Roosevelt changed the system and still couldn’t beat the odds."

Time

"For those of us who believe that modern American politics began at the turn of the twentieth and not the twenty-first century, Geoff Cowan has produced a fresh contribution to the argument. The modern mechanics of presidential selection, the rise of candidacies largely independent of party, and the mobilization of autonomous supporters: all come to life in Let the People Rule."

Byron E. Shafer

"A fascinating tale…I found this book revelatory."

Janet Napolitano

"A rich, eye-popping political history. Teddy Roosevelt was a progressive hero, but he could play as rough as today’s most cynically expedient politicians."

Evan Thomas

"A suspenseful narrative, replete with larger-than-life personalities, and a must-read backstory for anyone concerned with the history and fate of a democracy that, at its best, aims to ‘Let the People Rule.’"

Henry Louis Gates

"The political process as Hunger Games: no matter which tribute emerges as victor, the Gamemaker has the power. Teddy Roosevelt changed the system and still couldn’t beat the odds."

Time

There has been a great deal written about Roosevelt, from Edmund Morris's trilogy to Doris Kearns Goodwin's The Bully Pulpit. By focusing on the 1912 primaries, Cowan…brings new insight to a well-worn story…Cowan paints an admirably nuanced picture of Roosevelt…

The New York Times Book Review - Ari Berman

11/23/2015
In this timely, engaging story of Teddy Roosevelt’s role in changing how political parties choose their presidential nominees, Cowan (The People v. Clarence Darrow), director of the Annenberg School’s Center on Communication Leadership and Policy at the University of Southern California, presents the 26th president as a conflicted, reluctant champion of popular democracy. Roosevelt served nearly two full terms as president (1901–9) before taking a hiatus from politics. Friends and supporters urged him to run again in 1912 to keep the Republican Party on a reformist course. However, Roosevelt’s personally groomed successor, William Howard Taft, refused to give up hopes for a second term, setting the stage for a fight at the nominating convention. Roosevelt knew he had to capitalize on his popularity, so the manner of choosing delegates and who they represented was critically important to securing the nomination. Cowan writes with a Rooseveltian verve, focusing on the political processes without losing sight of the major personalities who were involved as Roosevelt, Taft, and Robert La Follette jockeyed for the 1912 nomination. He also portrays Roosevelt as an opportunist who manipulated race and gender issues to further his candidacy. Roosevelt introduced an important change to the nominating process, but Cowan shows that it cost him and the Republicans the White House. Illus. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

"Cowan has brilliantly re-created a pivotal moment in American political history…brought vividly to life through dogged and creative research and graceful storytelling. Political junkies across America are buckling in for another tumultuous primary season in 2016—and they couldn’t find a better way to prepare than to devour this rollicking and remarkably current tale of how it all began, over a century ago."

Ronald Brownstein

"You wouldn’t think that there would be anything new to say about Theodore Roosevelt by now. But Geoffrey Cowan has brought to life a fascinating part of TR’s story usually left out of the history books. He tells it with verve and suspense, warts and all, his insights deepened by his own impressive background as a democracy activist."

Adam Hochschild

"Cowan tells his story with great verve."

H. W. Brands

02/15/2016
The 1912 presidential election was the first one in which primaries played a significant role. Despite Theodore Roosevelt winning nine of the 13 Republican primaries, William H. Taft was renominated because of his strong support among delegates chosen at state nominating conventions, says Cowan (Annenberg Family Chair in Communication Leadership, Univ. of Southern California; The People v. Clarence Darrow), in this lively, deeply researched narrative, which takes readers from primary season through the convention, and to Roosevelt and his supporters bolting to form the upstart, progressive Bull Moose Party. Cowan is at his best when revealing Roosevelt's cynical manipulation of black voters, who were encouraged to become Bull Moosers in the North but were forbidden to become convention delegates if they lived in the Jim Crow South. Despite this ploy, Roosevelt was trounced in the South by Democrat Woodrow Wilson, the election's victor. Cowan concludes that the emergence of primaries was the election's enduring legacy. VERDICT Both general readers and historians will enjoy the book's you-are-there feel because of Cowan's excellent use of primary documents. See also Louis Gould's Four Hats in the Ring and Doris Kearns Goodwin's The Bully Pulpit, two works that capture the election's spirit and discuss in detail Roosevelt and Taft's volatile relationship.—Karl Helicher, Upper Merion Twp. Lib., King of Prussia, PA

Library Journal

The Republican Party is in chaos as it approaches its national convention, and a colorful, unpopular candidate appears to be a shoo-in for the nomination. Sound like today's headlines? Actually, this happened in 1912. With a television anchor's skill, narrator Joe Barrett explains that the unwanted candidate who split the Republican Party in two was (former) President Teddy Roosevelt. His opponent for the nomination was President William Howard Taft. In the end, Roosevelt's actions gave the election to the Democratic candidate, Woodrow Wilson. Modern-day political junkies will be shocked to learn that presidential politics were just as corrupt and complicated 100 years ago as they are today. Barrett manages to keep the dozens of real-life characters straight in this story, which shows the birth of the primary election system. M.S. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine

APRIL 2016 - AudioFile

2015-09-08
The history of the 1912 battle among Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and Robert La Follette for the presidency of the United States, which gave birth to the first presidential primary. Cowan (Annenberg Family Chair in Communication Leadership/Univ. of Southern California; The People v. Clarence Darrow: The Bribery Trial of America's Greatest Lawyer, 1993, etc.) brings to life the wheeler-dealers, back-alley shenanigans, and political intrigue embedded within this legislative saga. He ably shows how the resulting primary system continues to affect our current political theater. Readers' perceptions of Roosevelt and his motivations may change a bit after reading Cowan's assessment of him. The author notes that his interest in writing the book lay in what transpired when Roosevelt created the Bull Moose Party, which bore the slogan of "the right of the people to rule," and then proceeded to exclude black delegations from the states comprising the Deep South. Though Cowan's portrait of Roosevelt forms the core of the book, the author fleshes out the personalities and motivations of many other influential characters. Cowan's straightforward explanation of the role played by the prominent newspapers of the era provides an entertaining lens for viewing how outside influences create opinion and help contribute to the process of a presidential election. Readers who may feel overwhelmed by today's political climate should take heart in noting how the past was not all that much different. "Insiders knew that the convention itself—the fight over the temporary roll, over the permanent chairmanship, even over the credentials challenges—was theater, for effect, for public consumption," writes Cowan, whose use of material "from dozens of previously unknown and unused manuscript collections," adds depth to his portrait of Roosevelt and the social and cultural environments from which the presidential primary emerged. Political junkies will delight in this rollicking history containing lessons applicable to our contemporary political landscape.

Kirkus Reviews