{"id":483,"date":"2015-03-19T14:18:39","date_gmt":"2015-03-19T14:18:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-118pinsker\/?page_id=483"},"modified":"2023-11-21T14:12:29","modified_gmt":"2023-11-21T14:12:29","slug":"sample-research-post","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-118pinsker\/sample-research-post\/","title":{"rendered":"Sample Research Post"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Election of 1948<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

By Matthew Pinsker<\/p>\n

“With his own party in shambles and the Republicans united behind Dewey, Truman appeared to lack even a prayer for victory.” (H.W. Brands,\u00a0American Dreams,\u00a0<\/em>p. 43)<\/p>\n

Interview Subject<\/strong><\/p>\n

Richard E. Neustadt, age 79, retired Harvard University professor who worked in the Bureau of the Budget during the late 1940s and served as a junior speechwriter during the 1948 presidential campaign<\/span><\/p>\n

Interviews<\/strong><\/p>\n

–Audio recording, Cambridge, MA, September 14, 2002<\/p>\n

–Email, September 20, 2002<\/p>\n

Selected Transcript\u00a0<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

[NOTE: \u00a0For illustration purposes ONLY; this was not an actual interview, but has been reconstructed based on recollections of conversations and should not be quoted or used as scholarship]<\/p>\n

From audio:<\/p>\n

Q. \u00a0What was the funniest thing that happened to you during the campaign?<\/p>\n

A. \u00a0I was supposed to find local color for the different speeches, and feed the stuff to [Jonathan] Daniels, who then turned it into talking points, which the president then would, that he would turn into a kind of impromptu speech. \u00a0There were hundreds of them. \u00a0I contributed material to dozens at least, and sometimes things got pretty harried. \u00a0I remember once when I got a little confused over the party affiliation of\u00a0a mayor in a little town in Nebraska. \u00a0It turns out he was a Republican, but I had Truman calling him the greatest New Dealer since FDR. \u00a0[Clark] Clifford looked like a ghost, but the prez didn’t seem to care. \u00a0That kind of stuff just happened. \u00a0It was pretty chaotic.”<\/p>\n

From email:<\/p>\n

Q. \u00a0Did everybody seem anxious about the polls and how far behind President Truman seemed to be in the contest against Dewey?<\/p>\n

A. \u00a0“Well, I sure as hell was, and so were some of the others, but I’ll tell you, not Truman. The President knew he was going to win, and didn\u2019t care if he said the wrong thing occasionally or botched a name here and there. He was confident \u2013almost cocky. \u00a0It was really something to behold. \u00a0I never saw a candidate so sure of himself.”<\/p>\n

Further Research [NOTE –Sample only below; aim for 4 to 6 secondary sources]<\/strong><\/p>\n