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
Results 1-5 of 63
... voters . 2. The campaign of 1896 generated an enormous amount of attention among the public . The losing candi- date , Bryan , received more votes than any winning presi- dential candidate before him . Voter turnout reached about 80 ...
... voters . Bryan's cen- tral issue , the unlimited coinage of silver money , repre- sented his attack against the big business interests of the Northeast . McKinley's chief issue , the protective tariff , symbolized the importance of ...
... voters in 1896 were reacting to the economic conditions as much as to the candidates ' rhetoric . There is , however , more to the matter than that . First , several authors claim McKinley had so much money be- hind his campaign that ...
... voting public . Money talks in a campaign , but the money helped McKinley only if the message was persuasive . Furthermore , figures relating to the national committees seri- ously understate the total campaign effort . Bryan ( and ...
... vote and we were anxious to know what would be the outcome of the Brook- lyn meeting . " 34 Labor union leaders devoted considerable efforts to convincing their members to line up behind Bryan and the Democratic platform.35 Much of the ...
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 |