Rating: 
Summary: A quartet of strong candidates strive for the Presidency.
Review: James Chace is a professor who is adept at writing a book in clear, succint and understandable prose. In this new tome he
examines the exciting 1912 Presidental race. The candidates:
1. William Howard Taft the heir apparent to the Republican
Presidential crown worn with aplomb by the genius T.R. Taft
was conservative and pro-big business. He loved TR and was
hurt when the Rough Rider left the Republican Party to initiate his own Progressive (Bull Moose Party). Taft loved the law and later was appointed to the US Supreme Court. He was kind, affable, henpecked and was a mediocre president and poor campaigner. He came in third in the general election.
2. Woodrow Wilson-The son of the Presbyterian manse, former
President of Princteton and an idealistic reformer he won the
race and went on to serve two terms. Wilson was a racist and
was not popular among the immigrant voters. He comes across as
shallow in thought and stubborn in his refusal to work with Republicans in getting the League of Nations entry for the US
approved following World War I. The prissy Wilson did manage to
work for reforms in business and government. He was the arch foe of T.R. His mantra was a New Freedom for America,
3. Theodore Roosevlet-one of our greatest presidents he decided to run for a third term after becoming disgusted with the rightward drift of the GOP. He preached a gospel of regulating the trusts, fiscal reform and a new nationalism. TR believed in a strong military and civil rights. His feud with Taft led to a splintering of the Republican party opening the door for Democrat Wilson to walk into the White House. TR died in 1919
embittered by the loss of his son Quentin in World War One . If
he had lived he would probably had been touted to head the GOP
ticket in 1920.
4. Eugene Debs-a giant of American labor agitation he fought hard for the rights of the poor and union members. Debs was
a controversial figure who was jailed in World War I for sedition only to be pardoned by Warren G. Harding in 1921.
Debs was a complex figure but an appealing one.
In today's political arena one wishes presidential timber grew as tall as it did in 1912.
Chace's tall is a general account of the election. It is a
good book and an indispensible one for someone who knows nothing about the 1912 presidential contes. As such it will appeal more to the general reader than the seasoned scholar of the era.
I read the book in two days enjoying it and learning from it.
Rating:
Summary: This book does not focus on the election - more the people
Review: "1912: Wilson, Roosevelt, Taft & Debs - the election that changed the country". That is the title given to this book, but the title certainly is not reflective of the substance of the work.The book does center around the political contest known as the Presidential Election of 1912, but it veers off on many tangents that are unrelated to the contest. It is true that there were four major candidates for President that year, and all of them had a story to tell, but this book does not cover that story as well as it should. The book spends entirely too much time discussing the history of the candidates for President - in fact almost 1/2 of the book is devoted to biographical sketches of these four men. The most exciting (and relevant) section of the book details the Democratic National Convention in Baltimore in 1912 -Chace does a great job of relaying the exuberance felt by the attendees of the convention, and gets the reader very excited about this important moment in American Political History when Woodrow Wilson, soon to be elected the 28th President of the United States, was selected as the standard bearer for the Democratic Party. To a much lesser scale, and not quite as well, Chace describes the Republican, Progressive, and Socialist conventions which led to the nomination of William H. Taft, Theodore Roosevelt, and Eugene V. Debs respectively. The election gets almost no attention at all in this book, but the Wilson administration does get a significant amount of attention, as does the legacy of Wilson and the impact of both Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt on a future President's administration - that of Franklin D. Roosevelt. All told, I cannot recommend this book to anyone that is looking for a comprehensive story of the 1912 Presidential Election. However, if one is looking for brief (very brief) biographical sketches of the candidates, this is a great book, with some very exciting highlights of an important political campaign thrown in.
