Professor Gil Troy Fall 2010
Office: Leacock 628 MW(F) 2:35-3:25
email: gil.troy@mcgill.ca Phone:514-398-3898
HIST 301: THE HISTORY OF AMERICAN PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGNING
Each presidential election season triggers yet another round of complaints about the campaign and the candidates. The campaigns do not test presidential qualifications adequately; none of the candidates are good enough. The campaigns are too long; the candidates, too superficial. The campaigns are undignified; the candidates, demagogic. The campaigns are expensive; the candidates too financially needy. Candidates are too involved; the people, too apathetic. Solutions to the “problem” of the presidential campaign around: clustering primaries, limiting PACs, compressing the campaign season, restricting donations, restraining the media.
Many of these laments assume that modern Americans have somehow strayed from an earlier, idyllic path. Once upon a time, when parties were strong and television was not even a twinkle in Marconi’s eye, elections were more substantive, candidates were more impressive, the nation was more virtuous. Democracy seems to have worked then. Now, alas, it barely functions. American politics was once grand, the conventional wisdom goes; now, it is tawdry. In fact, since the first contested election in 1796, when partisans of Thomas Jefferson and John Adams clashed, many have considered presidential campaigns excessively partisan, unduly disruptive, and undignified. Without an appreciation of these traditional concerns, the “problems” of the modern campaign cannot be fathomed.
This course considers the continuing problem of the presidential campaign. How has the presidential campaign changed over the last two centuries? How has it remained the same? What do these continuities and discontinuities show about American history, in general, and American democracy, in particular
the course will be divided into three sections. First, we will consider the origins of the presidential campaign. Next, we will examine the presidential campaign during the golden age of partisan politics, from the 1850s through the 1940s. During this time, the candidates became more active and the people became more involved. But the dissatisfaction with the campaign festered. The concluding section, “The Making and Selling of the President,” compares the modern campaign with its predecessors.
This course will combine lectures and discussions. Students MUST come to class prepared to discuss the assigned readings, particularly the primary sources. Note that the most important documents are italicized in the syllabus.
Website and Listserve
In addition to using the WebCt, the supplemental reading will be available on the Course Website, “in Readings” on the syllabus. You are responsible for knowing anything posted there as well as on the WebCt. The Website is:
http://www.arts.mcgill.ca/programs/history/faculty/TROYWEB/Courseweb/hist301index.htm
NOTE: The ads since 1952 shown in class can be seen at http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/
FOR OVERVIEWS OF EACH CAMPAIGN SEE:
http://www.multied.com/elections/
Conferences, Assignments, and Grading
There will be weekly reading assignments and conferences will meet regularly throughout the semester. Participation in the conferences and during the lectures will account for 10 percent of your grade. A final exam for all will account for 30 percent of the grade. For the remaining 60%, three 5-6 page analytical papers on the various readings of the week will be due at the start of your conference the week of September 29th; the week of October 20th; the week of November 17th or November 24th. Early papers are most welcome. Late papers are not. You will be penalized. No papers will be accepted after Friday, November 26.
NOTE: Failure to submit three papers for three separate sections ON TIME or to complete the final will result in a “J.”
Office Hours
My office hours will be Mondays, at 3:30 and by appointment.
University Policies
In the event of extraordinary circumstances beyond the University’s control, the content and/or evaluation scheme in this course is subject to change.
In accord with McGill University’s Charter of Students’ Rights, students in this course have the right to submit in English or in French any written work that is to be graded.
Academic Integrity statement [approved by Senate on 29 January 2003]: McGill University values academic integrity. Therefore all students must understand the meaning and consequences of cheating, plagiarism and other academic offences under the Code of Student Conduct and Disciplinary Procedures (see www.mcgill.ca/integrity for more information).
L’université McGill attache une haute importance à l’honnêteté académique. Il incombe par conséquent à tous les étudiants de comprendre ce que l’on entend par tricherie, plagiat et autres infractions académiques, ainsi que les conséquences que peuvent avoir de telles actions, selon le Code de conduite de l’étudiant et des procédures disciplinaires (pour de plus amples renseignements, veuillez consulter le site www.mcgill.ca/integrity.
Required Reading
(in order of use, all books available at the McGill Bookstore
Gil Troy, See How They Ran: The Changing Role of the
Presidential Candidates
Charles S. Sydnor, American Revolutionaries in the Making:
Political Practices in Washington’s Virginia
Richard P. McCormick, The Presidential Game: The Origins of
Presidential Politics
David Donald, Lincoln
Paul W. Glad, McKinley, Bryan, & the People
Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death
Joe McGinniss, The Selling of the President 1968
Brinkley, Polsby, and Sullivan, New Federalist Papers
Readings – posted on the Web
Schedule of Topics and Readings
(* means this document will be discussed in class, so READ IT BEFOREHAND AND BRING IT TO CLASS!!!!)
