Report of the County Chairman

by James A. Michener

James A. Michener, the acclaimed author of sweeping historical blockbusters, chronicles his personal involvement in one of the most dramatic elections of the twentieth the presidential race between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon. A relative newcomer to politics, Michener served as the Democratic chairman in his native Bucks County, Pennsylvania, in a rural battleground precinct where the major controversies of the day—notably Kennedy’s Catholicism—brought cultural divides to the forefront. First published shortly after the 1960 election, Report of the County Chairman remains an intimate, gripping account of the power of grassroots political involvement.

Praise for Report of the County Chairman

“A candid account of the Kennedy/Nixon campaign.”—The Philadelphia Inquirer

“Fascinating . . . The personalities are vividly and vigorously sketched—the workers, the volunteers, the hatchet men, the pros and . . . key figures on the barnstorming tour.”—Kirkus Reviews

“Instructive . . . Anti-Catholicism was not just a Southern problem. In Pennsylvania, accounts of increasing anti-Catholicism were widespread. No one documented this sentiment more clearly than famed Pennsylvania novelist James Michener.”—The Morning Call (Allentown, Pennsylvania)

Genres: History, Nonfiction

First published January 1, 1961

About the author

James Albert Michener is best known for his sweeping multi-generation historical fiction sagas, usually focusing on and titled after a particular geographical region. His first novel, Tales of the South Pacific , which inspired the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical South Pacific, won the 1948 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

Toward the end of his life, he created the Journey Prize, awarded annually for the year's best short story published by an emerging Canadian writer; founded an MFA program now, named the Michener Center for Writers, at the University of Texas at Austin; and made substantial contributions to the James A. Michener Art Museum in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, best known for its permanent collection of Pennsylvania Impressionist paintings and a room containing Michener's own typewriter, books, and various memorabilia.

Michener's entry in Who's Who in America says he was born on Feb. 3, 1907. But he said in his 1992 memoirs that the circumstances of his birth remained cloudy and he did not know just when he was born or who his parents were.

Reviews

[David Miller · Rating 3 out of 5]

This non-fiction book is a report on Michener's activities as a campaign chairman for John Kennedy's presidential campaign. Michener led the Citizens for Kennedy group in his home county in Pennsylvania, and (being already a well-known author) also took part in some national tours.

I read this to get a detailed political and social snapshot of the United States in 1960. From a Democrats and Republicans perspective, 1960 is a mirror image of today. Then, the media and the high-up social set were overwhelmingly Republican. Campuses were overwhelmingly Republican, to such an extent that Michener (a good Democrat) worried the Democrats may lose the campuses forever! Today of course all campuses are near 100% leftist, the culture is monolithically progressive, and the left has a death grip on every institution, up to and including the military.

In this book you can see the start of Republican ineptitude. As far as Michener can figure out - and he is always a perceptive student of human behavior - the Republicans purposely nominated Richard Nixon, even though they knew Nelson Rockefeller would have beaten Kennedy easily; and after nominating Nixon, refused to support him. Michener felt a proper, normally competent Republican campaign for Nixon would have won the day. Today of course Republicans have well earned the sobriquet "Stupid Party".

The chapter on "the religious issue", Kennedy's Catholicism, interested me very much, seeing as I myself am Catholic. Since the USA was still somewhat religious in 1960, there was still considerable anti-Catholic prejudice ("elect Kennedy and you will see public crucifixions in the streets of Philadelphia").

In this book you can see the beginnings of real Democratic identity politics, and also of the modern Democratic assumption that intelligence and aesthetic taste are Democratic virtues. "100% of the people who write in America are for Kennedy," Michener says, "and 90% of those who read." This assumption that everyone who disagrees with them is venal, stupid, or evil still plagues the party to this day. This contempt for ordinary Americans is why Democrats had to change the country by importing a new population.

The end of the book is quite amusing in an unintentional way, as Michener describes the vote recounts in several states as attempts by Republicans to steal the victory from Kennedy. As we know today, the Democrats did in fact stuff the ballot box and stole the victory from Nixon; a practice that they have continued to this day.

I will admit that Michener supported the Democrats and Kennedy because he thought they were the leaders the country needed, and that Kennedy's victory would usher in an era of good government and badly needed American rebuilding. To me, reading the book nearly 60 years later, knowing what we know now, Michener and all the other useful idiots at the time displayed only a sad misunderstanding of human nature and of the consequences of the Fall of man. Government will always grow, and never shrink, and always looks for more of our lives to take over.

