William McKinley: The American Presidents Series: The 25th President, 1897-1901

This is a good read on a great President, cut short, but then overshadowed by TR. You'll be amazed at what comes out of his Presidency. We tend to favor war Presidents in history, but there is so much more!!!

Kevin Phillips has been a political and economic commentator for more than 30 years, and written many books. William McKinley was elected to two terms and avoided any major scandals. America became a world power in his terms. McKinley was the best of the seven Ohio-born presidents. McKinley's reputation declined after 1932 with the changes in tariffs, the gold standard, and the power of corporations. Phillips lists six beliefs about McKinley that he calls "calumnies" (p.4). McKinley's inscrutability, avoidance of written commitments, and oratorical style shows "great political skill" says Phillips (p.5). McKinley was a progressive Republican (p.6) and deserves a better reputation. McKinley's children died young, his wife developed epilepsy (p.25). [This book lacks a map of Ohio in McKinley's times.] Chapter 1 tells about Ohio and William McKinley. After the Civil War McKinley became a lawyer and entered politics. Chapter 2 describes a Modern McKinley. He was sold "like soap" in 1896 (p.30). Victrola records passed on speeches. He was the first president to visit California. The first permanent national labor union (printers) and the AFL started in Ohio, so did the United Mine Workers (p.32). McKinley defended striking coal miners in 1876. Tariffs kept American wages high (p.37). McKinley refused to profit from his political policies (p.39). The tariff questions of revenue and protection were recurring political issues (p.43). Then came the issue of silver currency (pp.51-52). Phillips explains the interests behind the conflicts. McKinley was popular with the party rank and file, and was nominated on the first ballot. The many recessions affected voting for Congress (p.64). Phillips doesn't mention the reason for Bryan's many campaign stops (p.75). It was to talk directly to the voters. Major northern cities backed McKinley (p.77). There were similarities between Bryan and McKinley (p.83). McKinley's term saw America become a world power (p.87). [This seems a little premature.] There was an entente with Britain. Expansionism was an American tradition (pp.88-89). The naval victories at Manila Bay and Santiago Cuba helped McKinley's popularity (p.96). It was a short and successful war. The Platt Amendment kept Germany out of Cuba (p.105). The annexation of Hawaii was to keep Japan out (p.106). Fear of Germany affected Britain's politics. McKinley's plans for tariff reciprocity died with him (p.123). McKinley intended to recommend an income tax (p.124). McKinley was friendly with labor (p.125). McKinley's cabinet continued with Theodore Roosevelt (p.127). McKinley had introduced Granger resolutions (p.128). Roosevelt enacted the Elkins Act and the Hepburn Act. There were threats to nationalize the coal mines and steel industry (p,129). McKinley enacted an arbitration system in Ohio. McKinley also began the naval increase (p.132). Chapter 6 concludes the reconsideration. Senators were chosen by state legislatures and were against progressive legisl

The crux of Kevin Phillips' argument for elevating McKinley's legacy to the second tier of US Presidents is that McKinley was the architect of three major realignments. The first was in creating an enduring Republican populism, the second was in domestic economic reform, and the third was in America's role globally. Phillips explains that Teddy Roosevelt gets credit for much that is, upon objective hindsight, more appropriately due to McKinley. The prime examples of this are the Panama Canal, and trust-busting, which projects were set in motion well before TR's name became irrevocably integrated with them. If you accept that the McKinley cabinet which TR kept intact throughout his first term essentially carried out McKinley's policies, then TR's first term was essentially McKinley's second. Even the growth of the navy, for which TR gets so much credit, was possible only with the running start provided by McKinley. In point of fact, the case that Phillips makes would justify elevating McKinley to the first tier of US Presidents, but since some of that assessment rests on extrapolation, Phillips contents himself with a pitch for the second tier. In the process we learn a great deal about William Jennings Bryan, the gold standard and bimetalism, the economics of tarrifs, women's sufferage, the emerging political role of blacks, and the emerging essence of Republicanism. We see McKinley as a pensive and self-effacing builder of consensus, driving his brand of Midwestern populism with canny political acumen. So why is McKinley so misunderstood? Phillips makes the case that it is his modesty, his generosity, his willingness to compromise, and his focus on concrete outcomes rather than on political grandstanding, and particularly his fundamental desire to be liked which has been interpreted as weakness. Mr. Phillips writing is scholarly, and is supported by extensive footnotes and bibliography. He is himself an under-appreciated historian, whose earlier books, The Cousins' Wars, Wealth and Democracy, and The Emerging Republican Majority deserve more visibility. I unequivocably endorse this book, and I second Mr. Phillips' motion for a taller pedestal for William McKinley.

