The Democrats in Turmoil

The Bitter Fights to Select a Presidential Nominee, 1896-1924

Recounting the Democratic National Conventions in 1896, 1904, 1912, 1920, and 1924, this book details the bitter inner-party struggles that almost always led to Democratic losses in the fall.

The Democrats couldn’t win an election around the turn of the 20th century—not because they couldn’t find good candidates but because of the infighting and bitter nomination battles that took place prior to and during their national conventions. With the exception of 1912, when Woodrow Wilson won the presidency because of the rift between Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft (and 1916, when Wilson barely won reelection), the Democrats lost six of the eight presidential elections that took place between 1896 and 1924. In 1896, 1904, 1920 and 1924, that loss was directly attributable to the bruising convention fights that preceded the November general election.

This book tells the story of each of these contentious conventions—the issues facing the country heading into the conventions and the general election, the background and personalities of the men who fought for the nomination, and the tumultuous rivalries among Democratic factions in the face of the Republicans' relative unity.

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