Synopses & Reviews
Four extraordinary men sought the presidency in 1912. Theodore Roosevelt was the charismatic and still wildly popular former president who sought to redirect the Republican Party toward a more nationalistic, less materialistic brand of conservatism and the cause of social justice.
His handpicked successor and close friend, William Howard Taft, was a reluctant politician whose sole ambition was to sit on the U.S. Supreme Court. Amiable and easygoing, Taft was the very opposite of the restless Roosevelt. After Taft failed to carry forward his predecessor's reformist policies, an embittered Roosevelt decided to challenge Taft for the party's nomination. Thwarted by a convention controlled by Taft, Roosevelt abandoned the GOP and ran in the general election as the candidate of a third party of his own creation, the Bull Moose Progressives.
Woodrow Wilson, the former president of Princeton University, astonished everyone by seizing the Democratic nomination from the party bosses who had made him New Jersey's governor. A noted political theorist, he was a relative newcomer to the practice of governing, torn between his fear of radical reform and his belief in limited government.
The fourth candidate, labor leader Eugene V. Debs, had run for president on the Socialist ticket twice before. A fervent warrior in the cause of economic justice for the laboring class, he was a force to be reckoned with in the great debate over how to mitigate the excesses of industrial capitalism that was at the heart of the 1912 election.
Chace recounts all the excitement and pathos of a singular moment in American history: the crucial primaries, the Republicans' bitter nominating convention that forever split the party, Wilson's stunning victory on the forty-sixth ballot at the Democratic convention, Roosevelt's spectacular coast-to-coast whistle-stop electioneering, Taft's stubborn refusal to fight back against his former mentor, Debs's electrifying campaign appearances, and Wilson's "accidental election" by less than a majority of the popular vote.
Had Roosevelt received the Republican nomination, he almost surely would have been elected president once again and the Republicans would likely have become a party of reform. Instead, the GOP passed into the hands of a conservative ascendancy that reached its fullness with Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush, and the party remains to this day riven by the struggle between reform and reaction, isolationism and internationalism.
The 1912 presidential contest was the first since the days of Jefferson and Hamilton in which the great question of America's exceptional destiny was debated. 1912 changed America.
Review
"James Chace has served up a rich, irresistible slice of Americana in recounting the storied 1912 presidential campaign....1912 seems like the perfect home companion for this or any other presidential election year." Ron Chernow,
author of Titan and Alexander Hamilton
Review
"Chace brings sharply alive the distinctive characters in his fast-paced story. There won't soon be a better-told tale of one of the last century's major elections." Publishers Weekly
Review
"Entertaining, insightful history about a defining moment in 20th-century politics." Kirkus Reviews
Review
"[A]n unbeatable campaign story, which James Chace's lively and engrossing book 1912 fully captures." Richard Brookhiser, The New York Times Book Review
Review
"The year 1912 that apple-pie time before world wars, the Holocaust, nuclear angst, or secret terrorist webs wouldn't seem to be a likely moment for a crucial American election. But James Chace shows with clarity and insight that a little-remembered political season 92 years ago has echoed mightily throughout the 20th century and on into the 21st....[He] has sketched an engrossing political horse race that is at once familiar and strange. In revealing both aspects, the book makes for engaging historical reading during our own election season." Gregory M. Lamb, The Christian Science Monitor (read the entire Christian Science Monitor review)
Synopsis
Chace spotlights the dazzling political circus of the hard-fought election of 1912 between Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson a defining moment in American history that forever transformed the nation's political landscape.
Synopsis
Four extraordinary men sought the presidency in 1912. Theodore Roosevelt was the charismatic and still wildly popular former president who sought to redirect the Republican Party toward a more nationalistic, less materialistic brand of conservatism and the cause of social justice.
His handpicked successor and close friend, William Howard Taft, was a reluctant politician whose sole ambition was to sit on the U.S. Supreme Court. Amiable and easygoing, Taft was the very opposite of the restless Roosevelt. After Taft failed to carry forward his predecessor's reformist policies, an embittered Roosevelt decided to challenge Taft for the party's nomination. Thwarted by a convention controlled by Taft, Roosevelt abandoned the GOP and ran in the general election as the candidate of a third party of his own creation, the Bull Moose Progressives.
Woodrow Wilson, the former president of Princeton University, astonished everyone by seizing the Democratic nomination from the party bosses who had made him New Jersey's governor. A noted political theorist, he was a relative newcomer to the practice of governing, torn between his fear of radical reform and his belief in limited government.
The fourth candidate, labor leader Eugene V. Debs, had run for president on the Socialist ticket twice before. A fervent warrior in the cause of economic justice for the laboring class, he was a force to be reckoned with in the great debate over how to mitigate the excesses of industrial capitalism that was at the heart of the 1912 election.
Chace recounts all the excitement and pathos of a singular moment in American history: the crucial primaries, the Republicans' bitter nominating convention that forever split the party, Wilson's stunning victory on the forty-sixth ballot at the Democratic convention, Roosevelt's spectacular coast-to-coast whistle-stop electioneering, Taft's stubborn refusal to fight back against his former mentor, Debs's electrifying campaign appearances, and Wilson's "accidental election" by less than a majority of the popular vote.
Had Roosevelt received the Republican nomination, he almost surely would have been elected president once again and the Republicans would likely have become a party of reform. Instead, the GOP passed into the hands of a conservative ascendancy that reached its fullness with Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush, and the party remains to this day riven by the struggle between reform and reaction, isolationism and internationalism.
The 1912 presidential contest was the first since the days of Jefferson and Hamilton in which the great question of America's exceptional destiny was debated. 1912 changed America.
About the Author
James Chace is the Paul W. Williams Professor of Government and Public Law at Bard College. The former managing editor of
Foreign Affairs and editor of
World Policy Journal, he is the author of eight previous books, including
Acheson: The Secretary of State Who Created the American World, which was named Best Book of 1998 by the American Academy of Diplomacy. He lives in New York.
Table of Contents
ContentsPrologue: The Defining Moment
Part One: America's Destiny
One: "Back from Elba"
Two: "The Ruthlessness of the Pure in Heart"
Three: The Heirs of Hamilton and Jefferson
Four: The Debs Rebellion
Part Two: Chicago and Baltimore
Five: "Stripped to the Buff"
Six: "A Rope of Sand"
Seven: Standing at Armageddon
Eight: The Fullness of Time
Nine: Baltimore
Ten: The Indispensable Man
Eleven: To Make a Revolution: Debs and Haywood
Part Three: The Contenders
Twelve: The New Freedom vs. the New Nationalism
Thirteen: The Crusader
Fourteen: The Moralist
Fifteen: The Authentic Conservative and the Red Prophet
Sixteen: "To Kill a Bull Moose"
Part Four: The Consequences of Victory
Seventeen: The Ironies of Fate
Eighteen: Endgames
Epilogue: The Inheritors
Notes
Bibliographical Note
Acknowledgments
Index