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While contemporary nominating conventions have lost nearly all of their political importance, becoming instead an extended infomercial designed to promote long-ago-selected presidential candidate, such was not always the case. In Happy Days Are Here Again, the late Chicago Sun-Times columnist Steve Neal tells the story of the 1932 Democratic convention which led, after a tumultuous series of machinations and backroom deals, to the nomination of New York Governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt. It may be surprising, given Roosevelt's three terms in the White House and near mythic status in political history, to learn that the nomination was far from a sure thing. Neal details the challenges mounted by Newton Baker, John Nance Garner, and Al Smith, any of who could have just as easily emerged victorious. Although Roosevelt had more delegates than the others candidates entering the Chicago convention, it wasn't enough to lock up the top spot. Gaining the support to put him over the top required Roosevelt's camp giving the vice-presidential post to Garner, with whom Roosevelt shared no special affinity, and making special arrangements with Joseph P. Kennedy and William Randolph Hearst. Plenty of other famous names drift in and out of Neal's narrative, including Amelia Earhart, Duke Ellington, John Dos Passos, and Huey Long. But the most fascinating figure is Roosevelt, severely physically disabled but capable, with the help of a sympathetic and complicit press corps, to create an image of robust health to go with his considerable charisma. Followers of modern politics, not used to seeing such drama played out so late in the campaign season, will be intrigued by the older way of selecting a party nominee and readers of history will be interested to learn how a presidency as legendary as Roosevelt's could arise from a situation as convoluted as the 1932 convention. --John Moe
Book Description
Franklin Roosevelt was one of our greatest and most beloved presidents -- and yet he almost didn't get his party's nomination during his first run for the White House. Happy Days Are Here Again re-creates the crazy scheming, backroom plotting, and infighting of the 1932 Democratic convention -- a major historical event that took place over just a few days but determined the course of American politics for generations.
The extraordinary Chicago convention of 1932, rendered so vividly and dramatically by award-winning biographer Steve Neal, was one of the most suspenseful in our nation's history. Roosevelt may have entered the Chicago convention with the highest number of delegates, but the structure and rules of the nomination process prevented him from being a shoe-in. In fact, there were several viable contenders -- among them Al Smith, Newton D. Baker, John Nance Garner, and Albert C. Ritchie -- who also could have faced Herbert Hoover in the upcoming general election. With the Depression under way, it was not lost on those at this particular convention that they were not only selecting a nominee but also a president.
Among the dazzling and influential personalities Neal weaves into this high-stakes drama are Joseph P. Kennedy, William Randolph Hearst, Huey Long, Bernard Baruch, Will Rogers, Clarence Darrow, Amelia Earhart, Duke Ellington, and John Dos Passos. All of these players gathered during a Chicago summer to do battle over the leadership of their party and, consequently, the White House.
Happy Days Are Here Again calls on a wealth of primary sources and new information to provide a fresh perspective on this crucial moment in history, yet it is written with the exciting narrative pull of a novel. Ultimately, this is the untold story of the pivotal contest that remade the Democratic Party, marking the end of an era and the birth of modern America.
Customer Reviews:
Oh the Drama.......2007-07-18
Before they became the highly polished love fests that they are today political conventions were high drama events that often caught the imagination of the country. There were fights over the platform, the convention rules and credentials with the members of almost every convention deciding which delegations to seat when more than one delegation showed up from the same state. Then after all that the convention would get around to nominating a candidate for president.
The Republicans had their share of contested conventions but it was usually the Democratic convention where most of the fireworks were to be found. The Democrats you see had the 2/3 rule, which meant that a candidate had to get 2/3 of the delegate votes in order to be nominated and over the years that rule had on many occasions put a stop to the candidacy of many front-runners. The 2/3 rule and its history gave great pause to Franklin Roosevelt and his staff because FDR came into the 1932 Chicago convention with well over half of the votes but no where near 2/3 of the votes and there was a very strong stop FDR movement afoot.
