FDR, Dewey, and the Election of 1944

Although the presidential election of 1944 placed FDR in the White House for an unprecedented fourth term, historical memory of the election itself has been overshadowed by the war, Roosevelt's health and his death the following April, Truman's ascendancy, and the decision to drop the atomic bomb. Today most people assume that FDR's reelection was assured. Yet, as David M. Jordan's engrossing account reveals, neither the outcome of the campaign nor even the choice of candidates was assured. Just a week before Election Day, pollster George Gallup thought a small shift in votes in a few key states would award the election to Thomas E. Dewey. Though the Democrats urged voters not to "change horses in midstream," the Republicans countered that the war would be won "quicker with Dewey and Bricker." With its insider tales and accounts of party politics, and campaigning for votes in the shadow of war and an uncertain future, FDR, Dewey, and the Election of 1944 makes for a fascinating chapter in American political history.

David M. Jordan is author of Roscoe Conkling of New York: Voice in the Senate; Winfield Scott Hancock: A Soldier's Life (IUP, 1988); "Happiness Is Not My Companion": The Life of General G. K. Warren (IUP, 2001); and Occasional Glory: A History of the Philadelphia Phillies.

Preface and Acknowledgments
Prologue: An Evening at the Statler
1. A Nation at War
2. Politics in Midwar
3. The Republicans
4. The Democrats
5. Willkie Pushes Hard
6. President and Congress
7. Wendell in Wonderland
8. The Bandwagon Rolling
9. It Looks Like Dewey
10. The Republican Convention
11. Meanwhile, the Democrats
12. The Ailing President
13. Will Roosevelt Run?
14. Who Runs with Roosevelt?
15. The Democrats Arrive in Chicago
16. Democrats in Convention
17. Campaign on the High Seas
18. The Republicans Go to Work
19. Dewey Heads West
20. The Battle Is On
21. The October Campaign Kicks In
22. Death in October
23. Dewey on the Offensive
24. FDR Strikes Back
25. Down to the Wire
26. Bricker's Campaign
27. The Man from Missouri
28. The Last Days
29. Election Day
30. Summing Up
Epilogue: The Fourth Term
Notes
Bibliography
Index