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An Election for the Ages: Rossi Vs. Gregoire, 2004 by Trova Heffernan

2010; Oregon Historical Society; Volume: 111; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/ohq.2010.0037

2329-3780

Brent S. Steel,

Theater, Performance, and Music History

 Reviews On and off the screen, the playful and erotic Bow represented a modern rejection of Victorian purity and a willingness to use consumption as a means of expression and pleasure. Yet her movie roles repeatedly depicted single women who sought the comfort and security of marriage, a strategy she ultimately pursued in her own life.Just as some of Bow’s off-screen excesses generated controversy, notorious celebrities such as Ruth Snyder, executed for conspiring with her lover to murder her husband for an insurance settlement, and Nan Britton,self-confessed mistress to the late President Warren G. Harding, garnered exposure in the tabloid press as scandalous individuals whose licentious behavior had violated traditional values. A different calculus applied to male figures like baseball’s home-run king Babe Ruth,whose humble origins,perseverance,and ability to exploit modern media led the public to ignore or relish his self-indulgent lifestyle. In a different mix of cultural postures, boxing fans preferred to celebrate the“rugged pioneer past” of freewheeling former western miner Jack Dempsey to the disciplined approach of the college-trained Gene Tunney, whose cold and calculating approach to the sport,suggests Shindo, reminded Americans of those aspects of modern life they most feared (p. 121). 1927 offers its strongest points concerning the contradictions of modern society in the realm of popular culture. Shindo notes how Mary Pickford, billed as America’s Sweetheart, embodied innocence and virtue in many of her movie roles while participating in an equitable partnership with husband Douglas Fairbanks that led to an economic empire and a California estate resembling a consumer’s paradise. Likewise, he portrays The Jazz Singer, the first commercially successful Hollywood movie employing sound, as a film that managed to meld the pull of traditional religious life and Old World family ties with modern American values of success and assimilation. Additional examples abound in the way jazz musicians, such as Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington, and Harlem Renaissance literati fused traditional African-American folk culture with modernist techniques and sensibilities. Although Shindo does much to explain the diverse responses to 1920s modernization, one occasionally wishes for further depth. The author’s treatment of “Ol’ Man River” in the Broadway musical Show Boat, for example, emphasizes the song’s theme of “black subservience ” but fails to take note of a mature African-American man taking the stage to angrily denounce the oppressive conditions of a southern stevedore’s life (p. 74). Shindo also describes the popular white performers of radio’s Amos‘n’Andy as recycling traditional racial prejudices and stereotypes, although scholars have pointed to the way the program humanized its black characters by touching on everyday themes surrounding migration, family devotion,illness,and economic struggle. Nevertheless,1927 succeeds as a succinct exploration of Twenties America and a stimulating resource for scholars, classroom students, and general readers. David A. Horowitz Portland State University An Election for the Ages: Rossi vs. Gregoire, 2004 by Trova Heffernan foreword by Secretary of State Sam Reed Washington State University Press, Pullman, 2010. Tables, notes, index. 184 pages. $19.95 paper. Author Trova Heffernan provides an insider’s perspective on the closest state gubernatorial election in U.S. history. As Communications Director for Washington Secretary of State Sam Reed during the 2004 election, Heffernan provides a historical account and analysis of the election between Republican Dino Rossi and Democrat Christine Gregoire.The election was decided by a mere 133 votes out of 2.8 million  OHQ vol. 111, no. 4 cast, involved five court cases including two in the State Supreme Court,and led to a machine recount and a final manual recount before a winner was declared seven months later. The book is written in a journalistic style with short concise chapters organized chronologically , sometimes even including the time of events, which is not surprising given Heffernan ’s previous career as a television news report and anchor. The presentation of materials and style of writing leads to event-filled and entertaining reading that is accessible to a wide audience.While the book is written by an insider, the description and analysis of events seems balanced and fair. It is clearly aimed for a general...