Campaign history and books of magic
With less than a week to go before Election Day, “The Campaigns That Made History” (9 p.m., History, TV-PG) asks viewers to look back at a half-century of electioneering. It focuses on the winners and many of the also-rans whose candidacies changed the trajectory of American politics and also helped reveal the changing nature of American society. In many ways, the losing campaigns are more instructive.
Ronald Reagan won roughly 60% of the vote in 1984. Twenty years earlier, conservative Republican Barry Goldwater was on the receiving end of a similarly one-sided landslide. Yet the ruins of the Goldwater campaign contained elements that would lead to a Reagan majority two decades later.
Similarly, Gary Hart’s brand of Democratic politics did not prevail in 1984 and were engulfed by scandal in 1988. But his campaigns pointed the way toward Bill Clinton’s wins in 1992 and 1996.
“Campaigns” pays similar attention to Ross Perot’s eccentric effort in 1992 and to the raw emotions that Sarah Palin’s place on a losing 2008 ticket evoked and her role in turning the GOP into a party that might eventually look to Donald Trump.
› Now streaming on PBS.org, “The Book Makers” (7 p.m., World Channel) offers a thoughtful meditation on the history and meaning of the old-fashioned book, the kind you hold in your hand as opposed to streaming on some digital tablet.
“Makers” celebrates the manufacturing of books, the laborious process of setting lead type, printing and binding reams of ragged paper between covers. It explores books as family heirlooms, personal treasures and even sacred talismans.
“Makers” features interviews with authors Dave Eggers and Daniel Handler, known to his readers as Lemony Snicket.
I’ve long thought that one of the less-discussed virtues of the old-fashioned book is the fact that it existed in a marketing-free environment. Separated from Charles Dickens by more than a century, we can rest assured that we can enjoy “David Copperfield” without being “sold” something.
But if you read it on a tablet, you’re continually tempted by all of the temptations that digital life involves. Even if that means turning to Google to see when Dickens died or who played Micawber in the 1935 movie. Thank you, Google, it was W.C. Fields.
“Book Makers” makes the strong case that books all by themselves are entrancing means of mental and even spiritual transformation and transportation. They are magical. But because they now exist largely outside the realm of grubby commerciality, they are given little value.
Viewers who enjoy this may also like “The Booksellers,” a documentary about rare book dealers streaming on Amazon Prime. Narrated in part by Parker Posey and featuring the sardonic wit of Fran Leibowitz.
› Streaming today on Sundance Now, “The Dakota Entrapment Tapes” follows the case of overzealous police who forced a college student caught on a minor drug charge to become an undercover informant, bullying a naive young farmer’s son into a role that would eventually cost him his life.