Although the presidential election of 1944 placed FDR in the White House for
an unprecedented fourth term, historical memory of the election itself has been
overshadowed by the war, Roosevelt's health and his death the following April,
Truman's ascendancy, and the decision to drop the atomic bomb. Today most people
assume that FDR 's reelection was assured. Yet, as David M. Jordan's engrossing
account reveals, neither the outcome of the campaign nor even the choice of candidate was certain. Just a week before Election Day, pollster George Gallup thought a small shift in votes in a few key states would award the election to Thomas E. Dewey. With its insider tales and accounts of party politics and campaigning for votes in the shadow of war and an uncertain future, FDR, Dewey, and the Election of 1944 makes for a fascinating chapter in American political history.