S8 Ep1120: A Landslide Victory and the Birth of a New Era Guest: David Pietrusza Warren G. Harding secured one of the most lopsided victories in history, winning 60% of the popular vote and 404 electoral votes. His victory was fueled by modern advertising techniques

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John Batchelor

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🗓️ 12 July 2026

⏱️ 12 minutes

🔗️ Recording | Apple Podcasts | RSS

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Summary

A Landslide Victory and the Birth of a New Era Guest: David Pietrusza Warren G. Harding secured one of the most lopsided victories in history, winning 60% of the popular vote and 404 electoral votes. His victory was fueled by modern advertising techniques, including celebrity endorsements from stars like Al Jolson. On election night, Americans received results through early radio broadcasts and by having numbers projected onto the walls of newspaper offices. While history often views Harding as a weak administrator, Pietrusza contends he was a strong politician who successfully focused on restructuring government and reducing national debt. His presidency ended abruptly with a fatal heart attack in 1923, leading to the famous midnight swearing-in of Calvin Coolidge by his father in Vermont. Coolidge's subsequent presidency was defined by his commitment to public service, modest living, and a philosophy of independent leadership that restored public trust in the executive branch. (7)
1920

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0:35.1	I'm John Batchel with David Petusha.
0:37.2	His book is 1920, the year of the six presidents. Teddy Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Warren G. Harding, Franklin Roosevelt, Calvin Coolidge, and Herbert Hoover are the six presidents. One man who will not become a president. He is, however, a candidate again on the Socialist Party ticket.
0:57.8	He's a state senator from Indiana.
0:59.7	His name is Eugene Debs.
1:01.1	He wins less than a million votes in the 1920 election.
1:06.0	This is the year after a strikes across the country, frightening the nation, frightening both parties,
1:14.3	it becomes a quest to destroy the radicals associated with the Bolsheviks of Russia.
1:21.5	America is reading the headlines from Europe that is, Europe that is torn apart in Bolshevik revolution or socialist revolution or communist revolution.
1:31.0	Germany is torn apart and creates the conditions that we know will be the tragedies of the 1930s.
1:37.8	Where is Eugene Debs running for president, David?
1:41.9	He's in the pen.
1:43.9	He's in Atlanta penitentiary. And the reason is
1:47.2	because he had spoken out against the war. The mother of the Socialist Party during World War
1:56.1	was anti-war. He had spoken out against the draft. and I think they got him on the Sedition Act,
	...

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