Realigning America

The presidential election of 1896 is widely acknowledged as one of only a few that brought about fundamental realignments in American politics. New voting patterns replaced old, a new majority party came to power, and national policies shifted to reflect new realities. R. Hal Williams now presents the first study of that campaign in nearly fifty years, offering fresh interpretations on the victory of Republican William McKinley over Democrat William Jennings Bryan.In tracing the triumph of gold over silver in this fabled battle of the standards, R. Hal Williams also tells how the Republicansthe party of central government, national authority, sound money, and activismpulled off a stunning win over the Democratsthe party of states rights, decentralization, inflation, and limited government. Meanwhile the Peoples Party, one of the most prominent third parties in the countrys history, which also nominated Bryan, went down to a defeat from which it would never recover.Williams plunges readers into a contest that set new standards in financing, organization, and accountability, and he analyzes the transition from the long-dominant military style of campaign to the educational style that appealed to a savvier electorate. He also presents key players in new light: he views Bryan not simply as a gifted speaker whose Cross of Gold speech took the Democratic convention by storm, but as a more calculating politician with his eye squarely on the nomination; he depicts McKinleys campaign manager Mark Hanna not as the one-dimensional fundraising machine painted by history but rather as a shrewd, insightful politician who understood what was required to get his man elected; and he presents retiring president Cleveland as an increasingly out-of-touch, irrelevant chief executive whom the Democrats repudiated in a way no other party ever had a sitting president.With the Republicans star on the rise and the Democrats banished to the South and the cities, the 1896 election was more than a victory of one party over another, it marked the emergence of new ways of politicking that makes this campaign especially relevant for twenty-first-century readers.