Publication Type: Proceeding

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: In 1961, Baseball Commissioner Ford Frick, a former newspaper sports columnist, announced that Roger Maris’s home run record would not be recognized unless he set it in 154 games, as record-holder Babe Ruth did. Frick’s announcement sparked criticism. This paper demonstrates that the motive for Frick’s actions was loyalty toward Ruth, as reflected both in his ghostwriting for Ruth and his columns in the New York Journal newspaper.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Traditional, cyclical, and "Skowronekian" approaches to political time recognize what may be problematic in focusing solely on the presidency as a unit of analysis and attempt to locate the regularities of circumstance from which causal inferences can be drawn for general presidential behavior and outcomes. The Ford presidency is a challenge to this search for pattern and is sometimes seen as pure anomaly and thus of little theoretical interest. The argument here differs. Ford's unparalleled situation made his judgments of his own political time particularly crucial, and "Ford in Time" tests the applicability of political time concepts by using archival materials (from the Ford Library) to reconstruct how Ford developed a view of his own political time as the premise for his policy judgments and electoral hopes. The paper examines in detail how Ford was influenced in his views by the earliest days of the post-Nixon presidency, his prior congressional experience, the rapid development of budgetary policy, the evolving nature of his advisory system and the outcome of an intense struggle between advisors with rival views of political time as well as the "puzzle" of Ford's view that mainstream Republicanism best fit a post-Watergate era. The usual approaches to political time, though heuristically useful, do not seem generally consistent with how Ford and his cohorts conceived of and acted within their own times. The paper concludes with a discussion of political time as more perceptual than objective, more contested than clear, and more constructed than given, while also examining the limits of "post-modern" approaches to understanding presidential judgments. Ford's case may also be instructive about factors not clearly encompassed within most analyses of political time, in particular the ways in which the sequence of policy issues can shape presidential views of their own times, the importance of "framing moments" personal variations in how time is conceived and, crucially, the high transaction and opportunity costs of ascertaining the nature of one's own political era. A part of this paper continues past discussions on the concept of political time in the presidency*, but "Ford in Time" seems relevant as well to both the traditional "presidency and executive politics" section and to the inaugural "politics and history" section.
*Hoekstra, Douglas J. 1999. The Politics of Politics: Skowronek and Presidential Research; Comments on Theory and History, Structure and Agency. Presidential Studies Quarterly 29: 657-671, 682-684; Skowronek, Stephen. 1999. Theory and History, Structure and Agency. Presidential Studies Quarterly 29: 672-681.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Although Drums Along the Mohawk presents the kind of frontier story that is familiar to Ford fans, it is more than just another western in colonial costume. Ford makes clear from the beginning of the film two distinct but interrelated themes. He tells us the year is 1776 and the opening scene is the wedding of Gil and Lana Martin. Ford wants us to think about what it means to start a new nation and to start a new life and a new family. The hero in this film, Gil Martin, exhibits little of the alienation or angst of the rugged individualist threatened by the encroachment of civilization in Ford’s classic films. It is not even clear that Gil is the central figure of the story. In many respects we see the film through Lana’s eyes, and her heroism is ultimately the equal of Gil’s. Heroism and family, men and women, nature and civilization represent irreconcilable tensions in most of Ford’s films, but in Drums Along the Mohawk, we find some hope for reconciliation.