Thomas E. Dewey and His Times

by Richard Norton Smith

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0671417428
• ISBN13: 9780671417420
• Release Date: January 1984
• Publisher: Holiday House
• Length: 720 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.

Customer Reviews

The modern republican party (pre 2000)

Thomas Dewey is one of the forgotten figures in American politics and is explored thoroughly in this book. Dewey built his career the old fashioned way through legal victory and gang busting of the mob. More interesting than the presidential runs is actually his work at developing early thorough investigation techniques coupled with accounting strategies. These early years developed an end to the prohibition era and foreshadowed the rise of the methodical calculating man that would become the guiding light of the Republican Party. Dewey ran for office and failed for a variety of reasons each time. Although coming close to defeating Truman the second time it was a lost cause due to the publics perception of him. He was seen as stiff and unfeeling and the votes always shifted around him. While he was not the warmest candidate he was a great political operator who understood the system. He gathered as many votes as he did through his sheer political brilliance. He became the antithesis of Robert Taft who typified the isolationist branch of the Republican Party. Dewey became the internationalist branch espousing the UN and fighting against communism through economic expansion. While still a part of the Republican Party at the time he represented what his party would become under Eisenhower and develop into under Reagan. The isolationist branch weakened as time went on. (For more on Taft read Mr. Republican by James Patterson). Although unsuccessful as a presidential candidate he was an excellent governor and had the support of the people there. He kept excess funds from the World War II years and used them to develop transportation and help to alleviate crisis following the war. The final phase of Dewey's life was to serve as the savior of the Republican Party and the organizer of Eisenhower's campaign and election. In order to stop Taft and promote the new internationalist policies that Eisenhower elected himself with. It was a pro Korean strategy and an activist strategy across the world to check Russian expansion. While Dewey did not ever want to admit he had anything in common with Truman he did develop many of the same viewpoints but took them further with Eisenhower. Dewey became essentially the chairman of the Republican National Committee and served as the platform and ideals manager of the time. Overall if you are going to pick up a book on Dewey this is the perfect one. It is also great for those who want to understand the post world war II world through American politics. Highly recommended for those who want to understand how America and the Republican Party developed.

Thanks for the Thruway....And Much More

Thomas E. Dewey, the epitome of Manhattan Avenue politics to conservative Republicans, was himself born and bred further west than the venerable Robert Taft himself. A product of Owosso, Michigan, Dewey attended the University of Michigan, studying literature and law, all the while pursuing a career as a professional singer. It was music that brought him to New York, one of many surprises unveiled in Richard Norton Smith's biography of one of America's most prolific political campaigners.Dewey was a capable enough performer that in 1924 he was booked for a solo performance in the cultural heart of America. In the audience was the noted music critic Deems Taylor. Taylor commented upon what he perceived as Dewey's contrived emotional stage effects, but this flaw was dwarfed by a more essential one: suffering from laryngitis, Dewey's voice totally shut down halfway through the program. A thoroughly mortified Dewey was forced to take stock of his career, and as a second choice he decided to pursue a law degree. Columbia University of the 1920's enjoyed a plethora of great legal minds, and even the frustrated singer came to develop a passion for law and the potential theatrics of the courtroom.Dewey's rapid ascent through the law profession was abetted by two factors: his labors on behalf of New York City's struggling Republican party, and the patronage of George Z. Medalie, who would become Dewey's legal and political rabbi. Medalie, a major character in this treatment, enjoyed a thriving private law practice, but he was drafted for one of the city's frequent, and usually unsuccessful, forays against organized crime, which literally held New York in a stranglehold in the 1920's and 1930's. Medalie, who had once consulted for Dewey's firm, brought this "prodigy" into his investigations of the seamy criminal underbelly of New York including, as it turned out, the disappearance of Judge Crater.Not even Medalie could have imagined what kind of courtroom tiger he had unleashed. It was to Dewey's advantage that few intrepid souls wanted to tackle the dangers of addressing organized crime, particularly when corruption pervaded the police department and the courts. Dewey became New York City's district attorney in 1935, prosecuting famous gangsters, politicians, and public figures with a take no prisoners approach. Smith describes several of the most famous investigations in considerable detail, but it is Dewey's style that is most intriguing: a workaholic perfectionist whose "when in Rome" style and prosecutorial armtwisting were not for the prudish. Dewey's face became one of the most recognizable in America-through newspapers, newsreels, and a series of Hollywood B-movies in which Dewey lookalike actors reenacted the more famous of his investigations. After the substantive defeats of Hoover in 1932 and Landon in 1936 many Republican voters in the 1940 primaries turned to the fresh aggressive look of Dewey. By May 1 Dewey stood at the head of the pack, bu