Geoffrey Cowan, president of the Annenberg Foundation Trust at Sunnylands and the Annenberg Family Chair in Communication Leadership at the University of Southern California, is the bestselling author of THE PEOPLE V. CLARENCE DARROW. For his role in dramatically increasing the number of presidential primaries in 1968, ABC Television News called him “the man who did more to change Democratic Conventions than anyone since Andrew Jackson started them.”

Books by Geoffrey Cowan

Let the People Rule: Theodore Roosevelt and the Birth of the Presidential Primary

by Geoffrey Cowan - History, Nonfiction, Politics

In 1912, Theodore Roosevelt came out of retirement to challenge his close friend and handpicked successor, William Howard Taft, for the Republican Party nomination. To overcome the power of the incumbent, TR seized on the idea of presidential primaries, telling bosses everywhere to “Let the People Rule.” The cheers and jeers of rowdy supporters and detractors echo from Geoffrey Cowan’s pages as he explores TR’s fight-to-the-finish battle to win popular support.