Mr. Neal looks at this drama in detail and tells the story is such a way as to bring the reader up onto the edge of his seat in anticipation of just what might happen next. Quite an accomplishment when you consider that the reader already knows who will win when it is all said and done. The author takes each of the major contenders and leads the reader through a brief history of their candidacy and their career in public service and some of these guys like Alfalfa Bill Murray are colorful to say the least. Among the major players at this convention were political legends Al Smith, Joe Kennedy, John Nance (Cactus Jack) Garner, William Randolph Hearst, Clarence Darrow, Jane Adams and Cordell Hull. Two of the major players at this convention Chicago Mayor A.J. Cermak and Louisiana Governor Huey Long were not only extremely colorful but also bound for assassination. In February of 1933 a bullet meant for Roosevelt would fell Cermak who had opposed FDR and in 1935 Huey Long who had been instrumental in holding the South for FDR in 1932 but had since turned against him was felled in the Louisiana State House. With characters like these to work with Neal has a great cast for his story and he does them all justice.
Mr. Neal has written a gripping account of this watershed convention and it is an account that no history lover or political junkie will want to pass over. He has captured the back room wheeling and dealing, the energy and the high drama of the convention floor as the Democratic Party charted the course of its future. Despite knowing how the story ends you will find it very difficult to put this book down.
the hinge of fate.......2005-09-06
More than seventy years later, it is easy for us to view Franklin Roosevelt's nomination and presidency as inevitable: how could the New Dealer and world warrior have lost? Easily, as Steve Neal makes clear in this, his last book, on the 1932 Democratic National Convention.
Neal paints a rich, colorful portrait of the behind-the-scenes wheeling and dealing that secured, on the fourth ballot, the nomination for FDR. Had Huey Long's Lousiana delegation not been seated, had a deal with Speaker of the House John Nance Garner not been reach -- had any number of pieces not fallen into place, the convention might have swung in a different direction, perhaps to perpetual candidate Al Smith or a dark horse.
Neal captures all the drama and suspense as these events unfolded in stifling Chicago. His is a character-based account, which is reflected in the book's organization and which tends to give short shrift to the major issues of the day, like Prohibition (whether to repeal) or foreign policy (whether to pursue Wilsonian internationalism). While the reader probably won't walk away with a full appreciation of the issues, he will certainly have a vivid picture of what these men were like and how they acted. The book is worth reading for that reason alone.
Engaging look at FDR and U.S. Politics.......2005-02-19
This is a gripping narrative of the 1932 Democratic Convention in Chicago, which nominated Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) of New York for President. Today Mr. Roosevelt (1882-1945) is widely recognized as a great leader, elected four times despite having polio, the man who launched the New Deal programs that changed America and who led the USA through most of World War II. But here we see that the front-running Roosevelt was on shaky ice at the 1932 convention because candidates then needed a 2/3rds vote for the nomination. FDR faced powerful opposition from former nominee Al Smith, house speaker John Nance Garner, Governor Albert Ritchie, Newton Baker, and other powerful figures. Of course, Roosevelt had strong allies, including Louisiana's notorious Huey Long, plus key advisors Louis Howe and James Farley. The author describes the strengths and weaknesses of the major players, setting the stage for the drama that unfolded. Readers also see how FDR's lieutenants offered Garner the Vice Presidency in a near-desperation move after the third ballot that worked and kept Roosevelt's coalition from unraveling. All this occurred at a convention where Democrats knew they were likely winners against President Hoover in November due to the onset of the Great Depression.
Author Steve Neal is political correspondent for the Chicago Sun-Times, and he's written a superb narrative. Some may question whether FDR's coalition at the 1932 convention was as tenuous as Neal suggests, but few will fail to be engaged by this remarkable story.
When Conventions Still Mattered.......2004-08-30
I read this book in the midst of the '04 convention season, and welcomed the journey back to a time when political parleys actually meant something.
The late Chicago journalist Steve Neal (he passed on in February) recounts the '32 Chicago convention that propelled FDR on the path to the White House and immortality.
FDR's nomination was no sure thing, despite his entering the Chicago convention with a strong majority of delegates. Indeed, Neal shows how close FDR came to being denied the nomination, as past Democratic frontrunners like Champ Clark (1912) and William McAdoo (1924) had before him. At the time, Democratic candidates needed to amass two-thirds of the delegates to cinch the nomination -- a threshold that assured Southern states a voice in the selection of a candidate, and made for protracted, multi-ballot fights (more than 100 in '24) and brokered conventions. FDR abolished the two-thirds rule (replacing it with a simple majority standard) and only two subsequent Democratic conventions went past the first ballot.
