 |
David Pietrusza | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | November 22, 1949 Amsterdam, New York, U.S. |
| Nationality | American |
| Education | University at Albany |
| Occupation(s) | author, editor, lecturer, political commentator |
| Website | davidpietrusza.com |
David Pietrusza (born November 22, 1949, in Amsterdam, New York) is an American author and historian.
David Pietrusza has produced a number of critically acclaimed works concerning 20th-century American history, including five volumes ("1920," "1960," "1948," "1932," and "1936: Roosevelt Sweeps Nation") on presidential electoral history. He is also an expert on the 1920s and on the presidency of Calvin Coolidge and the career of Charles Evans Hughes. He has also served as a ghostwriter or "book doctor" for several successful books, including various New York Times and Amazon bestsellers.
As a noted presidential scholar, Pietrusza has been selected to serve on C-SPAN's "Historians Survey on Presidential Leadership" and the Siena College Research Institute (SRI) Survey of United States Presidents and on the C-SPAN/Siena College Study of The First Ladies of The United States. He serves on the National Advisory Board of the Calvin Coolidge Presidential Foundation and previously on the Foundation's Board of Trustees.
Pietrusza holds both bachelor's and master's degrees in history from the University at Albany. He has assisted in teaching seminars at the University of Chicago Institute of Politics (David Axelrod, director) and at the William F. Buckley, Jr. Program at Yale and has served as a guest lecturer at Fordham University, The King's College (New York City), Winthrop University, and Southeast Missouri State University.
He has spoken at the John F. Kennedy, Harry S. Truman, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Calvin Coolidge presidential libraries and museums, as well as at various universities, libraries, museums (including the Chicago History Museum, Dallas' Sixth Floor Museum, Palm Beach's Flagler Museum, and Reno's National Automobile Museum), and festivals. He has keynoted the annual birthday ceremonies at the graves of presidents Calvin Coolidge and Chester Alan Arthur and spoken at Wilton, New York's Grant Cottage, scene of the death of President Ulysses S. Grant and via Zoom at Buffalo's Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site.
Pietrusza's book "Rothstein" has been optioned on several occasions for film, television, or stage adaptation. In July 2018, Charles Matthau of the Matthau Organization optioned Pietrusza's "1920: The Year of the Six Presidents" for adaptation into a six-part television series. The project remains in development.
He has served on the City Council in Amsterdam, New York, as Vice-President of the Fulton-Montgomery Community College Foundation, and as Public Information Officer for the New York State Governor's Office of Regulatory Reform and the New York State Office of the Medicaid Inspector General. He chaired the Montgomery County (NY) Charter Revision Commission and served on the City of Amsterdam (NY) Charter Revision Commission and the Schenectady County (NY) Charter Review Committee.
Pietrusza chronicled his early life in the memoir, Too Long Ago: A Childhood Memory. A Vanished World.
Prior to publishing the wide range of historical and political studies he is best noted for, Pietrusza (a varsity letterman [non-playing] in baseball at Amsterdam. NY's Wilbur H. Lynch High School) distinguished himself in the field of sports (primarily baseball) publishing. He collaborated with baseball legend Ted Williams on an autobiography called Ted Williams: My Life in Pictures. This book contained pictures of Williams throughout his life (many from his personal collection) and commentary on what each one depicted. Williams died shortly after the book was published. His Judge and Jury: The Life and Times of Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis won the CASEY Award as best baseball book of the year.
Pietrusza served as editor-in-chief of the publishing company Total Sports. He was co-editor of Total Baseball: The Official Encyclopedia of Major League Baseball and managing editor of Total Football: The Official Encyclopedia of the National Football League.
Pietrusza's original research has redefined standard opinion on both the role of Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis regarding the game's integration and the role of gambler Arnold Rothstein in the 1919 Black Sox Scandal ("On examination, much of Eight Men Out's scenario doesn't make sense. But it is such a well-written book you gloss over the inconsistencies. On even closer examination, many dates, many sequences of events, make even less sense. In fact, they're impossible.")
His research and his lobbying with Veterans Committee member Ted Williams has been credited for the 1998 induction of nineteenth century infielder and manager George Davis into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
In 1993 he served as a research assistant for Mickey Mantle's memoir All My Octobers: My Memories of Twelve World Series When the Yankees Ruled Baseball, interviewing former Mantle World Series opponents Johnny Podres, Carl Erskine, Ralph Branca, Johnny Rutherford, Bobby Thomson, Monte Irvin, Alvin Dark, Lew Burdette, Dick Groat, Andy Pafko, Orlando Cepeda, and Tim McCarver.
