The iconic turn in American political culture: speech performance for the gilded-age picture press

Abstract

The advent of the illustrated press changed the nature of American presidential oratory and contributed to a major rearrangement of the political power structure, helping the presidency to usurp “imperial” dimensions. Until the Civil War, American politics took the form of juridical, argumentative text/speech contests. After the war, the emerging illustrated press (i.e. picture reportage and editorial cartoons) favored dramatic visual performances in lieu of programmatic declarations. And by providing a stream of imagery, which made the American polity imaginable as a unified theater of iconic action unobstructed by the constitutionally mandated separation of powers and persons, the picture press created a virtual space with presidents at the steering wheel, at the expense of the traditionally predominant legislative branch. Thus aided by the picture press, Wilson and his successors were able to transform the virtual rearrangement of power relations into a real one, without any change in the Constitution.