An eclectic cast of characters loomed large in the machinations that secured FDR's nomination -- for example, Joe Kennedy and WR Hearst, who cleared a path for Cactus Jack Garner to be given the VP slot; Huey Long, whose support was ironic in light of The Kingfish's later vitriolic attacks on FDR, and Big Jim Farley, FDR's brilliant campaign manager. But no one played a more central role than McAdoo, Woodrow Wilson's son-in-law and Treasury Secretary. No fan of FDR's, he swung the deeply divided California delegation into the New York Governor's camp at the decisive moment. This deft maneuver thwarted the ambitions of FDR's bete noir, Al Smith (who had foiled McAdoo hopes in '24) and McAdoo's old nemesis Newton Baker, who was the likely beneficiary of a deadlocked convention. (At one point, FDR offered to throw his support to Baker.)
This book takes its title from the FDR campaign's theme song. But I was surprised to learn that "Happy Days Are Here Again" was actually a substitute when the original theme song --"Anchor's Away" (paying homage to FDR's stint as assistant Navy Secretary) -- was deemed too subdued for the raucous Chicago partisans.
Political junkies looking for a short reprieve from the '04 presidential sweepstakes would do well to pick up Neal's new book. It'll transport you back to a time when political conventions still mattered.
FDR - The likely, but not foreordanied candidate..........2004-08-07
Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The very name conjures up images of a Great President, a great governor, and a great man who overcame physical challenges to become that great leader.
In his final book, Steve Neal has given us the story of the 1932 Democratic National Convention, where FDR was nominated for President for the first time.
Neal does a fantastic job of giving us biographical sketches, including political philosophies, of the contenders for the nomination, and then dives right into the excitement of the convention itself.
FDR may have been the leader in delegate count at the start of the convention, but that did not mean he had the nomination all wrapped up. Unlike today's conventions, Democratic conventions prior to 1936 required a 2/3 majority to nominate the candidate. FDR did not have a 2/3 majority when the convention opened, thus necessitating his political operatives to wheel & deal in order to secure the nomination.
It is this political wheeling & dealing that makes the book so wonderful & readable. The back room efforts with Ritchie and Baker, and the deal made with John Nance Garner that secured the nomination for FDR are given ample attention in this book.
I found that I had a terribly hard time putting the book down once I started reading it. It is well written, and an absolute must read for any FDR afficinado.
Customer Reviews:
Eh........2005-12-06
To be honest, I'd like to get back the time I spent reading this book. It's not awful, it's not particularly good, but I found little in it that appealed to me and I wouldn't read it again. Keillor seems like the kind of guy it would be fun to have a drink with, but Happy To Be Here? Eh.
Complex Humor.......2005-08-21
These classic routines are now being milked ad infinitum each week. Keillor has given up trying to resist a cloying public and has decided to pander to them. Even tall radio comedians need love.
The comedy overflows with familiar icons of childhood and small-town American life - daydreams and disappointments, baseball and Boy Scouts, lawn ornaments and storm windows, Main Street and Founder's Square. But Keillor works his local-color material so that it debunks the same sentimentality and nostalgia that it evokes. In the final analysis the narrator's praise for small-town America is about as trustworthy as a prepuescent boy's booming baritone.
Such a complex fella. Keillor left Lake Wobegone for a clear and understandable reason: he was stultified by the environment and the atmosphere where "artsy" types were viewed with deep suspicion and contempt.
However, this was the ground he stood on, unlike so many others, and it became his lifelong meal ticket...
Hilarious!.......1999-05-19
I've only thus far read 3 GK books (Lake Wob./H2BH/Leaving Home), but this is definitely a neck-in-neck rival with Lake Wobegon Days. If there's any doubt as to whether or not this is a good buy, then just check it out of the library and read "The Tip-Top Club". You'll have to buy it, because you'll want to read it more than once!
Average customer rating:
- Using this book, you can be happy for life
- Balancing responsibility with a non-judgmental view
- The New Twelve Commandments
- Life is indeed too short to be UNHAPPY
- Recommended for the glum
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Happy 4 Life: Here\'s How to Do It
Bob Nozik, M.D.
Manufacturer: Trafford Publishing
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Binding: Paperback
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The Art of Happiness: A Handbook for Living
ASIN: 1412000831
Release Date: 2006-07-06 |
Book Description
HAPPY 4 LIFE: Here\'s How to Do It shows you how to turn your life into a work of art, a happy work of art. You will learn all the secrets for having the never-ending happiness you\'ve always wanted but never imagined you could have, plus you\'ll have lots of fun learning how.
