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1912: Wilson, Roosevelt, Taft and Debs -- The Election that Changed the Country
Beginning with former president Theodore Roosevelt’s return in 1910 from his African safari, Chace brilliantly unfolds a dazzling political circus that featured four extraordinary candidates.
When Roosevelt failed to defeat his chosen successor, William Howard Taft, for the Republican nomination, he ran as a radical reformer on the Bull Moose ticket. Meanwhile, Woodrow Wilson, the ex-president of Princeton, astonished everyone by seizing the Democratic nomination from the bosses who had made him New Jersey’s governor. Most revealing of the reformist spirit sweeping the land was the charismatic socialist Eugene Debs, who polled an unprecedented one million votes.
Wilson’s “accidental” election had lasting impact on America and the world. The broken friendship between Taft and TR inflicted wounds on the Republican Party that have never healed, and the party passed into the hands of a conservative ascendancy that reached its fullness under Reagan and George W. Bush. Wilson’s victory imbued the Democratic Party with a progressive idealism later incarnated in FDR, Truman, and LBJ.
1912 changed America.
When Roosevelt failed to defeat his chosen successor, William Howard Taft, for the Republican nomination, he ran as a radical reformer on the Bull Moose ticket. Meanwhile, Woodrow Wilson, the ex-president of Princeton, astonished everyone by seizing the Democratic nomination from the bosses who had made him New Jersey’s governor. Most revealing of the reformist spirit sweeping the land was the charismatic socialist Eugene Debs, who polled an unprecedented one million votes.
Wilson’s “accidental” election had lasting impact on America and the world. The broken friendship between Taft and TR inflicted wounds on the Republican Party that have never healed, and the party passed into the hands of a conservative ascendancy that reached its fullness under Reagan and George W. Bush. Wilson’s victory imbued the Democratic Party with a progressive idealism later incarnated in FDR, Truman, and LBJ.
1912 changed America.
352 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2004
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About the author
James Chace
16 books6 followersJames Clarke Chace was an American historian, writing on American diplomacy and statecraft.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 90 reviews
May 15, 2014
I wonder how many Americans know that at one time in this country the Democratic Party stood for segregation and limited government, and that the Republican Party represented progressivism and reform. Of course it's more complicated than that. In the early days of the 20th century the two most powerful presidents were progressives, and they ran against each other in 1912....Teddy Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson. There were also two other candidates - Taft and Debs - in case people wanted a conservative voice or an Socialist one. It was a time of upheaval and change which this book documents quite well.
March 24, 2024
A good overview of the presidential election with the most relevance to the 2024 race, this book satisfies on many levels. To begin with, the electorate was very divided then, as now. Several fringe candidates threatened to divide the vote, also like now. The author does an excellent job tying into the narrative the key issues impacting the results. Overall, a very good book.
October 13, 2012
Two of the world's dullest humans face off against two brave, charismatic heroes for the U.S. Presidency. The dullest man wins, and six years later throws the kick-ass one in jail.
Chace is more a storyteller than a historian, something most evident when he's trying to pin down Wilson's evasive ideology (if such a thing existed). Worth a look, but I'm definitely moving on to August Heckscher for my next take on this era.
Chace is more a storyteller than a historian, something most evident when he's trying to pin down Wilson's evasive ideology (if such a thing existed). Worth a look, but I'm definitely moving on to August Heckscher for my next take on this era.
April 10, 2025
this year i will be so deep in my historian bag people will start getting scared 🤭
January 18, 2019
Roosevelt, Taft, Wilson, and Deebs for good will. What could possibly go wrong in a story about these four characters?
The Book itself is a fairly well written summary of the evens leading to the presidential election. Mucth of the story has been told in other works. Bully Pulpit and the recent biography on Wilson cover most of the events in much more detail and much more skill.
This book is a good servicable coverage of the election. It is moderately well written, theres just not too much new or left to be said that hasn't been said elsewhere and better.
If this is your first read on the subject you should do fine.
EDIT: I really should proof read my posts if I'm going to write them at 1 am!
The Book itself is a fairly well written summary of the evens leading to the presidential election. Mucth of the story has been told in other works. Bully Pulpit and the recent biography on Wilson cover most of the events in much more detail and much more skill.
This book is a good servicable coverage of the election. It is moderately well written, theres just not too much new or left to be said that hasn't been said elsewhere and better.
If this is your first read on the subject you should do fine.
EDIT: I really should proof read my posts if I'm going to write them at 1 am!
August 3, 2025
Interesting details about this dramatic election and the years before and after - and some conclusions about populism and presidential (executive) power that seem a bit dated but are certainly thought-provoking in the age of Trump.
