8 /10 1 Votes8
Publication date 1964 OCLC 711242 Originally published 1964 Page count 766 Publisher Simon & Schuster | 4/5 Goodreads Pages 766 Dewey Decimal 813.54 Genre Fiction | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Subject United States -- Politics and government -- Fiction. Media type Print (Hardcover, Softcover) Similar Irving Wallace books, Fiction books | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Man is a 1964 novel by Irving Wallace that speculatively explores the socio-political consequences in U.S. society when a Black man becomes President of the United States. The novel's title derives from the contemporary — fifties, sixties, seventies — American slang English, "The Man".
Contents
Plot summary
The Man was written before the Twenty-fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution. It depicts a political situation in which the office of Vice Presidency is vacant due to the incumbent's death. While overseas in Germany, the President and the Speaker of the House are in a freak accident; the President is killed, the Speaker of the House later dies in surgery. The Presidency then devolves onto Douglass Dilman, the President Pro Tempore of the Senate, a black man earlier elected to that office in deference to his race. Dilman's presidency is challenged by white racists, black political activists, and an attempted assassination. Later, he is impeached on false charges for firing the United States Secretary of State. One of his children, who is "passing" for white, is targeted and harassed. At the end of the book the protagonist - though having credibly dealt with considerable problems during his Presidency and gained some popularity - does not consider running for re-election.
Commercial Reception
The Man was a major commercial success: it spent 38 weeks (peaking at #2) on the New York Times best seller list. It became the fifth-highest selling novel of the year.
Film Adaptation
In 1972, the novel was adapted as the motion picture The Man, featuring James Earl Jones as President Douglas Dilman.