the next day on the fifth ballot . >> host: sounds like he comes out with momentum. >> he does. self-satisfied, the democrats have screwed this up and we are going to win this thing easily. he's going to take a vacation on his yacht. doesn't expect that he'll return before the first of august and no campaign need to begin before first ofug september. this is earlyc july. over the in the case several weeks, mckinley puts in charge headquarters in chicago and tries to travel to the east to conciliate and begin trying to organize and won a campaign and

state parties begin to do canvass and begin to get the bad news that they t are way behind. >> host: a canvas is like a poll or informal poll? >> guest: it's even more than that. let's say iowa, he conducted a canvas starting in july and august. every precinct ascertain for every single voter and reported it to the county and to the state. you had at poll of every single iowan who was responsible for figuring out where were they and the republicans suddenly discovered that 25 or 30% of their voters have left them and are in bryan's camp. huge losses throughout the midwest. this awakens mccan ikinly.

benjamin harrison. in preparing speech in late august he made the decision i better do something about confronting thepr free silver issue it. he want today avoid it, down play it. he's telling everybody the issue is going to be protection, he tells one of his friends, in a month they won't be talking about this issue. and says, in a month they won't stop talking about it. >> host: but he is against silver. he's for gold? >> guest: in fact, one ofai the first big votes that he makes

1870, after election in 1876, 1878, the passage of the silver act. he does believe in honest money. he does oppose free silver. politicians like to avoid them. they like to emphasize the things that unifies people. labors who are working in the mines and this was an issue that brought those kind of people into the republican camp whereas

silver split camp. montana, utah, nevada, idaho, colorado, they all walk out of the convention. one of the strongest sporters, the only republican senator from the south, jeter almost walks out of the free silver issue. mckinley wants to stay away from it.'s he realizes i can't avoid the issue and in late august begins to tackle the issue. he does so with the help, i believe, of terrance, the former head of the largest labor union in america and gives a speech in new york sponsored league why

it's important to be backed by gold. >> host: we have two nominees and b two positions. how does mckinley campaign and how does bryan do it? >> guest: bryan has a problem to deal with. their priceio is they nominated their own presidential running mate. they have a million votes in 1892. and thereby sink the republicans. he has a democratic running mate and a populist running mate, how do that i get the populist running mate in battleground states. he decides that he's going to

storm the country. he's going to get on the train and campaign the country. three major trips that he makes across the country. this is the first time it's ever happened. there had been occasions where they might go on the road and go to a major gar, a big gathering ofa some sort, but literally a number of times that they spoke on a road to less than a dozen. benjamin harrison basically had about 80 speeches to indianapolis over the course of a four-month period. nobody hadve ever done what bryn did. get on a train and go some place and it was -- it's an amazing testament to his courage and his endurance because most days until october 7th in august, and september and till october 7th, he is generally making his own

train reservations, driving in a common car and grabbing a sandwich in a depo. >> host: touring rock group. >> guest: absolutely. sometimes he has a private car. he's got a private railcar provided him but sometimes he's runningo in the middle of the head of the populist campaign young senator from north carolina. senator jones of arkansas, james jones and says, you have to get him a private railcar. i saw this with my own eyes, we took a late train to baltimore because they wanted him to be in a little junction and waited till 2:00 a.m. to change trains, we caught the little train and

there were a handful of people there and you're going to kill him if you keep doing this to him. if you have a private car he can fall asleep and the train can pick him up in the middle of the night and wake up refreshed and have a place to wash his clothes, get a meal. >> host: he's going everywhere, what does mckinley do? >> guest: once panic sets in, by god, we have a race on our hands. mckinley says to him, you know, look, i can't do that. i mean, if i go on the road, he's going to get on a trapees. i know what it's like. he sends charles to go talk to

him, and finally mckinley says, i have to think before i speak. so what happens is people are showing up in groups so somebody and i think that somebody is mckinley says, let's make that myme routine. let's get it organized so people don't show up on my doorsteps. let's set it up so we know who is coming so it's not just the people to volunteer to come but let's have them come, critical voter group from a critical state, let's know they are coming and let's figure out what i'm going to say so i have remarks each time they show up. they will take them under an arch and form up there, we will have bands and all kinds of entertainment to keep them occupied and when the moment comes, when i finish meeting with the last delegation we now how much it takes them and they can say what they want to say.

they will give me a gift. i will thank them for coming, bang, we go on to the next group. this becomes campaigning on an industrial scale, 750,000 people come to ohio, on some people 100,000 people come in groups of varying sizes. they go to the town scare, women go shopping, merchants do well in town. they have -- they have appropriate drinks for the men, if you're a wet they have a beer and a sandwich, if you're a dry, they have coffee and a sandwich. it's unified, organized and delivered. he knows exactly what he wants to say and repeated back in their hometown and repeated by them to go home. well, i saw the major, and this is what he said to me.

>> host: which of the two men addressed more people? >> host: bryan sees more people. he would go everywhere and there were people. but he attracted spectators. >> host: targeted. >> guest: created an army and campaign was based around the principle. and they organized everybody. they had groups for blacks, germans, they had women because some women could vote in western states, they organized traveling salesmen, commercial club because these were people who traveled widely, spoke well and knew lots of people, there was a big craze and there was great excitement. they decide today tap it. >> host: tell us what happens on election

day? >> guest: mckinley wins the northeast with -: - there's nota single county in the northeast. mckinley wins 75% of the vote, he takes all the critical battleground states, new york, new jersey, connecticut, ohio fall his way. he wins most of the critical battleground states in the midwest. he hopes to win nebraska, kansas and fails. he loses the south as expected. all fall to democrats and several of them are closed and the critical breakthrough in the states of delaware, virginia where mckinley wins, republicans had not won in decades. loses missouri and then sweeps, he takes oregon and narrowly california on the west vote with 51% which nobody has done since the reelection of grant and wins

a dominant majority in the electoral college. immigrant and new voters particularly laborers which gives republicans. they hold more governors and more state legislators until today. and the mayors are routinely republican. boston, cincinnati, chicago. mckinley has created the new coalition of industrial workers and small town farmers who have their own farms and, and traditional small business

allies of the republican party and becomes an unstoppable coalition for over decades. >> host: you credit with foresight. who since his time has been like him? has there been anybody that consequential? >> guest: fdr, deliberately sent. blacks began to move into the democratic party under him, jews who had become an element in the republican party after the 1896 campaign, the populist movement had very angry voices and as a result a lot of the jewish voters in america became republicans. italians who had been republicans back into democrats under i roosevelt and drift back to the republicans after that.

>> host: anyone else besides fdr? >> guest: ronald regan in a way who. is a strong principal leader that could change politics. >> host: this is an entertaining book, it's packed with information, it has the big themes, wonderful little detail with my favorite detail on the question is who is going to give the opening indication of the republican convention. you mentioned the tension with the american protective association. is it going to be a minister or a catholic priest, how do they fines the point. >> guest: it's an enormous signal, i'm in charge.

they have ministers thereafter. bishop ireland of st. paul who delivers explosive nature. >> host: okay, great detail. thanks very much. >> guest: thank you. >> book tv is on instagram follow us for publishing news, schedule updates. instagram.com/book under score tv. >> sunday night on q&a. talks about the second volume which gives insider's take of washington, d.c.