December 9, 2011
It's about, get this, the election of 1912! It's a very interesting book, though not altogether brilliant. Wilson, Taft, Teddy Roosevelt, and Debs all have plusses and faults. Taft never really wanted to be President and was goaded by his power hungry wife. Wilson cheated on his wife, who later died, and then remarried. That wife was almost de-facto President for a time after Wilson's stroke. Wilson is an interesting character, actually pretty forthright in his willingness to shift positions and allegiances to get what he wanted, which is why he turned on the party bosses in New Jersey, which almost cost him the 1912 nomination. TR is maybe the greatest personality we've ever had as a US President and probably who I would have voted for in this election, especially considering Wilson's issues, including imprisoning people like Eugene Debs for speaking out against his Administration.
Chace makes a cogent argument that this election paved the way for the activist government of FDR because of how Teddy and Wilson believed in a strong federal government, how the Socialist Party came to its heights, and how each candidate touted some kind of a Progressive plank due to the nature of the particular race. He also explains in better detail why the League of Nations failed, which was largely on Wilson's stubbornness.
The book could have been better with more depth in explaining the nature of the country at the time. Instead it was about the individual stories of the candidates, which, while interesting, lacked a proper setting. It also could have benefited from comparisons to the present day. For example, in 1912, there were no real ways to do polling like today's constant poll driven politics, so that made it a different kind of race, as did a different media structure. Chace also touches on race a few times, which is interesting, but then kind of forgets about it, which is disappointing, because it could have been summed up rather easily in the epilogue. I think having background knowledge helps flush the story out more, but I did that as the reader, and Chace could have done that more as the author. Still, I would definitely recommend this and enjoyed it. The writing style was simple but not simplistic and it was certainly a learning experience throughout.
Chace makes a cogent argument that this election paved the way for the activist government of FDR because of how Teddy and Wilson believed in a strong federal government, how the Socialist Party came to its heights, and how each candidate touted some kind of a Progressive plank due to the nature of the particular race. He also explains in better detail why the League of Nations failed, which was largely on Wilson's stubbornness.
The book could have been better with more depth in explaining the nature of the country at the time. Instead it was about the individual stories of the candidates, which, while interesting, lacked a proper setting. It also could have benefited from comparisons to the present day. For example, in 1912, there were no real ways to do polling like today's constant poll driven politics, so that made it a different kind of race, as did a different media structure. Chace also touches on race a few times, which is interesting, but then kind of forgets about it, which is disappointing, because it could have been summed up rather easily in the epilogue. I think having background knowledge helps flush the story out more, but I did that as the reader, and Chace could have done that more as the author. Still, I would definitely recommend this and enjoyed it. The writing style was simple but not simplistic and it was certainly a learning experience throughout.
May 18, 2011
INTERESTING, ENLIGHTENING, AND A GOOD READ.
“The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and all to lose—especially their lives.—[Eugene V. Debs], page 257
“…that every man holds his property subject to the general right of the community to regulate its use to whatever degree the public welfare may require it.” –[Theodore Roosevelt], page 57
In ‘1912: Wilson, Roosevelt, Taft & Debs—The Election that Changed the Country,’ James Chace delivers and insightful look at these four giants of national politics, at their principles (or lack thereof) at some of their fellow travelers and at their times. I found it a bit tedious going at first, but it gets much better.
Recommendation: An especially good read for us political junkies of the world.
“A National Government cannot create good times. It cannot make the rain to fall, the sun to shine, or the crops to grow, but it can, by pursuing a meddlesome policy, attempting to change economic conditions, and frightening the investment of capital, prevent a prosperity and a revival of business which otherwise might have taken place.”—[William H. Taft], page 221
Simon and Schuster hardcover edition, 293 pages.
“The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and all to lose—especially their lives.—[Eugene V. Debs], page 257
“…that every man holds his property subject to the general right of the community to regulate its use to whatever degree the public welfare may require it.” –[Theodore Roosevelt], page 57
In ‘1912: Wilson, Roosevelt, Taft & Debs—The Election that Changed the Country,’ James Chace delivers and insightful look at these four giants of national politics, at their principles (or lack thereof) at some of their fellow travelers and at their times. I found it a bit tedious going at first, but it gets much better.
Recommendation: An especially good read for us political junkies of the world.
“A National Government cannot create good times. It cannot make the rain to fall, the sun to shine, or the crops to grow, but it can, by pursuing a meddlesome policy, attempting to change economic conditions, and frightening the investment of capital, prevent a prosperity and a revival of business which otherwise might have taken place.”—[William H. Taft], page 221
Simon and Schuster hardcover edition, 293 pages.
September 16, 2012
This was a decent book, nowhere nearly as interesting as the 1920 The Year of Six Presidents. The author presents a standard version of the 1912 election and the emergence of the Bull Moose Party. While he does a decent job recounting facts, he does very little if anything to show why the election was so pivotal. The most noteworthy aspect was the depiction of Taft not wanting to be president. Additionally, like many books, this text shows Woodrow Wilson as a very curmudgeonly and hateful individual. A somewhat disappointing book
August 1, 2012
A very good book about a really interesting election, one of the last, if not the last, with truly major implications from 3rd parties.
November 7, 2025
Review title: The Radical election of 1912
Surely an election in 1912, more than a century ago, could have little interest or influence in the United States of 2025. In fact, James Chance claims otherwise in this book centered on the four candidates for President in that year, and their radical impact on the country then and later.
