.
A dazzling panorama of presidential personalities,
ambitions, plots and counter-plots--and of a
newly-modern America at the
crossroads--grounded in solid historical research,
insightful social commentary, a compelling and
innovative structure, and riveting historical
profiles.

In 1920, a record six past, present, or future chief
executives eye the great prize of the Presidency, each
with a unique style and vision of the office and the
nation:

Theodore Roosevelt:
The Rough Rider himself.
President. Historian. Cowboy. Police Commissioner.
Trust-Buster. Explorer. Naturalist. Big-Game Hunter.
Noble Prize-winner. He has been president once--and
wants the job again. Only the hand of God can keep
him from the White House in 1920.

Woodrow Wilson: Brilliant, eloquent, progressive, and
self-confident. But also bigoted, self-centered,
stubborn, and messianic. He desperately plans for a
League of Nations to prevent future wars, but lacks the
diplomatic and political skills to sell the idea either at
home or abroad. In the bargain, he fatally
compromises article after article of his Fourteen Points
and sows the seeds of another war. "Woodrow Wilson
is an exile from the hearts of his people," says Eugene
V. Debs, "The betrayal of his ideals makes him the
most pathetic figure in the world." An October 1919
stroke leaves him too crippled to lead the nation, but
the nation is never told. Fantastically, he clings to
hopes of an unprecedented third term.

Warren G. Harding: Ohio small-town newspaper
editor, Republican politician, and serial adulterer. His
strengths: he looks like a president, sounds like a
president (if you don't listen too carefully), and is
sufficiently vague on the issues to be nominated.
"America's present need," he intones, "is not heroics,
but healing; not nostrums but normalcy." America
agrees.

Calvin Coolidge: Silent Cal. The taciturn Vermonter
who became  Massachusetts's coldly efficient
governor. His actions during the September 1919
Boston police strike ("There is no right to strike against
the public safety by anybody, anywhere, anytime")  
make him presidential timber. In Chicago, the GOP
convention stampedes and anoints him its
vice-presidential candidate.

Herbert Hoover: The Great Engineer. International
gold mining adventurer. Multi-millionaire. Savior of
war-ravaged Europe's starving masses. A political
progressive and member of the Wilson administration.
A national hero. In 1920 Hoover wants to be president
but has one big problem: he can't decide if he's a
Republican or a Democrat.

Franklin D. Roosevelt: Wilson's ambitious, but not yet
properly-seasoned, under secretary of the Navy. If the
Republicans can't nominate a dead Roosevelt, the
Democrats will nominate a live one--Franklin--for
vice-president.
.
.
"A rousing chronicle. . . Pietrusza . . .
adds color and dimension with smart
discussions of Prohibition, women's
suffrage, immigration, civil rights, the
League of Nations and labor strife, and
he offers animated portraits of William
Jennings Bryan, Carrie Chapman Catt,
Henry Ford, Marcus Garvey, Sacco
and Vanzetti, William Randolph
Hearst, H.L. Mencken and many
others. A hugely fascinating episode in
American history, told with insight and
great humor, by an author in command
of his subject."

--
Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"absorbing . . . a broad, satisfying
political and social history, in the style
of Doris Kearns Goodwin."

--
Publishers Weekly

"David Pietrusza has a gift for making
the past both real and dramatically
gripping, and in 1920 he has an
extraordinary cast of characters with
which to work his magic. Imagine a
year when Herbert Hoover was a
global hero, and FDR a callow bit
player; when a repudiated and
physically broken president fantasized
about vindication at the polls; and
millions of women casting their first
votes helped elect Hollywood's idea of
a president, one Warren Gamaliel
Harding. Add those temperamental
opposites Theodore Roosevelt and
Calvin Coolidge to the mix, and you
have one helluva historical dinner party.
An unforgettable group portrait of
America on the brink of modernity"

--Richard Norton Smith

"a colorful, nonacademic account . . .
Most of all, there are the characters.
Pietrusza draws them sharply: the
imperious Wilson, the obliging Harding,
the dour and honest Coolidge and the
ambitious and dissembling Franklin
Roosevelt. Fans of political history will
enjoy this book."
--”
Seattle Times

"Fascinating and compelling . . . Highly
recommended."