He is an Elector of the National Polish-American Sports Hall of Fame. Until its purchase by the New York Mets, Pietrusza was a major shareholder in the International League's Syracuse Chiefs. He served as a commissioner of the Mountain Collegiate League, an independent collegiate league, that included teams in New York and Vermont.
In the 1990s, Pietrusza participated in recreations of nineteenth-century early baseball contests, including umpiring a game at Ithaca College, commemorating that institution's centennial. On June 6, 1992, along with future Official Major League Baseball Historian John Thorn, he participated in a contest in Troy, New York recreating a contest between the old Troy and Worcester National League teams. Thorn and Pietrusza also participated, along with National Baseball Hall of Fame Librarian Tom Heitz and for former Dodgers and Mets first baseman Tim Harkness in a game in Lake Placid, New York recreating the mid-nineteen century phenomenon of "baseball on ice," in which players bat and field on ice. That game was later featured on ESPN.
From 1993 to 1997, Pietrusza served as president of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR). During his tenure he instituted the society's donor and merchandising programs, reformed its convention site selection process, and substantially reduced budgeting for board meetings. He held the society's first international board meeting, at Monterrey, Mexico in conjunction with the Mexican Baseball Hall of Fame. His tenure saw the organization publish "The Negro Leagues Book." Aptly described as "a monumental work from the Negro Leagues Committee of the Society for American Baseball Research," it contained extensive research on Negro league rosters, standings, and biographies. He worked to ensure publication (with Turner Publishing) of a ground-breaking history of SABR. His tenure also included the institution of the "Dr. Harold and Dorothy Seymour Medal" for the best baseball history book or biography of the year and presentation of the "SABR Hero of Baseball Award" to Ted Williams and Pee Wee Reese. Following his two terms as SABR president, he served a single term as the organization's secretary.
Pietrusza has been interviewed on NPR, MSNBC's "Morning Joe," SIRIUS-XM, The History Channel ("The Ultimate Guide to the Presidents"), the American Heroes Channel ("Mafia's Greatest Hits"), the Voice of America, Newsmax TV, Bloomberg Radio, the Fox News Channel, the John Batchelor Show, the Hugh Hewitt Show, AMC (The Making of the Mob: New York), GBTV, ESPN, the Fox Sports Channel, the MLB Network, The First, and Compound Media. He wrote and produced the PBS-affiliate documentary, "Local Heroes."
He has been interviewed by a range of hosts that includes Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski, Ann Compton, Bill O'Reilly, Glenn Beck, Neal Conan, Neil Cavuto, Tim McCarver, Pat Buchanan, Ray Suarez, Susan Swain, Joe Piscopo, Barry Farber, Joe Franklin, Donna Hanover, Bill Littlefield, and Michael Malice.
He has appeared in the feature film documentary "American Rackets" and will appear in all eight episodes of Ashton Gleckman's upcoming History Channel documentary series "Kennedy".
Pietrusza has served as a regular panelist of FoxNews.com Live, appearing with such hosts as Kimberly Guilfoyle, Jonathan Hunt, Harris Faulkner, Julie Banderas, Jamie Colby, and Patti Ann Browne. He has been a frequent guest on C-SPAN and on ESPN documentary series such as SportsCentury , You Can't Blame, and Who's Number 1?.
He has appeared on over a hundred local radio stations including such markets as New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, Washington DC, San Francisco, Detroit, San Diego, St. Louis, Seattle, Dallas, Orlando, Cincinnati, Minneapolis, Las Vegas, and Toronto.
Pietrusza has appeared on numerous podcasts, including the "Matt Lewis Show Podcast," the United States World War I Centennial Commission weekly podcast, "The History Author Show," "Coffee & Markets," Jonah Goldberg's "The Remnant" podcast; Roifield Brown's London-based "10 American Presidents" (the Franklin Roosevelt and Theodore Roosevelt episodes), "10 American Elections" (the 1964 and 1948 episodes), and "Friday 15" series; Salena Zito's presidential series discussing Calvin Coolidge, Harry S Truman, and Lyndon B. Johnson; the New York State Writer's Institute video podcast, Bill Scher's "New Books in Politics" podcast for the New Books Network; the Halli Casser-Jayne Show, the Gotham Variety Podcast, and Max Sklar's "The Local Maximum," as well as discussing Arnold Rothstein on Erik Rivenes' "More Notorious: A True Crime History Podcast," Noah Brace's "Mobcast," Harry Sultan's "The Wheels Keep Spinning," and discussing his memoir "Too Long Ago" on Avi Woolf's Israeli-based "Conversational Corner."
Pietrusza's Gangsterland: A Tour Through the Dark Heart of Jazz-Age New York City was recognized as the Independent Press Award's Distinguished Favorite in the True Crime Category.
