Reviews

The Campaign of the Century: Upton Sinclair's Race for Governor of California and the Birth of Media Politics by Greg Mitchell

heat_her's review

4.0

The Campaign of the Century begins the day after Sinclair won the Democratic nomination and gives a detailed day-by-day account of what happened between then and the election. Mitchell reproduces newspaper articles, conversations and letters (both public and private), short film transcripts, radio show transcripts. You name it, it’s in this book. There is so much information that it can get a little dry at times, but I am not faulting Mitchell for that at all. The amount of research that went into this book is just astounding, and it would be hard for me to complain about any part of it knowing how much work Mitchell must have put into writing it. I learned a ton of stuff, and while the 1934 election was a major turning point in politics, it also made me realize that some of the political practices we complain about today were going on 80 years ago…and longer. I guess I assumed that most of the shady political practices we deal with today are relatively new. I assumed wrong.

If you’re interested in Upton Sinclair or politics (or both), I recommend Mitchell’s The Campaign of the Century. It was certainly an eye opener for me.

Read my full review at Between the Covers...