Ronald G. Shafer

The first time I understood the significance of the 1840 US Presidential Campaign was while listening to the Slate Whistlestop podcast by John Dickerson (side note, this is a fascinating podcast if you're interested in Presidential campaigns in general). Previous to this, nominees never "campaigned" by speaking to people, or traveling, or advertising. They didn't even show up for the nominating conventions. Kind of crazy when you think about in the context of our modern way of doing things.

These candidates had a catch phrase that you've probably heard: Tippecanoe and Tyler Too. They had a version of Joe the Plumber plucked from obscurity and sent on speaking trips. William Henry Harrison himself went out an spoke to people. Both sides owed newspapers which were used for positive and negative propaganda. Even presidential merchandising was born here, with the selling of log cabin themed items, which it self was a nod to an almost entirely fictitious story Harrison, et al concocted about him being a simple man living in a log cabin and drinking hard cider.

Spoiler, it wasn't even close to the truth.

Another spoiler: hard cider sales went through the roof.

Unfortunately, WHH was also the first president who died while in office (only a few weeks after his inauguration), so John Tyler had the responsibility of setting precedents on behavior of VP's after such an event. Since, you know, this seriously isn't explicitly addressed in the Constitution. So he winged it and ended up doing a good job with that, if not the rest of his presidency.

This book is very engagingly written, so much so that I think it would be enjoyable to anyone, not just history nerds. The pacing feels good, and it never got boring. The author continues after the campaign to cover WHH few days in office, his funeral, and Tyler eventually taking office. He also gives an afterward with information on a lot of the people who were involved in this crazy ride of a campaign. Great stuff. Pretty sure I'll be buying a copy for myself to keep.

Copy courtesy of NYU Press, via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.… (meer)