Home : Book details : Book description

Description of  A Third Term for FDR: The Election of 1940 (American Presidential Elections)

In 1940, for the first time since Americas founding, a sitting president sought a third term in office. But this was only one remarkable aspect of that years election, which was, as John Jeffries makes clear in his new book, one of the most interesting and important elections in American history. Franklin Roosevelts plan to pack the Supreme Court had failed in the wake of a recent recession, his New Deal had hardened support and opposition among both parties and the German advance across Europe, along with Japanese aggression in Asia, was stirring fierce debate over Americas role in the world. Adding to the moment of profound uncertainty was FDRs procrastination over whether to run again. Jeffries explores how these tensions played out and what they meant, not just for the presidential election but also for domestic politics and policy generally, and for state and local contests. In the context of the Roosevelt Coalition and the New Deal party system, he parses the debates and struggles within both the Democratic and Republican parties as Roosevelt deliberated over running and Wendell Wilkie, a businessman from Indiana and New York City, got the nod from Republicans over a field including the rising moderate Thomas E. Dewey, the conservative Michigan senator Arthur Vandenburg, and the isolationist Ohio senator Robert Taft. Read more