1920

The Year of Six Presidents

By: David Pietrusza

Narrated by: Paul Boehmer

Length: 20 hrs and 46 mins

Publisher's summary

The presidential election of 1920 was among history's most dramatic. Six once-and-future presidents--Wilson, Harding, Coolidge, Hoover, and Teddy and Franklin Roosevelt--jockeyed for the White House. With voters choosing between Wilson's League of Nations and Harding's front-porch isolationism, the 1920 election shaped modern America. Women won the vote. Republicans outspent Democrats by 4 to 1, as voters witnessed the first extensive newsreel coverage, modern campaign advertising, and results broadcast on radio. America had become an urban nation: Automobiles, mass production, chain stores, and easy credit transformed the economy. 1920 paints a vivid portrait of America, beset by the Red Scare, jailed dissidents, Prohibition, smoke-filled rooms, bomb-throwing terrorists, and the Klan, gingerly crossing modernity's threshold.

©2008 David Pietrusza (P)2009 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Narrator Paul Boehmer involves himself and listeners by employing subtle emotions. One can hear appropriate inflections—sadness, joy, and petulance—in his words. His sentences flow into a comfortable narrative that sometimes includes poetry. Not resorting to any vocal characterization, he distinguishes the quotations with short pauses." (AudioFile)

Everything I Wanted and More

This book was so informative, fascinating, and everything I wanted and more about the era and the political landscape. I give it the highest of recommendations.

Fun read of a crazy election.

Pietrusza doesn’t just write about the election but gives detailed background of the individuals involved with Democratic nominee James M. Cox getting the least amount of info. He writes like a good storyteller, and the book feels like it would make for a good tv show.

Terrible Narrator.

Ohhhh, just a terrible narrator. makes it very hard to get through the level of detail this book holds. Look elsewhere for information about this time.

Good story, not good in audio format

This is an interesting book that does a respectable job setting the tone & providing facts relative to the election of 1920. The author makes the characters very human, and overall I found the story interesting. The narrator is clear, providing appropriate inflection & good timing.

There is one overwhelming aspect of this audio presentation that is just awful, however: there are many, many instances where the story provides long lists of voting-related data. These are lists of things like: how much campaign money each candidate raised per state, how delegates voted over the course of national conventions, how many votes each candidate received, etc... Numbers are read long-hand (e.g. "Brown had one hundred twenty-two thousand, seven hundred and ninety votes. Wood had one hundred and five thousand, one hundred and sixty-one votes. Harding had ninety-eight thousand, one hundred and twelve votes..." and more), and the lists tend to be long, having eight or ten numbers in them...they feel interminable. Unfortunately, this book is chock-full of these lists; they simply do not translate well aurally.

The result is that the listener is subject to minutes-on-end of lists of numbers...this makes an otherwise good story, trying. In a hard copy version, the reader may glance at the numbers, quickly determine who was best, who was worst, etc., and be done with a list of statistics in a few seconds. In this audio presentation, the lists - and there a many - drone on and on and on... and on. I stopped listening to this book twice, to listen to other books.

Good story, but I can't recommend it in audio format.