Book Alert / Campaigning for President

Campaigning for President -- Memorabilia from the Nation's Finest Private Collections by Jordan M. Wright, Smithsonian Books '08, coffee table format, $35, 291 pages, ISBN #0061233951. Hundreds of glossy color images sprinkled through text.

Writers commonly use historical archives as grist for their mills. What makes Jordan M. Wright different is that the archive he mines is his own. A lawyer and magazine publisher, he began collecting political memorabilia at the age of 10, and it just got  out of hand. His collection, never before publicly exhibited, now numbers more than a million items. His book is the companion to an exhibition at the Museum of the City of New York from June '08 through Election day.

The book's cover reproduces two score campaign buttons, some of which you'll instantly recognize ("Goldwater in '64, Hot Water in '65, Bread 'n Water in '66"), others of which may be new to you ("We Don't Want Eleanor Either").  Open the book, and it just gets better.

Wright's book is divided into chronological chapters, depicting historical eras: The Early Years, 1789-1824; 1828-1852; Civil War and Reconstruction; 1876--1892; 1896-1916; 1920-1948; and 1952-Present. Like most coffee table books, it's chock full of full-color illustrations, but text is not limited to captions and supplies context for the reader in a way that makes this a lot more than a picture book.