david pietrusza. mr. david pietrusza began writing about baseball. in fact from his first book was minor merkle's come a legend and loare of minor league baseball. that came out in 1995. lights on, the wild century long saga of baseball in 1997. his third book was judge and jury, the life and times of judge kennesaw and the life, times and murder of the criminal genius who fixed the 1919 world series. that came out in 2003. the history of america's inception in baseball, and presidential history from there, "1920: the year of the six presidents", that came out in 2007. "1960: lbj vs. jfk vs. nixon: the epic campaign that forged three presidencies", and that came out in 2008. finally, his most recent book, "1948: harry truman's improbable victory and the year that transformed america." he is our guest for the next 2.5 hours and we are going to put the phone lines on the screen. if you'd like to dial in and talk some presidential or baseball history with david pietrusza. you can also send an e-mail to c

. >> host: david pietrusza.hat was it about the presidential elections that made you write books about them? >> guest: it all starts one step at a time, and the 1920 election, i had been playing around with factoids and just about presidents, and presidential elections, and i looked at that one, and i started calculating the math and it was like 1961, you had really -- or 64, you had one president, lyndon johnson, and mostly you would get three. you would get kennedy and nixon in 1960, and '68, you'd get nixon, and you would get reagan. so you might get three. usually get two 1920, you have six. you have -- >> host: six? >> guest: six in contention in one way or another. all though sever people said but tr is dead. i know that but if he is not dead. , he is the nominee and is the president of the united states. wilson is sick but he sends his secretary of state to the convention to stampede the convention. he wanted the nomination, and harding, coolidge, hoover, fdr, on the ticket as the vice presidential candid

we've brought back one of our first guests, david pietrusza, who is joining us still on the plaza of the supreme court. and david, one aspect of his life we have not spent any time on as we should, is secretary of state in the pivotal post-world war i years. can you talk about the contributions he made in that role? >> absolutely. he regarded not only as one of the great chief justices, he's regarded as one of the great secretary of states. when he leaves, he's regarded as the top three. john quincy adams, secretary seward as has been mentioned before and himself. what he does is he inherits really a great mess, because of the failure of the league of nations and talking about him in international affairs and international law, he was for the league of nations, for the american -- the united states of america to enter the league. the but he was not about to seek sovereignty to the league of nations. he was opposed to article 10 of the league of nations. talking about the boundaries, such as ireland or mess created in europe. so he was opposed to that. he thought the league could be fi

. >> host: caroline wilkins e-mas to david pietrusza, blvolain um8the role eaon factor. the democratic party insiders prepare ont oru on th aorhere are some factors that we don't think about a lot, like the west, the farmers, labor unions, but lsoblks se, d trhs-teefiti inhecai rrd t ack vote. one is the emergence of henry walle. re gmchfrh squeaieet e cr p illin to go. fdr provided pubc reli joband ch f bs, he d whs,ing e tpeon herberhoover really helped turn him off, i will say. which is another tory. but tuan, runisok a e olwhic %o bl aavg ac 90%. he also is faigaprm on ciri idismio- record in new york. the first antidiscrimination law in the countryitwe yeda oin one of the things he does is put forward a mission to look into civil rights issues. th is something we haven't ofth. really talked about too much. the dixiecrat evolt. the document which i talked out earlier, which was in the cae - ig ty - the deep south wasn't prepared to take anything on this issue. thats wh tmaevety teesrmorof whised e bosonnected to the shin bone and whatever. the cold war is connecting

. >> host: david pietrusza,ack to 1920 herbert hoover w t deatries s. heeiss areic the were not of democrats in his hometown, and with the town lutio whhewas haneogsse ao thfoswovo woodrow wilson. he had been a member of the wilson administration, domestic ynwaewh inistratn. hadon wiln with his reputation enhanced. he writes of a book called the alwow wiso a t moictyhaar t p opd hr wings. southern reactionaries, big city crooks and agrarian that's. he says i don't want any part of that or o ath r ptyhasoin ames. >> host: in your book "1920: the year of the 6 presidents" published in 27 you right ey lditeans fe an prenprob deatgoasse ut of the way. >> guest: woodrow wilson decides he was a great for a ye. lookt worols you e ntlm hhi andkse a thseo ollow who was in favor of prohiti. he lkse ryoi a bit thadis rutioas speaker. he is going on again. he has the stroke in colorado and comes back as an invut netonyhe ino e iecaide. ret er former secretary of the treasury who has helped p tether a lot of the progress of agen. the feder rer. and lpvert s mt i, te

. >> host: david pietrusza, in the 1920 election was the corporate interests ofilam randolph g: 'titvehey rsnt bausehey su dabblers in politics and hearst is a fascinating figure. he starts o as ral cratnd en thothermos lth g oumeuite cova l iis career. a supporter of coolidge very early on. >> host: y? >> i'm not sure why but hdoes. oples ter cng r ionden t in 1920 he is still a democrat. in 1932 he is a democrat and hursat t origin ofack kdyatjoo ost ns tnk nat hefos a mocr ruing for the united states senate and got cheated -- controversl, lost the senate riorarnashe e ie anti-semite publishing the dearborn independent and elders of zion and the ternational view. >> did he pport third-party candatr wahertine cr tt? >>wono on h own. he probably flip over the republicans after the new deal. there was a poln2 ty d bhiwe ga'smao ch o t an people. number one was henry ford. this was after all his anti-semitic stuff and harding was well bewhat. thiss o ofhe insed abhieect ets i 4. besides knowing the scales were coming and also the republicans ha taken a big bath in the midterms. ge et 92s ti

of the evening, who are joining us to talk about the life and legacy of charles evans hughes david pietrusza, 1920 the year of six presidents, and bernadette meyler, a professor at cornell law school, which is hughes' alma mater. we'll jump right into the election. set the stage for us. 1916, woodrow wilson wants to be re-elected, europe is at war. frame what was going on in the country and in the presidential campaign. >> well, woodrow wilson said when he ran it would be a tragedy if his administration was framed by foreign policy or defined by that and turns out to be just that. america which starts his term focusing on the progressive era, the income tax lowering the tariffs, the federal reserve system changes after 1914. with the beginnings of war in europe, america is fighting to stay out but there is a question of preparedness for the war, are we prepared in case anything happens? are we being tough? are we being too weak. secretary of state brian resigns from wilson's cabinet because he thinks we're being too tough. so it's really a question of war and peace in europe, war and peace i