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The People's Machine

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The People's Machine

Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Rise of Blockbuster Democracy

Public Affairs,

15 min read
10 take-aways
Audio & text

What's inside?

What can a muscle-bound Austrian teach Americans about public office? Plenty, if he is Arnold Schwarzenegger.

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Editorial Rating

8

Qualities

  • Overview
  • Background
  • Concrete Examples

Recommendation

Joe Mathews’ book vividly describes how the confluence of a European childhood, bodybuilding, movies, popular culture, politics, history and ambition shaped the life of a remarkable public figure, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Highly detailed and readable, this is an informative account of how California’s best-known modern political leader improbably rose to power. He portrays Schwarzenegger as a complicated, talented, politician whose attention to detail in building and managing his persona has consistently paid off in money and power. Mathews uses Schwarzenegger’s saga to show in great journalistic detail how being exposed to opportunity and the right social networks can produce remarkable results; of course, working hard and being lots smarter than people think helps, too. getAbstract suggests this to anyone who is interested in politics or popular culture. It should be required reading for all California voters or, maybe, for all voters, period.

Summary

Total Recall

The groundwork for Arnold Schwarzenegger’s rise to power in California was laid more than 100 years ago by populists fighting against the powerful Southern Pacific Railroad.

In the early 1900s, California suffered political machine cronyism and powerful organized efforts to preserve the status quo and retard populism. The railroad was the most dominant commercial force against popular democracy. The train linked thousands of small towns to the rest of the U.S. Its freight rates dictated how much or how little merchants and farmers could earn. Two groups, the anti-union Populists - mostly farmers, laborers and former Republicans - and the metropolitan Progressive Party, challenged the trains and the corrupt government. They pushed western states to adopt innovative government reforms that had begun in Switzerland - notably recalls, initiatives and referendums. Ten states adopted the reforms, but not California, yet.

Also at the turn of the century, the movie business migrated from New York to California. The weather drew filmmakers fleeing Thomas Edison’s strong-arm monopoly on equipment.

In 1902, millionaire socialist Hiram Johnson, the new...

About the Author

Joe Mathews is a reporter for the Los Angeles Times, a fourth generation Californian, and a Little League baseball coach. Raised in Pasadena, he worked previously at the Baltimore Sun and The Wall Street Journal.

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