From the Front Porch to the Front Page: McKinley and Bryan in the 1896 Presidential CampaignTexas A&M University Press, 2005 - 230 pages The last presidential campaign of the nineteenth century was remarkable in a number of ways. -It marked the beginning of the use of the news media in a modern manner. -It saw the Democratic Party shift toward the more liberal position it occupies today. -It established much of what we now consider the Republican coalition: Northeastern, conservative, pro-business. It was also notable for the rhetorical differences of its two candidates. In what is often thought of as a single-issue campaign, William Jennings Bryan delivered his famous "Cross of Gold" speech but lost the election. Meanwhile, William McKinley addressed a range of topics in more than three hundred speeches--without ever leaving his front porch. The campaign of 1896 gave the public one of the most dramatic and interesting battles of political oratory in American history, even though, ironically, its issues faded quickly into insignificance after the election. In From the Front Porch to the Front Page, author William D. Harpine traces the campaign month-by-month to show the development of Bryan's rhetoric and the stability of McKinley's. He contrasts the divisive oratory Bryan employed to whip up fervor (perhaps explaining the 80 percent turnout in the election) with the lower-keyed unifying strategy McKinley adopted and with McKinley's astute privileging of rhetorical siting over actual rhetoric. Beyond adding depth and detail to the scholarly understanding of the 1896 presidential campaign itself (and especially the "Cross of Gold" speech), this book casts light on the importance of historical perspective in understanding rhetorical efforts in politics. |
From inside the book
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... newspaper editor and former member of Congress from Nebraska , William Jennings Bryan . Nonethe- less , the opponents never met on the same battlefield . McKinley refused to accept the monetary standard as the central issue of the ...
... newspapers , a certain solid , trustworthy folksiness jumps off the page . Bryan's critics , on the other hand , too frequently dismiss him as a bombastic ignoramus . Although Bryan was often a flashy speaker , and made calculated ...
... newspapers , McKinley's cam- paign speeches seemed to be more consistently adapted to the newspaper readership . In a more general way , a closer look by historians of rhetoric at the public speaking of late nineteenth - century ...
... newspapers . This procedure also ensures that the conclusions are founded on an understanding of the campaign as a whole , not just of one or two arbitrarily chosen speeches . Depth , how- ever , seemed to be as important as breadth ...
... newspaper reporter Joseph Smith.22 Shorthand reporters employed by newspapers and wire services did the same , of course , but presumably only when applause actu- ally occurred . Rough drafts of some of the speeches have survived in ...
Contents
13 | |
26 | |
37 | |
56 | |
Unmade by One Speech? Bryans Trip to Madison Square Garden | 69 |
McKinleys Front Porch Oratory in September 1896 | 90 |
McKinleys Speech to the Homestead Workers | 111 |
Bryans Railroad Campaign in September 1896 | 128 |
The Closing Weeks of the Front Porch Campaign | 146 |
The End of Bryans First Battle | 160 |
Identification and Timeliness Revisited | 176 |
Notes | 187 |
Index | 221 |