Pietrusza's Roosevelt Sweeps Nation: FDR's 1936 Landslide and the Triumph of the Liberal Ideal won the 2023 Independent Publisher Book Awards Gold Medal for US History, received a Kirkus starred review and was nominated for the 2022 Kirkus Prize and the 2022 New Deal Book Award.
Pietrusza's TR's Last War: Theodore Roosevelt, the Great War, and a Journey of Triumph and Tragedy won the 2019 Independent Publisher Book Awards Silver Medal for US History, was Amazon's #1 New Release in World War I Biographies, and was rated the "#1 Top Read of 2018" by the POTUS History Geeks Blog. TR's Last War achieved Finalist status for the Theodore Roosevelt Association Book Prize.
Pietrusza's 1932: The Rise of Hitler and FDR: Two Tales of Politics, Betrayal, and Unlikely Destiny won the 2017 Independent Publisher Book Awards Silver Medal for World History, was nominated for the Kirkus Prize and the American Library Association (ALA)'s "Notable Books List," and received a Kirkus starred review.
Pietrusza's 1948: Harry Truman's Improbable Victory and the Year that Transformed America was named by the Wall Street Journal as among the Five Best Books on "Campaigns and Candidates."
The website www.whatwereading.com named both 1948: Harry Truman's Improbable Victory and the Year that Transformed America and 1960: LBJ vs JFK vs Nixon: The Epic Campaign that Forged Three Presidencies as among the "9 Best Books On US Presidential Elections" making Pietrusza the only author to place two entries on that list.
His book 1960: LBJ vs JFK vs Nixon: The Epic Campaign that Forged Three Presidencies was named by ForeWord Magazine as among the best political biographies and received a Library Journal starred review.
Pietrusza's 1920: The Year of the Six Presidents received a Kirkus starred review, was honored as a Kirkus Reviews "Best Books of 2007" title, and was named an alternate selection of the History Book Club. Historian Richard Norton Smith has listed it as being among the best studies of presidential campaigns. The Wall Street Journal ("broad, fluid brush strokes . . . a brisk narrative") rated 1920 as among the Five Best Books on Political Campaigns. Cheatsheet.com ranks 1920 as among the top five "Best Books about Elections."
Pietrusza's biography of Arnold Rothstein entitled Rothstein: The Life, Times & Murder of the Criminal Genius Who Fixed the 1919 World Series was a finalist for the 2003 Edgar Award. Rothstein's audio version won an Audiofile Earphones Award.
Pietrusza's Judge and Jury, his biography of baseball's first commissioner, Kenesaw Mountain Landis, received the 1998 CASEY Award and was also a finalist for the 1998 Seymour Medal and nominated for the NASSH Book Award.
His Lights On!: The Wild Century-Long Saga of Night Baseball was a 1997 CASEY Award finalist.
His Baseball: The Biographical Encyclopedia (co-edited with John Thorn and Michael Gershman) received a Booklist Starred Review.
Honored among "100 Notable alumni of SUNY at Albany" by EduRank.org.
Pietrusza is the Recipient of the 2011 Excellence in Arts & Letters Award of the Alumni Association of the University at Albany and a member of the initial induction class (2015) of the Greater Amsterdam (NY) School District Hall of Fame. At the NYS Governor's Office of Regulatory Reform, he won the "Director's Award for Exceptional Achievement."
Author Michael Cinquanti's book Fifty Amsterdam NY's Top Ten Lists (2017) lists Pietrusza as among "Amsterdam's All-Time Top Ten Most Famous Residents."
Calvin Coolidge was an American attorney and politician who served as the 30th president of the United States from 1923 to 1929.
Kenesaw Mountain Landis was an American jurist who served as a United States federal judge from 1905 to 1922 and the first Commissioner of Baseball from 1920 until his death. He is remembered for his resolution of the Black Sox Scandal, in which he expelled eight members of the Chicago White Sox from organized baseball for conspiring to lose the 1919 World Series and repeatedly refused their reinstatement requests. His iron rule over baseball in the near quarter-century of his commissionership is generally credited with restoring public confidence in the game.
The 1924 United States presidential election was the 35th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 4, 1924. In a three-way contest, incumbent Republican President Calvin Coolidge won election to a full term. Coolidge was the second vice president to ascend to the presidency and then win a full term.
The 1932 United States presidential election was the 37th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 8, 1932. The election took place against the backdrop of the Great Depression. The incumbent Republican President Herbert Hoover was defeated in a landslide by Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt, the governor of New York and the vice presidential nominee of the 1920 presidential election. Roosevelt was the first Democrat in 80 years to simultaneously win an outright majority of the electoral college and popular vote, a feat last accomplished by Franklin Pierce in 1852, as well as the first Democrat in 56 years to win a majority of the popular vote, which was last done by Samuel J. Tilden in 1876. Roosevelt was the last sitting governor to be elected president until Bill Clinton in 1992. Hoover became the first incumbent president to lose an election to another term since William Howard Taft in 1912, and the last to do so until Gerald Ford lost 44 years later. The election marked the effective end of the Fourth Party System, which had been dominated by Republicans. It was the first time since 1916 that a Democrat was elected president.