And we can start with the literally most radical: socialist union organizer Eugene V. Debs. Debs as a union leader gaining political influence was first arrested during the Pullman strike of 1894, and his charismatic speaking style, organizing skills, and relentless energy helped create industrial unions as a political influence. Chace's account of the federal response to Pullman strike (p. 78-79) is very reminiscent of 2025 federal troops being sent to American cities on false claims of violent criminal activity. Chance will conclude that Debs's efforts to organize and educate working Americans in those early years of the century would prepare voters to understand and accept the New Deal ideas Franklin Roosevelt proposed to combat the Depression (p. 278).
Meanwhile, Teddy Roosevelt said of the 1912 election while speaking at the Republican National Convention in June "We stand at Armageddon, and we battle for the Lord." (p. 118). The next day, TR and his supporters would pull out of the Republican convention (claiming Taft supporters were seating fraudulently chosen delegates) and form a third party--the Progressive Party known informally as the Bull Moose Party--to run for President against Taft, his self-selected successor in 1908.
While the Democratic convention was equally turbulent (it took 47 ballots for Wilson to gain the votes he needed to secure the nomination, p. 158), it was the unprecedented appearance of not just one but two strong and legitimate alternative candidates on the 1912 ballot that made it such a unique and epochal election. Debs, the strongest Socialist candidate in American history, staked out the far left while Roosevelt championed his trust-busting progressivism left of the core Republican platform and Wilson ran as a Democrat uniting the racist southern roots of the party with the northeastern party bosses while remaining independent of both. As Wilson wrote in a private letter before the election, "just what will happen . . . with party lines utterly confused and broken, is all guesswork." (p. 191). Interestingly and accurately, both the Wilson and Roosevelt campaigns ignored the incumbent and Republican candidate Taft as irrelevant to their head-to-head race.
Why does an election over a century ago matter today? Wilson's supporters, in language that echoes that describing Donald Trump today, warned of " 'Roosevelt's accession to the dizzy height of unrestrained authority'. . . . His election would mean 'the end of the Republic and the beginning of a Dictatorship.' " (p. 205). And like Trump, Wilson was racist in his statements and actions; one of his campaign managers, a southern newspaper publisher, wrote in an editorial that "the subjugation of the negro politically, and the separation of the negro socially, are paramount to all other considerations." (p. 213-214). And surprisingly and sadly like Trump, Roosdvelt was shot in an assassination attempt while compaigning, the bullet's impact blunted by a heavy coat and thick speech manuscript so that it ended embedded near a rib less than an inch from his heart; after a week of recuperation Roosevelt reluctantly accepted, he returned to the campaign trail, the bullet left in place (p. 230-235).
This was indeed a unique election in American history, and Chace's account is important but not inspiring. He's got all the facts, but lacks a storyteller's flare while telling the dramatic stories of the 1912 conventions and campaigns. I found the accounts of cross-country campaigning by railroad, before any national highway system (even the first-generation Lincoln Highway was still in the future) existed, potentially fascinating but given too little attention. That Wilson, Roosevelt, and Debs all suffered health issues during the campaign and after the election is testimony to the rigors of long-distance travel in 1912 America. There is a part of the story Chance missed.
His best writing is in the final chapters recapping the aftermath and impact on America. Chace refers to the election of 1912 as the most radical in American history, as Debs gained the highest percentage of votes by an avowed socialist candidate, while Roosevelt represented a strong progressive movement left of center and even Wilson, the eventual winner, leaned into progressive policies to attract voters from Debs and Roosevelt. Chace also records how the next decade would usher all three men off the national stage with weakened health and early deaths, but only after Roosevelt and Wilson had "invented the activist modern presidency" (p. 283).
Surely an election in 1912, more than a century ago, could have little interest or influence in the United States of 2025. In fact, James Chance claims otherwise in this book centered on the four candidates for President in that year, and their radical impact on the country then and later.
And we can start with the literally most radical: socialist union organizer Eugene V. Debs. Debs as a union leader gaining political influence was first arrested during the Pullman strike of 1894, and his charismatic speaking style, organizing skills, and relentless energy helped create industrial unions as a political influence. Chace's account of the federal response to Pullman strike (p. 78-79) is very reminiscent of 2025 federal troops being sent to American cities on false claims of violent criminal activity. Chance will conclude that Debs's efforts to organize and educate working Americans in those early years of the century would prepare voters to understand and accept the New Deal ideas Franklin Roosevelt proposed to combat the Depression (p. 278).
Meanwhile, Teddy Roosevelt said of the 1912 election while speaking at the Republican National Convention in June "We stand at Armageddon, and we battle for the Lord." (p. 118). The next day, TR and his supporters would pull out of the Republican convention (claiming Taft supporters were seating fraudulently chosen delegates) and form a third party--the Progressive Party known informally as the Bull Moose Party--to run for President against Taft, his self-selected successor in 1908.