Customer Reviews:
Using this book, you can be happy for life.......2007-06-19
Bob Nozik knows happiness! It isn't that he was born happy; he found happiness after many years, starting off by doing the wrong things, then through a journey of study and self-discovery. In Happy 4 Life, he offers a short cut by condensing it all into his twelve keys to happiness. Master these, and you will be happy for life.
Bob Nozik does a wonderful job of explaining happiness; providing real-life things we can do to further our own journey towards lifelong happiness. In countering the arguments of the sceptic Glumbunny at every turn, he adds an extra dimension for a balanced, easy to read manual and checklist for happiness.
One thing I really liked about "Happy 4 Life" is the amount of detail given to the effect that happiness is likely to have on you and those around you. It is strange, but true that not everyone will like you being happy!
Balancing responsibility with a non-judgmental view.......2004-04-13
Happy 4 Life: Here's How To Do It is a straightforward and recommended self-help guide by Bob Nozik (Professor Emeritus, University of California Medical Center, San Francisco) offers psychological secrets for pursuing and achieving lifelong happiness. From the importance of self-esteem, appreciation and gratitude; to balancing responsibility with a non-judgmental view; to the detours and pitfalls to watch over as one works to improve the quality of one's mood and life, Happy 4 Life is useful, accessible, and offers concepts that are easy for the nonspecialist general reader to put into the practice in the course of their everyday living.
The New Twelve Commandments.......2004-01-29
We have the Twelve Commandments, Twelve Step Programs, and now the Twelve Steps to Happiness, Bob Nozik's very practical and systematic guide to living happily. As one has a cooking book of recipes for creating culinary feasts, Bob serves up a series of life feasts providing all the ingredients necessary for life to be a feast of happiness. As a physician, his academic background is quite evident. He sets up a dialogue throughout the book between himself, the teacher, and `glumbunny', the student. He deals with `glumbunny's skepticism about living each step of the happy life, i.e., conscious awareness, self-like/love, self-esteem, appreciation, acceptance. These steps have practical anecdotes included with excellent quotes. Each step has its own very intriguing and unexpected approach. His exercises and practicums are very worthwhile.
However, beware this is not an academician's tome. It is meant for someone looking for a `how to' approach. I would recommend it to coaches, psychotherapists, those who are pursuing and are curious about self-development.
Life is indeed too short to be UNHAPPY.......2004-01-26
Here's my "Bottom Line" - This is a wonderful book!
Bob Nozik, MD has written a great book to give us the valuable understanding on how to create a happy life. I highly recommend
this book! Of course we each have to take the time to read it and then decide on how to change.
Recommended for the glum.......2004-01-05
Nozik's little how-to-be-happy book is a field manual for pilgrims on a quest for the grail of happiness. Happy himself, Nozik has organized his accumulated wisdoms into a step by step map for how to get to the Emerald City. For a literary Strawman we have Glumbunny, who over the course of the book misunderstands every principle of happiness, but Glumbunny and glum readers are slowly helped onto a more positive path to happiness by means of patient explanation, assigned homework and various mental exercises. All this in a succinct package of new age insights and popular, self-help psychology. The book is an easy read, as hopeful as a John Denver song, non-judgmental of human foibles, and packed with practical tips. Recommended for the glum, especially those who derive benefit from self-help exercises.
Customer Reviews:
Buckley's Best.......2003-04-26
This is Buckley at his acerbic best on subjects as varied as John Lennon, Ted Kennedy and Elizabeth Taylor to academia, Gorbachev and The First Gulf War.
It's always illuminating and stimulating to explore the brain of one of America's foremost conservative thinkers and as these essays drift more into history, his insights and deliberations become astounding in their perspicacity and accuracy.
These essays cover everything from the fall of communism, the Los Angeles riots, Playboy magazine and lots more. The time spent reading this delightful paperback is time spent in the company of charming brilliance.
Brilliant author, book uneven in quality.......2002-06-06
William F. Buckley is unquestionably one of the most articulate and knowledgeable American debaters of the second half of the twentieth century. Buckley seems to know a little bit--if not a lot--about everything, and he reflects and gives observations about various topics in this collection of essays from the mid-to-late 80s and early 90s.
As an author, Buckley is unfailingly witty and acerbic, and this book is littered with quips and sapient remarks. Buckley is particularly good at analyzing other peoples' positions, and at poking holes in their poor logic. That is where this book succeeds.