--
Library Journal

"It will blow your mind . . . a fantastic
book."

--Glenn Beck

"I just finished
1920 and liked it a lot . .
. a fine job in capturing the
personalities of an interesting cast of
political characters and the era in which
they lived."

--”President George W. Bush

"The President passed on your book
after he finished it . . . I dipped into
1920 and found myself devouring it in
one weekend. A great read--chock full
of great insights and brilliant portraits.
Thanks for a wonderful volume . . a
great read."

--Karl Rove

"An ably popular treatment that fans of
campaign histories will enjoy."

--
Booklist

"A terrific and fun read."

--”
Bloomberg Radio

"More than just a story of six men who
either already had been president or
would be, this is the story of America
as it moved into the modern age."

--
Denver Post

"a very vivid portrait of each of these
presidents."

--Ann Compton, ABC News

"Pietrusza is a very gifted writer with a
marvelous eye for anecdote. Even a
reader familiar with American electoral
history will learn things from this lively
history, and a reader unfamiliar with the
politics of the period will enjoy an
engaging introduction to an unusually
complicated political cycle."

--David Frum, National Review Online

"Through a lens trained on a long-ago
election, David Pietrusza's
1920: The
Year of Six Presidents
, delivers a rich
and compelling narrative of American
politics.  Exploring a year when giant
figures of American history were
waxing and waning, he deftly explains
how we ended up with a presidential
showdown between two largely
unknown--yet surprisingly randy--
editors of small-town Ohio
newspapers, which Warren Harding
won principally by being "nice."

--
David O. Stewart, author of
The Summer of 1787:
The Men Who Invented the
Constitution

"Sweeping and original."

--”The History Book Club

"In
1920: The Year of the Six
Presidents
, writer David Pietrusza
shows the right way to pull together
disparate characters into a coherent
narrative. . . .this book portrays an
America that has stopped looking
backward and has begun to craft a
new country and a new world role."

--
The Washington Times

"An absolutely wonderful book . . . I
loved [it], absolutely marvelous,
absolutely wonderful research . . . just
a great read, marvelously done,
brilliantly constructed and really
integrates the entire story of one year--
1920. . . . if I were teaching a history
class of early twentieth century
America this is the book I would use. .
. . It reads like a novel but it's fact . . .
a great book."

--John Rothmann
KGO (San Francisco)

"I just love
1920: The Year of Six
Presidents
by David Pietrusza. It's not
historical fiction, but plain old history
that zips along like good fiction. I just
wish I'd read it before I wrote my
book."

 --Jonah Goldberg,
  National Review Online

" . . . a campaign like no other before
or since. David Pietrusza, a seasoned
crime-and-mystery writer, builds the
suspense of the 1920 campaign so
effectively that the reader easily
suspends, for the moment, knowledge
of the outcome, as if it were still about
to happen. . .  [Pietrusza] organizes the
story in a way that produces high
drama."

--
The Weekly Standard

"I loved 1920."
           
-- John Gizzi,    
Political Editor,
Human Events

"I  agree with
Jonah Goldberg--I wish
I had read it before I wrote my book."

--Burton W. Folsom Jr.
Author of  
"New Deal or Raw:
Deal?: How FDR's Economic
Legacy Has Damaged America

"Informative and captivating, 1920
offers a beguiling look into one of the
most tumultuous and important -- yet
curiously overlooked -- presidential
elections of the twentieth century.
David Pietrusza writes vividly and
engagingly enough to make it all sound
like a particularly engrossing political
novel, except this one really happened."

-- Robert Spencer, director of
Jihad
Watch and author of the New York
Times
bestsellers The Politically
Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the
Crusades) and The Truth About
Muhammad

"complex and satisfying"

--AudioFile Magazine

"With a storyteller's eye for characters
and drama, Pietrusza re-creates
America at a post-World War I turning
point, when the country wanted steady
leadership but got scandal instead.
"

--Washington CEO Magazine

"outstanding . . . fascinating"

--Al Kresta, Ave Maria Radio

"a fine and lively recommendation both
for high school and college collections
strong in American history and politics
in particular, or even public lending
libraries."