While the Democratic convention was equally turbulent (it took 47 ballots for Wilson to gain the votes he needed to secure the nomination, p. 158), it was the unprecedented appearance of not just one but two strong and legitimate alternative candidates on the 1912 ballot that made it such a unique and epochal election. Debs, the strongest Socialist candidate in American history, staked out the far left while Roosevelt championed his trust-busting progressivism left of the core Republican platform and Wilson ran as a Democrat uniting the racist southern roots of the party with the northeastern party bosses while remaining independent of both. As Wilson wrote in a private letter before the election, "just what will happen . . . with party lines utterly confused and broken, is all guesswork." (p. 191). Interestingly and accurately, both the Wilson and Roosevelt campaigns ignored the incumbent and Republican candidate Taft as irrelevant to their head-to-head race.
Why does an election over a century ago matter today? Wilson's supporters, in language that echoes that describing Donald Trump today, warned of " 'Roosevelt's accession to the dizzy height of unrestrained authority'. . . . His election would mean 'the end of the Republic and the beginning of a Dictatorship.' " (p. 205). And like Trump, Wilson was racist in his statements and actions; one of his campaign managers, a southern newspaper publisher, wrote in an editorial that "the subjugation of the negro politically, and the separation of the negro socially, are paramount to all other considerations." (p. 213-214). And surprisingly and sadly like Trump, Roosdvelt was shot in an assassination attempt while compaigning, the bullet's impact blunted by a heavy coat and thick speech manuscript so that it ended embedded near a rib less than an inch from his heart; after a week of recuperation Roosevelt reluctantly accepted, he returned to the campaign trail, the bullet left in place (p. 230-235).
This was indeed a unique election in American history, and Chace's account is important but not inspiring. He's got all the facts, but lacks a storyteller's flare while telling the dramatic stories of the 1912 conventions and campaigns. I found the accounts of cross-country campaigning by railroad, before any national highway system (even the first-generation Lincoln Highway was still in the future) existed, potentially fascinating but given too little attention. That Wilson, Roosevelt, and Debs all suffered health issues during the campaign and after the election is testimony to the rigors of long-distance travel in 1912 America. There is a part of the story Chance missed.
His best writing is in the final chapters recapping the aftermath and impact on America. Chace refers to the election of 1912 as the most radical in American history, as Debs gained the highest percentage of votes by an avowed socialist candidate, while Roosevelt represented a strong progressive movement left of center and even Wilson, the eventual winner, leaned into progressive policies to attract voters from Debs and Roosevelt. Chace also records how the next decade would usher all three men off the national stage with weakened health and early deaths, but only after Roosevelt and Wilson had "invented the activist modern presidency" (p. 283).
June 30, 2018
1912 was a year which saw a four-way race for president, and it was one of the rare cycles when a third party candidate (Theodore Roosevelt, running for a nonconsecutive third term under the Progressive Party banner) actually won a handful of states. It also featured the worst performance ever by an incumbent president: William Taft came in third in the popular vote as well as the electoral college, winning only two states.
Yet perhaps what 1912 is still most known for is serving as the high tide for progressive ideas in America. The contest, coming on the heels of the Gilded Age and the apogee of the muckraker press, took place in an America increasingly concerned about the growth and abuses of corporate power. It was actually more of a race between Democrat Woodrow Wilson and Progressive Party (nicknamed the Bull Moose Party) candidate Theodore Roosevelt, with each of these men running on a platform of varying degrees of social reform. The eight hour work day, workmen's compensation, women's suffrage, more democratic primary voting, better regulation of corporations, an income tax and central bank, allowing the people and not state legislatures to pick a state's U.S. Senator; all of these progressive issues and more were front and center during the campaign.
Although ideas dominated, voters could not help but contrast the professorial nature of Wilson with the bombastic, aggressive Roosevelt and the more temperately constituted Taft.
Roosevelt's New Nationalism agenda, a bold plan of action laid out in August 1910 during his famous Osawatomie, Kansas speech, shocked the reactionary members of the Republican Party which he left after being "cheated" out of the nomination by his former friend President Taft. This was contrasted with Wilson's plan (laid out with the help of adviser and future Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis) known as New Freedom. A major difference between the two concepts, put forward by men who actually differed more in temperament than in their platform's commitment to social justice, was that T.R. wanted to establish a federal bureau to heavily regulate monopolies, whereas Wilson wanted to completely break monopolies up by passing laws to create more efficient competition. They just differed on the means of how to restore competition to markets many were coming to fear were dominated by a few consolidated players.
Socialist candidate Eugene Debs-who would only get slightly over 6% of the popular vote and win zero states, was reduced to calling for a socialist revolution on the sidelines, while the incumbent President Taft had all but thrown in the towel on his reelection months before November. He was not wild about public speaking in the first place, and had a temperament more suited for the judiciary than executive work.