This book occasionally fails when Buckley attempts to elucidate his own position on an issue. For instance, in one essay Buckley suggests that Beethoven is "a national monument" and should be entitled to governmental protection, so that vacationers can listen to the great composer's symphonies when they are traveling in non-cosmopolitan areas. My suggestion to Buckley would be to rent a car with a tape deck or cd player. It is not necessary for the government to mandate all-Beethoven channels in all cities and towns in order for citizens to listen to Beethoven when they are on vacation.
In another essay Buckley spells out the case for allowing women to serve in the military, but then says that he takes the opposite position. His explanation for why he is against women serving in the military is vague. He says that allowing women to join the armed forces is repugnant to "human nature," which leads one to wonder how Buckley would respond to someone who believes that what he calls "human nature" is an artificial construct. Maybe he did not provide a response to that question because of spacial constraints, but I think that if he is going to base a policy position on human nature, he should provide readers with some sort of idea of what his theory of human nature is.
I hope that I have not accentuated the negative too much in this review, because Buckley truly is a wonderful writer and an interesting read. He has opinions about everything, and he is fun to read not only for what he has to say, but also for how he says it. His vocabulary is expansive and his word-choices are colorful. This book should be read by anyone who wants intelligent and fiercely-opinionated commentary on newsworthy events, and the various parties involved, from 1985 to 1992.
Everything You Could Expect........2002-04-25
This is a fine collection of the thoughts and witticisms of William F Buckley. It covers most any area that Mr. Buckley holds an Interest whether it be politics, social affairs, sailing, classical music and spending time with dignitaries and well to do people. It is fantastically written (as can be expected from Buckley) however it seemed to talk just over the head of the common man. With his infatuation with the Ryder Cup and talking about people who are important to him, really have no impact on my life. All in all it is a very well written fast paced collection. I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys political and social commentary. And to anyone who just like to read something different than a novel or text of history.
Thanks For Your Time:
T
An Entertaining and Valuable Read.......2000-06-23
As I read this book, I laughed, I cheered, and, most amazingly, I remembered. WFB's resume gives him a wide range of ideas from which to draw, all of which do seem to find their way into his work, and serve to make the most mundane of topics worthwhile. As a conservative commentator, he is without peer, so you who would buy this book will gain insight. But what I found most valuable was that Mr. Buckley's writings don't just remind me of the past, they create memories of the moods, the voices; the hysteria when Reagan said "evil empire", the absolute shock when the Wall fell, the absurdity of Senator Weicker, and so on. I was at West Point in the late Eighties, and so got most of my news, as Mr. Whiting will attest, from the New York Times, and this helps me remember that there are more than just my former service mates and left-wing journalists in the world. And finally, those of you who just can't stand WFB's mannerisms and delivery, it's not an audio book, and you can put whatever soundtrack you want to it, and have full control of the dosage.
Simply the most acerbic conservative left..........1998-01-30
This book, surprising to say, started me off on the road to self improvement. After graduating from West Point, I had spent 5 years vegetating as far as any intellectual development goes (alas, for those lost years). When I decided to leave the Army and go to Law School, I thought I had better try to "brain up" a little and began reading National Review...which led to this book (newly published at the time). From this book I embarked on a crusade to learn the literature, history, philosophy, and music that is my heritage as an American. I have not yet (5 years later) stopped. His essays are full of wit and erudition and drive home the value of true education (usually self-directed-not to take away from schooling). I wish Mr. Buckley the best, because he has certainly led me to open the doors to the gleaming riches of our cultural best (thank you most for the drive towards Bach). One postscript, I met Mr. Buckley at Harvard Law School in my last year there when he came for a forum. I had him sign my copy of this book (which, incidentally, he is doing in my yearbook) and was able to pass on to him a letter that I had drafted thanking him for his influence (definately for the good) on me through this book. He very politely, and quickly, replied with a letter from New York in response. His unfailing politeness and cordiality are the mark of a true gentlemen, and I hope to act the same in my life. We should, he says in one essay, celebrate thankfully and gratefully what good men have left us here and done for us. He is right, and I celebrate Mr. Buckley and what he has done for me.-Kelly Whiting
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Happy Days Are Here Again
Mike Peters
Manufacturer: Pharos Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0886876664 |
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Happy Days Are Here Again
Ian Cdaudo 242 Whitcomb
Manufacturer: AUDIOPHILE
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio CD
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