 Why the Long Gap?
In 1966, having passed my oral examination for the Ph.D. at the University of Michigan, I began to look for a suitable topic for my dissertation. Expecting a long career in academe (and not a little ambitious), I sought a subject that would be important enough to be noticed. Because I was fascinated by politics and by the era between World Wars I and II, I focused my attention on a topic that would combine these subjects. The division within the Democratic Party of the 1920s was particularly interesting to me, not only for its intrinsic drama but because it was crucial to the evolution of the party and its role in American politics for the next several decades. I was excited to discover that there was no modern biography - not even a dissertation - for William Gibbs McAdoo, one of the protagonists of the split within the Democratic Party during the 1920s, and so I set to work studying him. Some months later, I was contacted by a scholar who was, he said, well into a dissertation on McAdoo. My hopes for a groundbreaking study of my topic and an exclusive political biography of McAdoo were dashed. It appeared as though I would have to start from scratch. On reflection, though, I realized that shifting my attention to Alfred E. Smith, the other protagonist of that same decade-long battle of Democratic Party factions, would serve my purposes just as well - perhaps even better, since he was the more significant of the two men. Moreover, Smith did not have a good scholarly biography either (Oscar Handlin's short interpretative life, though valuable, did not suffice). Even better, no published account or a dissertation comprehensively addressed Smith's role in national politics between 1918, when he was first elected governor of New York, through the 1930s, after which he lost his political influence. As a bonus, much of my early research for the prospective dissertation on McAdoo could be used in my new topic. So it was that my scholarly specialty became the national political career of Al Smith. Researching and writing during the summers and on weekends and holidays, by 1973 I had completed six chapters on Smith's national political career up to his nomination for the presidency in June 1928. The research for the rest of the story was virtually complete, too, but writing the account of the presidential campaign of 1928 and essaying Smith's political career during the 1930s was going to consume one or two more years yet, at best. I did not have those additional years: a tenure decision loomed and the University of Michigan was eager to have me complete the degree. Fortunately, my thesis, which dealt with why Smith received the nomination in 1928 without much of a struggle, was the central theme of the dissertation, and I could conclude that work having fully stated my case. Postponing the remaining chapters until I could get to work on the book that I would develop in due course, I left Smith poised to contest Herbert Hoover for the presidency and in 1973 submitted – and successfully defended – the dissertation, which was entitled "The World Beyond the Hudson: Alfred E. Smith and National Politics, 1918-1928." Soon thereafter, having begun work on that prospective book, my life changed. I left college teaching for a the first of a series of demanding, twelve-months-a-year positions in the academic and professional world. The book would have to wait, and wait it did. In 1983, Professor Frank Freidel, who was editing a new series for Garland Publishing, Inc., invited me to publish my dissertation, without changes, in that series. I did so later that year, still hoping that I might complete the phantom chapters on the portion of Smith's career from 1928 onward. The Garland book sold modestly well for a few years but went out of print during the 1990s. Ultimately, I retired from the National Archives in 2001. With my other obligations and a growing list of absorbing volunteering responsibilities, I did not seem to have the time or energy to take up Al Smith again. During the winter of 2006-07, I finally decided I could wait no longer. I unearthed my research notes, which had trailed me through six states, and wrote three substantial chapters on the 1928 presidential campaign, on Smith's role in national politics from 1928 through Franklin D. Roosevelt's inauguration in 1933, and on Smith during the New Deal years and after. I wrote these new chapters with no intention of publishing them in the ordinary sense. Nor did I intend to revise and update the six earlier chapters that had formed the dissertation and the Garland book. I wrote the new chapters because I felt a need to tell the rest of the story that my original research had revealed to me, as no one else could do that, and to be able to write "finis" to the project I had begun forty years before. (Also, I could now bid a farewell to the 10,000 dusty, faded, and sometimes dog-eared notes that I had been saving.) With these three chapters now in hand, though, it seemed natural to bring them together at last with the earlier ones, even if seeking their publication was not an option. Hence this website, which enables a reader, if so interested, to get the whole story of Smith's role in national politics as I see it. The text of the dissertation-cum-Garland book is virtually unaltered, except for a few technical fixes. I have preserved that text here, in part because it is no longer generally available and in part because it forms the essential first portion of the story that the more-recent three chapters conclude. It is important to understand that, with rare exceptions, neither the original segment nor the three new chapters have drawn significantly upon the scholarship published since 1973. I could have incorporated that scholarship, but this would have meant producing a substantially new work after many months of new research. Given the constraints on my life and abilities, not to mention the uncertainties of one's health, it seemed a more prudent choice was investing my energy in completing my own interpretation, based on my own research. In that way I could ensure that the fruits of my own original scholarship, spanning Smith's entire political career, are preserved and made available for anyone who finds them useful. I believe that reading all nine chapters (the epilogue included in the dissertation and in the Garland book has been superseded by the three recent chapters) gives a reasonable picture of how my work on Smith would have looked had I completed it either by 1973 or soon thereafter. To be sure, a reader will note differences in writing style, in documentation, and in depth of analysis. I like to think that my writing now is better than it was four decades ago. Also, the dissertation had all the limitations inherent in the genre – limitations that did not apply to the later three chapters. (On the other hand, what I wrote during 2006-07 did not have the exacting editorial supervision of my dissertation advisor, Professor Sidney Fine.) Despite these disparities, the two segments of the whole are complementary. Their essential thrust is the same, and it is my hope that the finished product provides a comprehensive account and interpretation of Al Smith's remarkable career in national politics. Besides the nine chapters, included here are the original acknowledgements, preface, introduction, and annotated bibliography from the dissertation and book. Because some readers may be unfamiliar with Smith and his career, I have also drafted a short biography and an essay on his significance, along with some suggestions for further reading. I dedicate this (finally!) completed work to my dear wife, the love of my life, whose many contributions to it in research, editing, listening to details, and tolerating my dedication to it have been nonpareil. Now, if I can just hide all those notes somewhere..... Please note that all of this material, including the Garland book (originally copyrighted in 1983) is ©2007 by Donn C. Neal. I welcome citations to this website, but extractions of portions of my text are subject to the limitations imposed by copyright law. Donn C. Neal
Copyright © 2007-09, Donn C. Neal. All rights reserved.
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