Author James Chace covers the basics of the 1912 primaries and general election well. The friendship between Taft and Roosevelt, so strong when Taft took office in March 1909, slowly came undone as Roosevelt lost trust in his successor's strength as a leader. Roosevelt would eventually challenge Taft in the GOP primary, losing a close race and claiming it was "rigged" against him, as at that time only 13 of 48 states held primaries where rank and file party members could vote. Chace went over this falling out swiftly but with enough information to fill readers in (though nothing like the way it was covered by Doris Kearns Goodwin in the Bully Pulpit, which in Chace's defense was a book more on that specific relationship and its deterioration than on the actual 1912 race).
The book also did a serviceable job on explaining Woodrow Wilson's swift rise from professor to president of Princeton to governor of New Jersey to U.S. president. His writing on Debs and his involvement with the American labor movement was especially concise and lacking in depth. But because 1912 was written merely to provide snapshot of all four candidates--Taft, Roosevelt, Wilson, and Debs--Chace could not go into the level of detail he probably would have liked to on each of their upbringings and rises to power.
Chace uses the last portion of the book to look at Wilson's presidency, a decision which created for reading that seemed slightly incongruous with the rest of the book. It would have been a stronger whole had he just made a few mentions about the the consequences of Wilson's victory and the long term outcome of the reformist policies championed to one degree or another by the four 1912 candidates.
This book gives great background on one of the most wacky and compelling elections in U.S. history. A wonderful read, though one lacking too much in depth toward any one person or single idea, that will be enjoyed by those who cannot get enough knowledge about exciting eras in the past.
-Andrew Canfield Denver, Colorado
Yet perhaps what 1912 is still most known for is serving as the high tide for progressive ideas in America. The contest, coming on the heels of the Gilded Age and the apogee of the muckraker press, took place in an America increasingly concerned about the growth and abuses of corporate power. It was actually more of a race between Democrat Woodrow Wilson and Progressive Party (nicknamed the Bull Moose Party) candidate Theodore Roosevelt, with each of these men running on a platform of varying degrees of social reform. The eight hour work day, workmen's compensation, women's suffrage, more democratic primary voting, better regulation of corporations, an income tax and central bank, allowing the people and not state legislatures to pick a state's U.S. Senator; all of these progressive issues and more were front and center during the campaign.
Although ideas dominated, voters could not help but contrast the professorial nature of Wilson with the bombastic, aggressive Roosevelt and the more temperately constituted Taft.
Roosevelt's New Nationalism agenda, a bold plan of action laid out in August 1910 during his famous Osawatomie, Kansas speech, shocked the reactionary members of the Republican Party which he left after being "cheated" out of the nomination by his former friend President Taft. This was contrasted with Wilson's plan (laid out with the help of adviser and future Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis) known as New Freedom. A major difference between the two concepts, put forward by men who actually differed more in temperament than in their platform's commitment to social justice, was that T.R. wanted to establish a federal bureau to heavily regulate monopolies, whereas Wilson wanted to completely break monopolies up by passing laws to create more efficient competition. They just differed on the means of how to restore competition to markets many were coming to fear were dominated by a few consolidated players.
Socialist candidate Eugene Debs-who would only get slightly over 6% of the popular vote and win zero states, was reduced to calling for a socialist revolution on the sidelines, while the incumbent President Taft had all but thrown in the towel on his reelection months before November. He was not wild about public speaking in the first place, and had a temperament more suited for the judiciary than executive work.
Author James Chace covers the basics of the 1912 primaries and general election well. The friendship between Taft and Roosevelt, so strong when Taft took office in March 1909, slowly came undone as Roosevelt lost trust in his successor's strength as a leader. Roosevelt would eventually challenge Taft in the GOP primary, losing a close race and claiming it was "rigged" against him, as at that time only 13 of 48 states held primaries where rank and file party members could vote. Chace went over this falling out swiftly but with enough information to fill readers in (though nothing like the way it was covered by Doris Kearns Goodwin in the Bully Pulpit, which in Chace's defense was a book more on that specific relationship and its deterioration than on the actual 1912 race).
The book also did a serviceable job on explaining Woodrow Wilson's swift rise from professor to president of Princeton to governor of New Jersey to U.S. president. His writing on Debs and his involvement with the American labor movement was especially concise and lacking in depth. But because 1912 was written merely to provide snapshot of all four candidates--Taft, Roosevelt, Wilson, and Debs--Chace could not go into the level of detail he probably would have liked to on each of their upbringings and rises to power.
Chace uses the last portion of the book to look at Wilson's presidency, a decision which created for reading that seemed slightly incongruous with the rest of the book. It would have been a stronger whole had he just made a few mentions about the the consequences of Wilson's victory and the long term outcome of the reformist policies championed to one degree or another by the four 1912 candidates.
This book gives great background on one of the most wacky and compelling elections in U.S. history. A wonderful read, though one lacking too much in depth toward any one person or single idea, that will be enjoyed by those who cannot get enough knowledge about exciting eras in the past.
-Andrew Canfield Denver, Colorado
December 28, 2021
The presidential election of 1912 was unique in American history, with four popular and viable candidates for office. The candidates were former president Theodore Roosevelt; sitting president William Taft; eventual winner and future president, Woodrow Wilson; and Eugene Debs, who earned the highest percentage of the electorate of any Socialist Party candidate.
