FDR, Dewey, and the Election of 1944

Although the presidential election of 1944 placed FDR in the White House for an unprecedented fourth term, historical memory of the election itself has been overshadowed by the war, Roosevelt’s health and his death the following April, Truman’s ascendancy, and the decision to drop the atomic bomb. Today most people assume that FDR ’s reelection was assured. Yet, as David M. Jordan’s engrossing account reveals, neither the outcome of the campaign nor even the choice of candidate was certain. Just a week before Election Day, pollster George Gallup thought a small shift in votes in a few key states would award the election to Thomas E. Dewey. With its insider tales and accounts of party politics and campaigning for votes in the shadow of war and an uncertain future, FDR, Dewey, and the Election of 1944 makes for a fascinating chapter in American political history.

Table of Contents:
Preface and Acknowledgments Prologue: An Evening at the Statler 1. A Nation at War 2. Politics in Midwar 3. The Republicans 4. The Democrats 5. Willkie Pushes Hard 6. President and Congress 7. Wendell in Wonderland 8. The Bandwagon Rolling 9. It Looks Like Dewey 10. The Republican Convention 11. Meanwhile, the Democrats 12. The Ailing President 13. Will Roosevelt Run? 14. Who Runs with Roosevelt? 15. The Democrats Arrive in Chicago 16. Democrats in Convention 17. Campaign on the High Seas 18. The Republicans Go to Work 19. Dewey Heads West 20. The Battle Is On 21. The October Campaign Kicks In 22. Death in October 23. Dewey on the Offensive 24. FDR Strikes Back 25. Down to the Wire 26. Bricker's Campaign 27. The Man from Missouri 28. The Last Days 29. Election Day 30. Summing Up Epilogue: The Fourth Term Notes Bibliography Index

About the Author :
David M. Jordan is author of Roscoe Conkling of New York: Voice in the Senate; Winfield Scott Hancock: A Soldier's Life (IUP, 1988); "Happiness Is Not My Companion": The Life of General G. K. Warren (IUP, 2001); and Occasional Glory: A History of the Philadelphia Phillies.

Review :
"All presidential elections are important - and interesting. The 1944 election is no exception. It's a good story and Jordan tells it well." - Gary Donaldson, author of Truman Defeats Dewey "A fast-moving, blow-by-blow account of the often neglected wartime campaign that pitted Franklin Delano Roosevelt against Republican Thomas E. Dewey, with pollsters divided to the very end. For political junkies there is suspense, backroom dealing, and surprises about both presidential and vice-presidential nominations, as well as where the parties would stand on the future both at home and abroad. And while today we worry about partisan extremism, in 1944 a sitting commander-in-chief and his administration were accused not only of domestic corruption but of military blunders that cost American lives, all while leading the country toward communism or monarchy." - Roger Lane, author of Murder in America: A History "David Jordan has produced a lucid, highly engrossing account of a fateful but little chronicled episode in American presidential politics. His narrative of the 1944 election campaign - written with savvy and encyclopedic range and featuring a large cast of personalities rendered in deft cameos - deserves a place alongside Theodore White's histories of how high and low character, fierce ambition, and dumb luck play their part in the nation's choice of its chief executive." - Richard Kluger, Pulitzer Prize-winning social historian "This book is informative, interesting (especially for the political history geek) and suspenseful in spite of the fact that we all know how the story is going to end." - bookish.livejournal.com "The US presidential election of 1944 sent FDR to the White House for an unprecedented fourth term, yet despite popular perceptions to the contrary, this outcome was not assured. Jordan provides a detailed account of the 'infighting and horse-trading' of this hard-fought, wartime campaign." - Survival, April-May 2013