Wed., Sept. 1: #1: Introduction and Overview
Troy, See How They Ran, “Prologue,” pp. 1-6.
Gil Troy, “Introduction,” History of Presidential Elections (forthcoming)
*Fri., Sept. 3: #2: Barack Obama and the “Historic” 2008 Campaign
Gil Troy, “2008,” in History of Presidential Elections (forthcoming)
Week 2:
Mon., Sept. 6: LABOR DAY: NO CLASS
*Wed., Sept. 8: VIDEO: The 2008 Campaign
Week 3:
Mon. Sept. 13: #3:”Candidus”: The Traditional Campaign
*Cato’s Letters in Readings Especially #61-62
*Declaration of Independence
(http://www.law.indiana.edu/uslawdocs/declaration.html)
Troy, See How They Ran, Chapter One, pp. 7-19.
Charles S. Sydnor, American Revolutionaries in the Making:
Political Practices in Washington’s Virginia, pp. 1-118
(NOTE: The book is in the library under its original name
Gentlemen Freeholders)
Wed., Sept. 15: #4: “A Bundle of Compromises”: The Constitutional Campaign
*The Constitution (especially Article II and Amendments 12,
13, 14, 15, 17, 19, 22, 24, 25, 26) in Readings
The Federalist Nos. 49, 68 70, 71, 72 in Readings *(#68)
Week 4:
Mon., Sept. 20: #5: George Washington and Republican Virtue
SPOTLIGHT: 1788 “George Washington: Republican” in Readings.
*(esp. 110 Rules of Civility)
Richard P. McCormick, The Presidential Game, pp. 1-117
Wed. Sept. 22: VIDEO: Images of the Mass Campaign
SECTION #1: THE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN (Troy, Sydnor)
Week 5:
Mon., Sept. 27:#6: The Emergence of Parties
Charts, “Party Politics in America”
W.N. Chambers, “Party Development and the American
Mainstream,” in Chambers, William Nisbet and Burnham,
Walter Dean, eds. The American Party System: Stages of
Development, pp. 3-32 on reserve.
Wed., Sept. 29: #7: Andrew Jackson and the Partisan Campaign
SPOTLIGHT: 1828
*”The Debate on Extended Suffrage” [Kent v. Buel, 1821] in
Readings.
Richard P. McCormick, The Presidential Game: The Origins of
Presidential Politics, pp. 117-207.
FIRST 5 PAGE ANALYTICAL PAPER DUE AT THE START OF YOUR CONFERENCE
SECTION #2: THE PARTY CAMPAIGN (Troy, and McCormick)
Week 6:
Mon., Oct. 4: #8: Confusion Reigns: 1840 and 1844 SPOTLIGHT: 1840
Troy, See How They Ran, pp. 20-107
*Sources, 1840, 1844 in Readings (esp. Kane, Raleigh and
Alabama Letters)
Donald, Lincoln, pps.1-161,
Wed., Oct. 6: #9: Abraham Lincoln: America’s Greatest Politician in the Golden Age of Campaigning? SPOTLIGHT: 1860
*Sources, 1860, 1868 in Readings
Richard Jensen, “Armies, Ad-men and Crusaders: Types of
Presidential Election Campaigns,” The History Teacher, 2
(1969): 33-50 in Readings
Week 7:
Mon., Oct. 11: CANADIAN THANKSGIVING NO CLASSES
Wed., Oct. 13: #10: SPOTLIGHT 1876: Education and Partisanship: solving the stalemate of 1876
*Plunkitt of Tammany Hall in Readings
Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center on 1876
http://www.rbhayes.org/hayes/president/display.asp?id=511&subj=president
HarpWeek – -1876 controversy
http://elections.harpweek.com/controversy.htm
SECTION #3: THE GOLDEN AGE OF PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGNING
Donald, Lincoln, pps. 162-270, 493-547
Week 8:
Mon., Oct. 18: #11: SPOTLIGHT 1896: The Battle of the Standards
Paul Glad, McKinley, Bryan, & the People, pp. 1-36, 48-50,
95-141, 163-209.