When the election was over Wilson took the presidency. He became the only Democrat to serve as president between 1892 and 1932.
The Republicans, after owning the presidency for the past twenty years, were divided. Roosevelt, known to all as TR, had made his mark as president with a progressive agenda. He was disappointed that his hand-picked successor Taft had let the conservative Republican Congress run things. Roosevelt felt he could not in good conscience support Taft for a second term and threw his own hat in the ring.
When Taft outmaneuvered TR for the nomination at the Republican convention Roosevelt struck out on his own and formed the Progressive Party. With TR as it's presidential candidate, it became better known as the Bull Moose party.
Eugene Debs meanwhile, was the perennial candidate for the Socialist Party. But he was also a well respected labor leader and political activist. His candidacy rose in the wave of popularity for the progressive ideas he had long championed. Unfortunately for him, Roosevelt and Wilson took many of his ideas and incorporated them into their own platforms.
In 1912 author James Chace spends as much time on the biographies of the four candidates as he does on the presidential race. Thus, with five story threads to cover in less than 300 pages the book is more atmospheric than it is thorough. He succeeds mostly in giving a good sense of who the four candidates were.
Wilson and Roosevelt play the lead roles in the book. Wilson rose from the presidency of Princeton to the presidency of the United States. Much of his success came when he turned on the political bosses who had supported his run for the governorship of New Jersey. That turn solidified Wilson’s progressive credentials, so important to the 1912 campaign. Still, it took 46 rounds of voting for him to win the nomination at the Democratic convention.
Wilson depended on a “Southern strategy” to get and keep the White House. As a southerner himself he believed in the separation of the races. African Americans saw him as a white supremacist, and he showed them to be right by bringing Jim Crow rules into Federal jobs. He was not particularly fond of immigrants from Eastern Europe either. That issue caused him problems during the 1912 campaign, when he was forced to disown some of his documented statements on immigration.
TR had been unable to see Taft’s presidency as anything other than a poor reflection on him and a threat to his legacy. This blinded him to the potential for working with Taft to put himself back into the Republican nominee role. Instead TR antagonised the President, and forced Taft to run against him for the nomination.
Taft, you see, had never wanted to be president to begin with, being pushed into it by Roosevelt and his ambitious wife. After he lost the presidency in 1912 he finally got his wish to serve as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. He was nominated to the post by President Harding in 1921. Taft is the only person to have ever been President and Chief Justice.
It is Debs who comes off as the most “modern” of the four. It's his progressive agenda that finally flourished under FDR during the Great Depression. Sadly, Debs didn’t live to see it.
The first decades of the twentieth century in America are a fascinating time. So much change was in the air. 1912 works best as a summary of the four men and their presidential race. It doesn’t go far beyond the summary level to put the race into the context of those times. If you are interested in the timeframe, or in presidential politics, it is a good starting point, but for me it’s a Two Star ⭐⭐ read.
When the election was over Wilson took the presidency. He became the only Democrat to serve as president between 1892 and 1932.
The Republicans, after owning the presidency for the past twenty years, were divided. Roosevelt, known to all as TR, had made his mark as president with a progressive agenda. He was disappointed that his hand-picked successor Taft had let the conservative Republican Congress run things. Roosevelt felt he could not in good conscience support Taft for a second term and threw his own hat in the ring.
When Taft outmaneuvered TR for the nomination at the Republican convention Roosevelt struck out on his own and formed the Progressive Party. With TR as it's presidential candidate, it became better known as the Bull Moose party.
Eugene Debs meanwhile, was the perennial candidate for the Socialist Party. But he was also a well respected labor leader and political activist. His candidacy rose in the wave of popularity for the progressive ideas he had long championed. Unfortunately for him, Roosevelt and Wilson took many of his ideas and incorporated them into their own platforms.
In 1912 author James Chace spends as much time on the biographies of the four candidates as he does on the presidential race. Thus, with five story threads to cover in less than 300 pages the book is more atmospheric than it is thorough. He succeeds mostly in giving a good sense of who the four candidates were.
Wilson and Roosevelt play the lead roles in the book. Wilson rose from the presidency of Princeton to the presidency of the United States. Much of his success came when he turned on the political bosses who had supported his run for the governorship of New Jersey. That turn solidified Wilson’s progressive credentials, so important to the 1912 campaign. Still, it took 46 rounds of voting for him to win the nomination at the Democratic convention.
Wilson depended on a “Southern strategy” to get and keep the White House. As a southerner himself he believed in the separation of the races. African Americans saw him as a white supremacist, and he showed them to be right by bringing Jim Crow rules into Federal jobs. He was not particularly fond of immigrants from Eastern Europe either. That issue caused him problems during the 1912 campaign, when he was forced to disown some of his documented statements on immigration.