--California Bookwatch

"David Pietrusza's new book--1920
The Year of Six Presidents--is
awesome! David writes history with
such clarity and insights, you don't
want to put the book down. You'll feel
the same way."

--Pat Williams
Author and Vice President,
Orlando Magic

"Pietrusza's volume brings the vivid
history of the 1920 election to life.
Both entertaining and insightful, it
provides exceptionally well crafted
"mini" biographies of the Six Presidents
and how their careers intersected that
year. The narrative is rich and
compelling as it peeks into the
backrooms and describes the national
mood. Pietrusza's handling of the
personalities, issues, trends and
techniques that went on to define
American politics in the first half of the
20th century is to be recommended to
anyone with an interest in presidential
biography or U.S. political history."

--Dr. Ron Faucheux
Author; Former Editor-in-Chief,
Campaigns and Elections Magazine
and Campaign Insider newsletter;
Former Louisiana legislator and
Secretary of Commerce

"David Pietrusza's remarkable new
book 1920: The Year of Six
Presidents is exactly the way history
should be written. It is riveting,
involving, filled with verifiable fact and
compelling anecdote. It makes the era
come alive [and] challenges
presumptions about well-known figures
. . ."

--Glenn Raucher
West Side Y's Writer's Voice

"fast paced highly readable"

--Caffeinated Politics Blog

"grabs you from the first sentence"

--Coy Barefoot, WAMI Radio

"detailed and insightful"

--Ohio Valley Educational Cooperative

"a compelling narrative . . .well-written,
well-researched . . . well worth the
time of anyone interested in American
political history."

--belowthebeltway.com

"wonderful, in-depth"

--newsvine.com

"gripping"

--Dr. Joe Harder,
Macomb County Community College

"A good read"

--Bill Gruver, The Arizona Report
Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Warren Harding, Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, and Franklin D. Roosevelt
David Pietrusza's

1920:
The Year of the Six Presidents

A Selection of the History Book Club
Kirkus Reviews "Best Books of 2007"
Basic Books                                                                              ISBN # 0786716223
.
C-SPAN's BookTV
David Pietrusza on C-SPAN's BookTV (After Words)
.
From the Publisher:

The presidential election of 1920 was among history's
most dramatic as six once-and-future
presidents--Wilson, Harding, Coolidge, Harding,
Hoover, and Teddy and Franklin Roosevelt--jockeyed
for the White House. With voters choosing between
Wilson's League of Nations and Harding's frontporch
isolationism, 1920's election shaped modern America
like no other.

Women won the vote. Republicans outspent Democrats
by 4 to 1, as voters witnessed the first extensive
newsreel coverage, modern campaign advertising, and
results broadcast on radio. We had become an urban
nation--automobiles, mass production, chain stores, and
easy credit transformed the economy.
1920 paints a
vivid portrait of America, beset by the Red Scare, jailed
dissidents, Prohibition, smoke-filled rooms,
bomb-throwing terrorists, and the Klan, gingerly
crossing modernity's threshold.
1920 By the Numbers :

  • 100,000 Members of the Ku Klux Klan
  • 556 radicals deported to Russia
  • 531 Electoral votes
  • 61 lynchings
  • 44 Ballots at the Democrat National Convention
  • 14 Points
  • 10 Ballots at the Republican National Convention
  • 7 First Ladies
  • 6 Presidents in the Running
  • 4 Presidential Mistresses
  • 2.7% Beer
  • 2 Constitutional Amendments
  • 2 Handbills Alleging the Next President was
    Black
  • 2 Italian anarchists arrested for a murder in South
    Braintree, Massachusetts
  • 1 President of Africa
  • 1 Attorney General's home bombed
  • 1 Wall Street bombing
  • 1 Presidential candidate residing in Atlanta
    Federal Penitentiary
  • 1 Catholic Placed in Nomination for the
    Presidency
  • 1 Commercial Radio Station on the air
  • 1 Illegitimate Child
  • 1 Lawsuit by a Vice-Presidential Nominee
  • 1 Presidential Son-in-Law
  • 1 Fraudulent Pulitzer Prize
  • 1 League of Nations
  • 1 World War
"An unusual political constellation of stars lined up in
the 1920 presidential election. Six former, current and
future commanders-in-chief played direct or
supporting roles in the post-World War I drama, each
influencing the campaign's direction in his way. In
1920: The Year of the Six Presidents historian
David Pietrusza masterfully weaves the narrative of a
campaign set amid the background of a rapidly
changing American electorate - more urbanized and
less rural than ever before, increasingly mobile through
the rise of the automobile, wary of international
entanglements after the carnage on the battlefields of
Europe and adapting to new waves of immigration.