James Middleton Cox was an American businessman and politician who served as the 46th and 48th governor of Ohio, and a two-term U.S. Representative from Ohio. As the Democratic nominee for President of the United States at the 1920 presidential election, he lost in a landslide to fellow Ohioan Warren G. Harding. His running mate was future president Franklin D. Roosevelt. He founded the chain of newspapers that continues today as Cox Enterprises, a media conglomerate.
Arnold Rothstein, nicknamed "The Brain", was an American racketeer, crime boss, businessman, and gambler who became a kingpin of the Jewish Mob in New York City. Rothstein was widely reputed to have organized corruption in professional athletics, including conspiring to fix the 1919 World Series. He was also a mentor of future crime bosses Lucky Luciano, Meyer Lansky, Frank Costello, Bugsy Siegel, and numerous others.
William Allen White was an American newspaper editor, politician, author, and leader of the Progressive movement. Between 1896 and his death, White became a spokesman for middle America.
The 1932 Republican National Convention was held at Chicago Stadium in Chicago, Illinois, from June 14 to June 16, 1932. It nominated President Herbert Hoover and Vice President Charles Curtis for reelection.
Amity Ruth Shlaes is an American conservative author, writer, and columnist. Shlaes has written five books, including three New York Times Bestsellers. She currently chairs the board of trustees of the Calvin Coolidge Presidential Foundation and serves as a Presidential Scholar at The King's College in New York City. She is a recipient of the Bastiat Prize and, more recently, the Bradley Prize.
Robert Hugh Ferrell was an American historian. He authored more than 60 books on topics including the U.S. presidency, World War I, and U.S. foreign policy and diplomacy. One of the country's leading historians, Ferrell was widely considered the preeminent authority on the administration of Harry S. Truman, and also wrote books about half a dozen other 20th-century presidents. He was thought by many in the field to be the "dean of American diplomatic historians", a title he disavowed.
The 1920 Major League Baseball season was contested from April 14 to October 12, 1920. The Brooklyn Robins and Cleveland Indians were the regular season champions of the National League and American League, respectively. The Indians then defeated the Robins in the World Series, five games to two.
The first inauguration of Calvin Coolidge as the 30th president of the United States was held on Friday, August 3, 1923, at the Coolidge Homestead in Plymouth Notch, Vermont, following the death of President Warren G. Harding the previous evening. The inauguration – the sixth non-scheduled, extraordinary inauguration to ever take place – marked the commencement of the first term of Calvin Coolidge as president. The presidential oath of office was administered to the new president by his father, John Calvin Coolidge Sr., who was a Vermont notary public and justice of the peace. On Tuesday, August 21, 1923, President Coolidge repeated the oath before Justice Adolph A. Hoehling Jr. of the Court of the District of Columbia at the Willard Hotel, Washington, D.C.
The 1920 United States elections was held on November 2. In the aftermath of World War I, the Republican Party re-established the dominant position it lost in the 1910 and 1912 elections. This was the first election after the ratification of the 19th Amendment, which granted women the constitutional right to vote.
The 1924 United States presidential election in New York took place on November 4, 1924. All contemporary 48 states were part of the 1924 United States presidential election. Voters chose 45 electors to the Electoral College, which selected the president and vice president.
The 1920 United States presidential election in New York took place on November 2, 1920. All contemporary 48 states were part of the 1920 United States presidential election. Voters chose 45 electors to the Electoral College, which selected the president and vice president.
The 1920 United States presidential election in Massachusetts took place on November 2, 1920, as part of the 1920 United States presidential election, which was held throughout all contemporary 48 states. Voters chose 18 representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.
The 1920 United States presidential election in New Jersey took place on November 2, 1920. All contemporary 48 states were part of the 1920 United States presidential election. Voters chose 14 electors to the Electoral College, which selected the president and vice president.
Calvin Coolidge's tenure as the 30th president of the United States began on August 2, 1923, when Coolidge became president upon Warren G. Harding's death, and ended on March 4, 1929. A Republican from Massachusetts, Coolidge had been vice president for 2 years, 151 days when he succeeded to the presidency upon the sudden death of Harding. Elected to a full four–year term in 1924, Coolidge gained a reputation as a small-government conservative. Coolidge was succeeded by former Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover after the 1928 presidential election.
Rebecca was a raccoon kept as a pet by US president Calvin Coolidge and First Lady Grace Coolidge.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