TR had been unable to see Taft’s presidency as anything other than a poor reflection on him and a threat to his legacy. This blinded him to the potential for working with Taft to put himself back into the Republican nominee role. Instead TR antagonised the President, and forced Taft to run against him for the nomination.
Taft, you see, had never wanted to be president to begin with, being pushed into it by Roosevelt and his ambitious wife. After he lost the presidency in 1912 he finally got his wish to serve as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. He was nominated to the post by President Harding in 1921. Taft is the only person to have ever been President and Chief Justice.
It is Debs who comes off as the most “modern” of the four. It's his progressive agenda that finally flourished under FDR during the Great Depression. Sadly, Debs didn’t live to see it.
The first decades of the twentieth century in America are a fascinating time. So much change was in the air. 1912 works best as a summary of the four men and their presidential race. It doesn’t go far beyond the summary level to put the race into the context of those times. If you are interested in the timeframe, or in presidential politics, it is a good starting point, but for me it’s a Two Star ⭐⭐ read.
April 12, 2024
The 1912 Presidential Election is one of the most fascinating elections in history. Three Presidents running against each other, an almost fatal assassination attempt on a major candidate, long friendships broken, and legitimate differences between the candidates
The author, James Chace, details the campaign along with giving background on the candidates including Eugene Debs. It shed light, if not definitive answers, on many questions.
How much of Theodore Roosevelt's candidacy was due to policy disagreements as opposed to personal pique that Taft didn't defer to his ego enough?
Was Taft actually the most progressive candidate on Civil Rights?
Which won over the long haul, Roosevelt's vision of focusing on a big government controlling the ostensibly consolidation of big businesses or Wilson's vision of anti-trust efforts to keep corporations from getting too big. Or are we still in the middle?
It was also fascinating to see cameo appearances from people such as the reformer Jane Adams(who backed Roosevelt despite her concern about his race baiting) Louis Brandeis before he was on the Supreme Court (whose anti-trust platform was adopted by Wilson whom he endorsed, and which he kept when he was on Supreme Court when he sided with the Court's conservatives in striking down programs such as NRA, which led to a more radical Second New Deal) Clarence Darrow whose defense of Bill Hayward pitted him against William Borah who was doing the ethically questionable bidding of the mining bosses despite his reputation as a Progressive Republican, and Nicholas Longsworth, Speaker of the House who supported Taft over his father in law, Roosevelt.
A great book about a fascinating campaign
The author, James Chace, details the campaign along with giving background on the candidates including Eugene Debs. It shed light, if not definitive answers, on many questions.
How much of Theodore Roosevelt's candidacy was due to policy disagreements as opposed to personal pique that Taft didn't defer to his ego enough?
Was Taft actually the most progressive candidate on Civil Rights?
Which won over the long haul, Roosevelt's vision of focusing on a big government controlling the ostensibly consolidation of big businesses or Wilson's vision of anti-trust efforts to keep corporations from getting too big. Or are we still in the middle?
It was also fascinating to see cameo appearances from people such as the reformer Jane Adams(who backed Roosevelt despite her concern about his race baiting) Louis Brandeis before he was on the Supreme Court (whose anti-trust platform was adopted by Wilson whom he endorsed, and which he kept when he was on Supreme Court when he sided with the Court's conservatives in striking down programs such as NRA, which led to a more radical Second New Deal) Clarence Darrow whose defense of Bill Hayward pitted him against William Borah who was doing the ethically questionable bidding of the mining bosses despite his reputation as a Progressive Republican, and Nicholas Longsworth, Speaker of the House who supported Taft over his father in law, Roosevelt.
A great book about a fascinating campaign
September 12, 2019
This book combines short biographies of the major 1912 contenders with the story of the 1912 election. Chace's discussion of Wilson is more interesting than his discussion of the others; Wilson comes across as reptilian in his willingness to stab old allies in the back, and yet self-destructively self-righteous in refusing to compromise. Debs comes across as simply saintly, Taft as kindly and a bit dull, and Roosevelt as a force of nature. Some of the questions I hoped the book would answer are:
1. Why did Roosevelt break from Taft? This book cites a variety of factors, including Taft's willingness to support higher tariffs, his wishy-washy attitude towards Roosevelt's conservationist legacy, and his administration's filing of an antitrust lawsuit that accused U.S.Steel of misleading Roosevelt.
2. Why did Taft split the Republican Party in half by fighting Roosevelt rather than standing aside for him? Here, the book is not so clear. However, Taft did not campaign very much in the fall, and apparently believed that he could not win the general election
3. Why did Wilson beat Roosevelt? Here, the book is again not very clear- perhaps because the question is unanswerable. Chace sometimes suggests that Roosevelt was a bit too progressive for the time, while Wilson's wishy-washy rhetoric enabled him to unite progressives and conservatives.
1. Why did Roosevelt break from Taft? This book cites a variety of factors, including Taft's willingness to support higher tariffs, his wishy-washy attitude towards Roosevelt's conservationist legacy, and his administration's filing of an antitrust lawsuit that accused U.S.Steel of misleading Roosevelt.
