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Article: Evangelical reformer.(A Godly Hero: The Life of William Jennings Bryan)(Book review)
- Article from:
- The Christian Century
- Article date:
- October 17, 2006
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2006 The Christian Century Foundation. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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A Godly Hero: The Life of William Jennings Bryan. By Michael Kazin. Knopf, 400 pp., $30.00.
MICHAEL Kazin, a scholar of U.S. populism who catalogues William Jennings Bryan's many public incarnations, chose to write about the Great Commoner for several related reasons.
First, as a historian Kazin sees Bryan--partisan of white farmers and laborers, thrice-defeated presidential candidate, secretary of state under Woodrow Wilson, crusader for temperance and women's suffrage--as an innovator whose approach to political campaigning shaped politics today. Kazin finds the roots of our contemporary obsessions with candidates' personalities in Bryan's style on the ...