Rating: 
Summary: The Rebirth of Presidential Power
Review: "1912: Wilson, Roosevelt, Taft & Debs - the election that changed the country". That is the title given to this book, but the title certainly is not reflective of the substance of the work. The book does center around the political contest known as the Presidential Election of 1912, but it veers off on many tangents that are unrelated to the contest. It is true that there were four major candidates for President that year, and all of them had a story to tell, but this book does not cover that story as well as it should. The book spends entirely too much time discussing the history of the candidates for President - in fact almost 1/2 of the book is devoted to biographical sketches of these four men. The most exciting (and relevant) section of the book details the Democratic National Convention in Baltimore in 1912 -Chace does a great job of relaying the exuberance felt by the attendees of the convention, and gets the reader very excited about this important moment in American Political History when Woodrow Wilson, soon to be elected the 28th President of the United States, was selected as the standard bearer for the Democratic Party. To a much lesser scale, and not quite as well, Chace describes the Republican, Progressive, and Socialist conventions which led to the nomination of William H. Taft, Theodore Roosevelt, and Eugene V. Debs respectively. The election gets almost no attention at all in this book, but the Wilson administration does get a significant amount of attention, as does the legacy of Wilson and the impact of both Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt on a future President's administration - that of Franklin D. Roosevelt. All told, I cannot recommend this book to anyone that is looking for a comprehensive story of the 1912 Presidential Election. However, if one is looking for brief (very brief) biographical sketches of the candidates, this is a great book, with some very exciting highlights of an important political campaign thrown in.
Rating: 
Summary: The Rise of Wilson and the Fall of Roosevelt.
Review: Chace does a good job of detailing why the election of 1912 was so important to the United States. He describes the four participants in the election of 1912: Wilson, Taft, Roosevelt, and Debs. Bryan was also a factor in the Democratic nomination of Wilson. The main focus of this book is how these leaders would affect change in America. Taft was the conservative and Debs was the radical. Roosevelt and Wilson were the candidates for the Progressive faction of the country. Chace describes each candidate and all his positives and negatives. I didn't know Wilson was such a reactionary on race and immigrant relations, while Roosevelt was generally very liberal on these issues. All in all a good book about the campaign and why the Republican Party veered to the right.
For those interested in the politics of America, this is a good read. The reader would be surprised to find that the red and blue states have actually changed over the years. In the past, the South was reactionary and the West was Progressive while the East and Midwest favored the conservative (Republican) issues. Not so today. Hats off to Chace for writing a good read.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting Thesis but Little Proof
Review: In 1912 four of the giants of American politics faced each other in one of the most interesting presidential elections in the history of the United States. James Chace has chosen this election as the topic of his latest book and he weaves his story in a most pleasing way. Anyone who enjoys a good story will enjoy this book and it doesn't matter if the reader knows anything about this election and the players involved or not for the author has laid out all of the main details in a very clear way. Unfortunately, due to complexity of the story and the limited length of this study there is very little depth or new information to be found here.
Chace does an excellent job of introducing his readers to the players and to the basics of the story, but that is about as far as it goes. A volume twice this length could easily be produced that studies only the campaign for the Democratic or Republican nomination so these events as well as many others do not get the attention that they deserve. Even more distressing is that Chace never even gets close to making a sound argument that this election was "The Election that Changed America." His argument seems to be that had the Republicans nominated Roosevelt they would today be the party of progressivism instead of conservatism. Chace completely ignores the fact that the real shift had occurred sixteen years before this when the Democrats had stepped to the left by nominating William Jennings Bryan in 1896. The author makes no allusion to the fact that since 1896 many conservative eastern Democrats had migrated to the GOP and their presence had driven the Republicans even further right making Roosevelt's nomination in 1912 almost impossible.
The author does argue that Roosevelt and Wilson fundamentally changed the Presidency, pushing the office along the road to today's imperial Presidency. On this point Chace seems to be correct but Roosevelt had already been in office and only Wilson's part in this theory is dependent on this election. The rest of Chace's theory is just not presented in a very convincing way.
If convincing people that the election of 1912 did indeed change America is the author's goal he has failed and he would have been far better off if he had left the subtitle out. On the other hand he has told the story of this election in a very nice way. This book is a good place for anyone interested in the politics of America in the early twentieth century to begin their exploration of the subject. There are also some very interesting chapters dealing with Eugene Debs and his Socialists but most of the material on the other candidates has been done to death. In short, I enjoyed this book but found very little new information or critical analysis. It is well written but not the definitive work on the subject by any means.
