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The Wizard of Washington

Emil Hurja, Franklin Roosevelt, and the Birth of Public Opinion Polling

  • Book
  • © 2002

Overview

Authors:
  1. Melvin G. Holli
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Part of the book series: The World of the Roosevelts (WOOROO)

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Table of contents (6 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-viii
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  2. Growing up in a Frontier Boom Town

    • Melvin G. Holli
    Pages 1-18

  3. College Days and Beyond

    • Melvin G. Holli
    Pages 19-37

  4. 1932 Presidential Election

    • Melvin G. Holli
    Pages 39-55

  5. Polling and Patronage for Roosevelt and the New Deal

    • Melvin G. Holli
    Pages 57-80

  6. Post-New Deal Hurja

    • Melvin G. Holli
    Pages 81-96

  7. 1939—Publishing, Polling, Consulting

    • Melvin G. Holli
    Pages 97-123

  8. Back Matter

    Pages 125-153
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Keywords

About this book

Historians have tended to point to John F. Kennedy's 1960 bid for the presidency as the first time a candidate relied extensively on public opinion polls to drive a campaign. Polling has come to define American politics, and is perhaps most clearly embodied in Bill Clinton, the post poll-driven president in history. Melvin G. Holli dismisses this notion, however, and reveals that presidential reliance on public opinion polls dates back to the New Deal Era, when Franklin Roosevelt employed a first-generation Finnish-American named Emil Hurja to conduct polls for this 1932 and 1936 presidential campaigns. Holli shows us how Hurja convinced the Democratic National Committee to allow him to apply the new science of polling FDR's presidential campaign of 1932. Roosevelt's triumph at the polls in that year and again in 1936, as well as the spectacular 1934 Democratic mid-term congressional victory was legendary. Holli restores Hurja to his rightful place in American history and politics, showing us that the Washington press corps were right on target when they dubbed Hurja the 'Wizard of Washington'.

Reviews

'...well-researched and well-written biography of a Finnish American hero.' - Giles C. Ekola, The Finnish American Reporter

About the author

MELVIN G. HOLLI is Professor of History at the University of Illinois at Chicago and the author and co-editor of fifteen books on urban, ethnic, and political history. His publication The American Mayor: The Best and Worst Big-City Leaders received extensive review attention and was the subject of a fifty-minute lecture on CSPAN-TV's Book Week.

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: The Wizard of Washington

  • Book Subtitle: Emil Hurja, Franklin Roosevelt, and the Birth of Public Opinion Polling

  • Authors: Melvin G. Holli

  • Series Title: The World of the Roosevelts

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-09547-3

  • Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan New York

  • eBook Packages: Palgrave History Collection, History (R0)

  • Copyright Information: Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Nature America Inc. 2002

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-0-312-29395-6Published: 28 March 2002

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-1-349-63449-1Published: 28 March 2002

  • eBook ISBN: 978-1-137-09547-3Published: 28 March 2002

  • Series ISSN: 2578-7225

  • Series E-ISSN: 2634-5285

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: VIII, 164

  • Topics: US History, Political Communication, History of the Americas, Modern History, European Politics

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