2. Why did Taft split the Republican Party in half by fighting Roosevelt rather than standing aside for him? Here, the book is not so clear. However, Taft did not campaign very much in the fall, and apparently believed that he could not win the general election
3. Why did Wilson beat Roosevelt? Here, the book is again not very clear- perhaps because the question is unanswerable. Chace sometimes suggests that Roosevelt was a bit too progressive for the time, while Wilson's wishy-washy rhetoric enabled him to unite progressives and conservatives.
June 1, 2022
The dramatic 1912 election and the tumultuous period preceding and following it - as well as the personalities and politics of the four candidates for President - are all fascinating topics for an informative and insightful history.
This book, alas, is not that.
In order to cover all four candidates, the author unsurprisingly just summarizes other biographers’ work, with very few primary sources or new facts. And regarding the election campaign itself, I did not sense the excitement one would expect of such an historic showdown of three Presidents (T Roosevelt, Taft and Wilson) plus the fiery socialist Eugene Debs.
Further, despite the title, there is no particularly interesting analysis of WHY this particular election changed the country. (Any more so than any other election has.) His argument that Wilson’s and Theodore Roosevelt’s campaigns embodied the Jefferson-Hamilton divide of an earlier era was unconvincing and unremarkable.
This book, alas, is not that.
In order to cover all four candidates, the author unsurprisingly just summarizes other biographers’ work, with very few primary sources or new facts. And regarding the election campaign itself, I did not sense the excitement one would expect of such an historic showdown of three Presidents (T Roosevelt, Taft and Wilson) plus the fiery socialist Eugene Debs.
Further, despite the title, there is no particularly interesting analysis of WHY this particular election changed the country. (Any more so than any other election has.) His argument that Wilson’s and Theodore Roosevelt’s campaigns embodied the Jefferson-Hamilton divide of an earlier era was unconvincing and unremarkable.
November 24, 2018
What an election year! It was interesting to read about how radicalized the American people were in that era- the socialist candidate got the highest percentage of the vote before or since, and Theodore Roosevelt's Bull Moose party and the Democrats were running on progressive platforms. And, never before have I felt so sorry for an ex-president as I did for Taft after reading this book. He never wanted to be president, but Teddy Roosevelt and especially Taft's wife talked him into it. This book was more than readable and obviously well researched, and the content was really just incredibly interesting.
September 25, 2020
A great and entertainingly written overview of the 1912 election. Chace follows each of the candidates through their journey that year. This book is well-researched and illuminating. Chace displays the nuances of each candidate--the fact that Wilson oscillated between Jeffersonian and reformer, the way Teddy Roosevelt shifted leftward going into 1912, Taft's commitment to a reformist conservatism, and Debs' deep patriotism. Indeed, the 1912 election presented 4 different visions of what American could become. I always wonder what this country would have been like had Teddy Roosevelt won in 1912.
September 1, 2023
Overall this was a good book about one of the most interesting presidential elections in U.S. history however the pace and flow of the story felt off. Wish there was more about Taft and Roosevelt’s relationship. I did learn w good deal about Woodrow Wilson, who I knew little about previously. Will want to read more about this time period.
May 29, 2018
Easy-to-read account of 1912 election between Taft, Wilson, Debs, Teddy Roosevelt...parallels to 2016, with Trump as New Nationalist like TR, Hillary as Wilson, Bernie as Debs, Bush as Taft...now we can see what happens when history moves in a different direction....
February 26, 2021
Found it a little difficult to get into, but once I got to the meat of the book it was quite interesting. Election of 1912. 4 perspectives, but similarities in their views. Interesting times in American history.
May 26, 2025
Soooooo much better than that dreadful Wilson that I finished earlier this year. But being such a low bar, this book was still at most 3 stars.
December 6, 2025
Teddy Roosevelt(Bull Moose); Woodrow Wilson (Democrat); William Taft (Republican); EUGENE Debs (Socialist)
I forgot my history regarding how intense politics became not only US. But the whole world prior to WW1 and followed shortly by WW2. Not an easy read but very important.
I forgot my history regarding how intense politics became not only US. But the whole world prior to WW1 and followed shortly by WW2. Not an easy read but very important.
January 11, 2018
Some overview facts, not particularly put together well and not always consistent but adequate.
March 9, 2018
Plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose.
December 28, 2019
NICE TITLE BUT MOOSE TICKET. THAT WAS WAY BACK THEN. 1912
September 15, 2020
This author's writing is so convoluted, taking so many divergent paths from his topic that I am forced to give it up before reaching the second chapter.
January 3, 2022
Fascinating, informative, and engaging. There were a couple of strangely worded sentences, and a typo here and there, but it wasn't enough to detract from the book overall.
July 21, 2022
A fine history that could have used more organizational heft to better elucidate not only the narrative but the impact of that characters on our political course.
April 7, 2023
A lifeless, 30,000-foot survey of the 1912 election. It does provoke a nostalgia for a time when there were two rational factions of the Republican Party instead of one irrational one.
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