*Primary Sources, 1888-1892, 1896 in Readings
Wed., Oct. 20: #12: The Power of the Press and The Brave New World of Twentieth
Century Politics
Primary Sources, 1904-1928 in Readings
Primary Sources, Theodore Roosevelt Campaigns in Readings…
Troy, See How They Ran, pp. 108-132
SECTION #4: 19th Century Campaign transformations
SECOND 5 PAGE ANALYTICAL PAPER DUE AT THE START OF YOUR CONFERENCE
Week 9:
Mon., Oct. 25: VIDEO: The Kennedy-Nixon Debates
Wed., Oct. 27: #13 FDR and the Rise of Mass Culture
*Radio, 1924-1948 in Readings
Troy, See How They Ran, pp. 133-207
*Franklin Roosevelt Campaigns in Readings
SECTION #5: THE VANISHING VOTER, 1900-2000
Thomas Patterson, The Vanishing Voter [on HNN] in Readings
http://hnn.us/articles/printfriendly/1104.html
Robert Zaller, “Perversities in the Ideal of the Informed
Citzenry [1999]” http://www.mtsu.edu/~seig/pdf/pdf_zaller.pdf
Voter Turnout Charts in Readings …
Robert Putnam, “Bowling Alone,” Journal of Democracy 6:1, Jan
1995,pps.65-78 http://muse.jhu.edu/demo/journal_of_democracy/v006/putnam.html or http://eaglenet.lambuth.edu/facultyweb/faculty/mego/Bowling.pdf
Week 10:
Mon., Nov. 1: #14: The Whistlestopper and Mr. Checkers
McCormick, Presidential Game, pp. 207-238
Wed., Nov. 3: #15: The Television Revolution
SECTION #6: PERSONALITY AND PUBLICITY IN THE MODERN CAMPAIGN
Warren Susman, “‘Personality’ and the Making of
Twentieth-Century Culture,” Chapter 14 in Warren Susman,
Culture as History, pp. 271-285 on reserve.
Robert Westbrook, “Politics as Consumption,” Chapter V in Fox and Lears, The Culture of Consumption, pp. 145-173 on
reserve.
Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death, pp. vii-82
Week 11:
Mon., Nov. 8: #16: The Selling of the President, 1960s
Wed., Nov. 10: #17: The Modern Campaign: Primarily Overreported?
Troy, See How They Ran, Chapter 10, pp. 227-239.
SECTION #7: DID TELEVISION RUIN THE PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN?
Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death, pp. 83-163.
Lance Morrow, “Of Myth and Memory: Dreaming of 1960 in the
New World,” Time, 24 Oct. 1988, pp. 21-27 in Readings
Timothy Crouse, The Boys on the Bus, pp. 3-11 in Readings
Week 12:
Mon., Nov. 15: #18: Tricky Dick, Betty Ford and the Primal Scene of Presidential Politics
Primary Sources, 1976 in Readings
*The Character Question in Readings
Wed., Nov. 17: #19: The Republican Juggernaut
Section #8: MAKING AND SELLING THE PRESIDENT, 1968, 1972
Joe McGinniss The Selling of the President 1968, all
Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media, pp. 5-12 in Readings [First option for submitting 3rd paper]
Week 13:
Mon., Nov. 22: #20: The Presidency in the Age of the Popular Campaign.
Brinkley, Polsby, Sullivan, et al., New Federalist Papers, all
Acceptance Speeches, 1980 in Readings
Gil Troy, “Money and Politics: the Oldest Connection,” Wilson
Quarterly (Fall, 1997),
http://www.arts.mcgill.ca/history/faculty/troyweb/MoneyandPolitics.htm
Are Voters Fools? See Arthur B. Maas, Foreword to VO Key, Jr., The Responsible Electorate, vii-xv on reserve
Samuel Popkin, The Reasoning Voter, pp.7-13, in Readings.
Wed., Nov. 24: #21: Republicanism and Liberal Democracy in the late 1980s and 1990s…
Troy, See How They Ran, pp. 239-282.
SECTION #9: THE MODERN CAMPAIGN IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE
THIRD 5 PAGE ANALYTICAL PAPER DUE AT THE START OF YOUR CONFERENCE –No Papers Accepted After the End of this Week
Week 14:
Mon., Nov. 29: #22: George Bush wins in 2000 and 2004: what went right and Right?
Gil Troy, “2004,” in History of Presidential Elections (forthcoming)
CNN “How we got here: A timeline of the Florida recount,” Dec. 13, 2000
http://archives.cnn.com/2000/ALLPOLITICS/stories/12/13/got.here/index.html
Gil Troy, “The Price of Playing it Cool,” from Poppolitics.com
http://www.poppolitics.com/articles/2000-12-24-public.shtml
Dershowitz v. Posner from Slate.com Dialogues, July 2 AND 3rd
Democracy in Action’s P2004: the 2004 Campaign – Sample at least 5 of the links at http://www.gwu.edu/~action/P2004.html
Wed., Dec. 1: #23: Conclusions: The Presidential Campaign in a Changing – and Unchanging World
Gil Troy -- Courses 
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