[rozey · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book covers the rudimentary elements of the political realm, from incumbency advantage, electioneering, to local and state government interactions, but also has a focus on an election that eludes many: the 1960 Presidential election between John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon. Michener details his own experiences with this wild election, explicating upon his trials and tribulations as a county chairman in a heavily Republican district, with deeply-rooted religious tumult stimulated by Kennedy's Catholicism. Not only is the general election of 1960 covered for this novel also approaches the primaries that had on display the different factions of the Republican, with Nelson Rockefeller carrying the staff for the liberal Northern Republicans (hence the "Rockefeller Republicans") and Nixon representing the more comfortable, with regards to the establishment, choice, and then the Democrats, with intellectuals and eggheads nationally still rallying behind their preferred Adlai Stevenson.
Moreover, when the general is covered, Michener digs deep into the effects of Kennedy's perceived youth and inexperience alongside his Catholicism, citing the exact effects in his Bucks County, Pennsylvania and the wider effects in the rural Western United States and prejudice South. He also examines the implications of Dwight Eisenhower's ineffective and sparse public support of Nixon and how if Eisenhower utilized his incredible favouriblity ratings to cradle his Veep the elections results would've been tremendously different.
All-in-all, this is an amazingly analytical novel for all those weird lovers of presidential/congressional election history AND, for my fellow Lyndon B. Johnson stans, a little bit on the 36th President of the United States.

[Christopher Sutch · Rating 4 out of 5]

I tend to think Michener's nonfiction is better than his fiction. This memoir of his work in Bucks County, PA for the Kennedy campaign in 1960 provides an extremely local, on-the-ground view of the first "television" presidential campaign. Someone reading this today (we're currently in the middle of a contentious election campaign) will likely find the concerns quaint. Michener seemed to feel that this campaign was particularly hard-fought and shocking. He devotes many pages to discussion of the "religious question" (Kennedy, while not the first Roman Catholic candidate for the presidency in American history, was the first such candidate to win the office) and the ludicrous lengths the "anti-Catholic" forces within both parties went to in order to try to keep Kennedy from winning. (None of these measure will at all faze a reader in the contemporary climate; the whole matter seems tame in the light both of Nixon's later campaigns for president and what we've gone through in more recent elections.) I believe the book was meant to be a sort of momentary sensational publication, capitalizing on Michener's candidate's victory, so some things Michener describes are obscure (he mentions scurrilous statements made during ballot recounts by someone whose name a contemporary reader might have recognized, but who has been utterly forgotten by history).

On the whole, this book is mainly interesting for the local detail and flavor of an election campaign of the mid-20th century and what it was like to work in such an endeavor by one who was familiar both with the county and to the voters there and across the nation. Compared to some of Michener's other nonfiction works, this is of interest, but not as momentous or important as some of his other publications.

[Laurent Reinhardt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyable and informative read about Michener's experience as chairman of JFK's 1960 presidential campaign in Bucks County, PA, where I was born as it was in progress and my dad was a reporter covering it. He met Michener and interviewed people described in the book, most notably nonagenarian industrialist and former US Senator Joseph Grundy, who "controlled our county with an iron hand." The book provides relevant insights into American politics in general and Bucks County in particular. Also intriguing are Michener's narratives of living in Hawaii before returning to his birthplace and a "barnstorming" (Michener's quotes, not mine) tour across the US with Angie Dickinson, Stan Musial and others.

Nixon ended up winning Bucks County by a narrower margin than expected, helping JFK win the state. What shines through in the end is JFK and Michener's faith in the ability of government to accomplish things for the good of our nation: "My eyes jumped constantly back and forth between the softly folding meadows where the snow lay impeccably white and the rolling hills where the trees stood in painted splendor. . . I remember thinking at the time, "What a truly glorious country this is. How richly it deserves the best government it can get." p131

[Michael R Turner · Rating 5 out of 5]

A little known gem!

My Dad was president of the Southampton Democratic Club in Bucks County in 1962, and Michener had dinner at our house after this book came out. I have a signed copy, but just read it for the first time 62 years later. It's fantastic, and so much of it mirrors what's going on in this election. A truly fascinating read!

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gave this an extra half star since I grew up in Bucks County.