"Republicans had the upper hand amid this political
tumult, with the team of Ohio Sen. Warren G.
Harding and Massachusetts Gov. Calvin Coolidge
romping to victory against and under funded and out-
gunned Democratic ticket, the understudy role
anchored by future President D. Roosevelt. Herbert
Hoover, a national hero for his post-war relief efforts
in Europe also made a late bid for the GOP nod. And
hanging over the specter of the contested Republican
nomination was the late President Theodore
Roosevelt, who likely would have been the GOP
standard-bearer had he not died in early 1919.
President Woodrow Wilson himself desperately
wanted to a third term, but his physical infirmity and
divisions among Democrats ruled out that possibility.

"In addition to the six presidents Pietrusza brilliantly
brings to life a cast of rising stars, party hacks,
backroom dealers and assorted other characters
whose names even most political junkies are likely to
scratch their heads at. Republican presidential
aspirants like General Leonard Wood and Illinois
Gov. Frank Lowden have been largely lost to history
but Pietrusza deftly describes how a few different
moves amid the backroom dealings of the Chicago
convention might have brought about a different result
than the scandal-plagued Harding Administration.

"Pietrusza's
1920: The Year of the Six Presidents is
essential to discover how presidents were really
chosen in the pre-television and internet age. This
should be required reading for college political science
and history courses."

-- David Mark, author of
Going Dirty: The Art of
Negative Campaigning and senior editor at
POLITICO

"History books walk a fine line and it’s difficult for
historians to be informative and entertaining. Pietrusza
makes it look easy.
1920: The Year of Six
Presidents
is not merely a great read; it’s a great
experience. Theodore White’s
The Making of the
President
series might be the standard that books
about Presidential campaigns are measured against,
but Pietrusza’s
1920 gives White a run for his money."

--Anthony Bergen, deadpresidents.tumblr.com

"a book that I simply loved . . . fascinating, filled with
intimate details . . ."

--France Kessing, KDVS Radio

"amazing . . .For anyone seriously interested in seeing
today's Iowa Caucuses/ New Hamp. Primaries/Super
Tuesdays, they MUST, as a student of yesterday's
political intrigue, read "1920".

--dennismansfield.com

"Pietrusza . . . doesn't play favorites . . . a multi-
faceted--and somewhat tragic, given the ultimate fates
of Wilson, Harding, and Hoover--view of a stormy
epoch in 20th century American history. Highly
recommended"

--Dr. Christopher Barat, Villa Julie College



"History books walk a fine line and it’s difficult for
historians to be informative and entertaining. Pietrusza
makes it look easy. 1920: The Year of Six Presidents
is not merely a great read; it’s a great experience.
Theodore White’s The Making of the President series
might be the standard that books about Presidential
campaigns are measured against, but Pietrusza’s 1920
gives White a run for his money."

--deadpresidents.com

"a wealth of data"

--Perspectives: A Journal of Political Inquiry

"Pietrusza does an excellent job of painting
colorful and surprising portraits of these six men."

--William L. Wunder, suite101.com

"Fascinating"
 
--The LuLace Political Report

"a pertinent read"

--Kara Watts
Named by Richard Norton Smith on
C-SPAN as one of his favorite presidential
campaign books.
#1 Amazon Sales Ranking in Three Non-Fiction Categories
A Selection of the:

  • Book-of-the-Month Club
  • History Book Club
  • The Literary Guild
  • Quality Paperback Book Club
  • Doubleday Book Club
  • Military Book Club
  • Scientific American Book Club
Also available in:
  • An audiobook format from
    audible.com, narrated by Paul
    Boehmer.
  • Kindle edition.