Rating:
Summary: Appealing book, lackluster writing
Review: James Chace's new book, "1912" recounts one of the more curious elections in our nation's history...one that saw four men vie for the electorate's vote. Although not much new is offered it is a political trip down memory lane as Chace delves into the personalities and issues of the campaign. For those of us who have been students of presidential elections we often look at the election of 1912 as a race between three men, not four. As Eugene Victor Debs had a much lower popular vote total than the other three and won no electoral votes he is often relegated to the sidelines in this election. Chace is at his best not only by including Debs in the mix but by his descriptions of Debs and how the Socialist candidate managed to run a respectable campaign against a former president, a current president and a president to be. Unfortunately, the author's writing, though straightforward and historically accurate, is often wooden. The more exciting aspects of the year (notably the nominations) never really come to life. The book also suffers from over-hype... while it was a fascinating election year, to say that the outcome sent the Republicans into "a conservative ascendancy that reached its fullness with Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush" (from the back flap of the dust cover) is a bit of a stretch. 1912 was an important election year but not a turning point as seems to be suggested. Chace rightly focuses on the two main players, Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, and leaves William Howard Taft somewhere in the dust. (which is fairly close to how the electoral vote turned out, at least for Taft) "1912" is a solid book but one that could have been spiced up a little with better writing.
Rating:
Summary: Educational but not Enlightening
Review: Professor Chace's book is a marvelous general account of one may be one of the overlooked elections in US history, but does not live up to its title.
He brings to life the oratorical power of Eugene Debs, the prickly personality of Woodrow Wilson, the messianic personality of Teddy Roosevelt, and the shy defiance of WH Taft. Professor Chace gives us the psychological underpinnings of the Senate defeat of the League of nations, discusses the likelihood of TR's nomination in 1920, and offers a lively account of the election itself from nomination to general canvas.
However, his assertion that this election changed the country does not seem to hold. At best, this election simply revealed the ideological fault lines that were inherent in the GOP-the democratic party fault lines had been on display since 1896 when Bryan campaigned on free silver and the Gold Bugs left the party.
Entertaining, educational, but not enlightening.
Rating:
Summary: Good Coverage of a Great Subject
Review: This book is absolutely worth your time to read if you have an interest in the Progressive Era and the very important election of 1912. If you have a good working knowledge of the characters involved then you won't find anything new here. "1912" serves more as either an introduction to the subject or a refresher. If you have the time and the interest I would suggest a biography of each of the four main players and possibly one on William Jennings Bryan who was an extremely important player of the era who gets beat up some in this book.
Rating:
Summary: Good Coverage of a Great Subject
Review: This book is absolutely worth your time to read if you have an interest in the Progressive Era and the very important election of 1912. If you have a good working knowledge of the characters involved then you won't find anything new here. "1912" serves more as either an introduction to the subject or a refresher. If you have the time and the interest I would suggest a biography of each of the four main players and possibly one on William Jennings Bryan who was an extremely important player of the era who gets beat up some in this book.
Rating:
Summary: A Turning Point
Review: This history of the 1912 Presidential Election details the events of one of the most dramatic years in US history. In 1912 the US had been through approximately a dozen years of reform and regulation known by historians as the Progressive Era. The Republican Party, led by Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft, had been the chief agent of Progressive legislation during two Administrations. Now in 1912 the GOP turned on itself, with the widely perceived as more conservative Taft, the incumbent President, in battle with his former friend Theodore Roosevelt, who had become steadily more radical in his thinking. The result was a revolt at the Republican Convention and the splintering off of the Progressive or Bull Moose Party.
The Democrats had been traditionally slower to embrace Progressive reforms, but in 1912 their standardbearer Woodrow Wilson, originally nominated as a conservative, led them to acceptance of a reforming agenda. Finally, Eugene Debs and his Socialist Party had been calling for even more far reaching reforms.
The election ended with an Electoral College landslide for Wilson and the Democrats. The Socialists and the Progressives did quite well in the popular vote, and the more conservative Republicans were all but annihilated. The realignment which began in 1912 led to the Democrats becoming the chief party of reform in the twentieth century, with the Republicans locked in battle between their conservative and moderate wings. Much of the next century's political history was set on course in 1912.
This is a well written account of the election which does not go deeply into theory or ideology. It is a personal account, with many entertaining anecdotes and biographies of the candidates and their families and supporters. I recommend it for arm chair politicians and historians.
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