The previous reviewer is correct that Phillips has written an extended argument more than he has a traditional biography. But the argument is so cleverly advanced, and covers so much of McKinley's political life and presidency, that I found the book of compelling interest -- the best of the more than half-dozen biographies I've read in this wonderful The American Presidents series so far.The core of Phillips's argument is that much of the credit given to Theodore Roosevelt properly belongs to his predecessor McKinley. In establishing a political realignment in 1896 based on both labor and urban-dweller votes, in greatly expanding America's world role, and in beginning the reforms to tilt the balance of economic power from capital to labor, McKinley either preceded Roosevelt, setting the pace for the latter's presidency, or outdid TR altogether.Phillips's argument holds up fairly well, although some parts are better than others. He is very convincing in describing how McKinley created a political realignment in 1896 (and solidified it in 1900), but less so when discussing the importance of McKinley's rather circuitous route to protect labor against big capital.Some of the most interesting parts of this book are its sidebars. Phillips should be commended for including short write-ups on the importance of Ohio to late-nineteenth century and early-twentieth century politics, as well as the importance of silver in that era. I even enjoyed the sections on McKinley and the tariff. This is not your typical biography, but its unusual approach is a strength, not a weakness.

I have tremendously enjoyed the volumes that have appeared so far in Arthur Schlesinger Jr.'s The American Presidents, but this is the first volume to have appeared so far that managed to transcend the limitations inherent in a series such as this. Most of the other volumes consist of a chronological recounting of the relevant president's life and career, with some assessment of his significance and achievements. Kevin Phillips, in a comparable number of pages, manages to present a case for a complete revision of the popular understanding of William McKinley, our 25th President. Although many of McKinley's biographers have argued some of the same things that Phillips does here, he does so in a much more vigorous fashion.The stereotype of McKinley is that he was a somewhat dimwitted puppet under the control of Big Business, a man of little imagination, no culture, and a nonprogressive who was eclipsed by the ascendance of Teddy Roosevelt following his assassination. Phillips, on the other hand, wants to argue that he was a self-confident reformer who masked his goals under a congenial exterior, possessed a highly cultivated knack for maneuvering others to his own position, was vastly more concerned with protecting laborers and wages than the desires of business, and laid the foundations for progressive reforms that he himself would have begun had his life not ended so suddenly. Phillips shows that McKinley's obsession with tariffs had little to do with a desire to reward the rich, but with a desire to increase the wages of American workers. Though but lightly stated, much of Phillips's book is intended as a polemic against contemporary misuses of McKinley, such as Karl Rove, George W. Bush's chief aide. Many conservatives envision turning government back to a time before the unquestionably Progressive Roosevelt, to a mythical William McKinley who is assumed to share many of the values of contemporary supporters of Bush. Phillips shows over and over, however, that McKinley in fact shared almost no basic political goals or values with contemporary conservatives. Continually throughout the book, Phillips shows that McKinley had deep ties to labor, and was concerned with the needs of business primarily to the degree that healthy business meant higher wages for workers. He was quite sympathetic to organized labor, to a degree unusual in his time, and even the right of workers to strike. On the other hand, he, like all 19th century American presidents, found the accumulation of excessive amounts of wealth to be repugnant and a little obscene, hardly a quality he holds with contemporary conservatives. Even further destroying the parallels between current conservativism and McKinley, Phillips refers to McKinley's concerns with tax fairness, which did not mean lessening the tax burden on the wealthy and business, but the demand for a progressive tax structure that required those best off paying more than those less well off. McKinley's progres