The Spectacles of 1912
Books
Start with Professor O’Toole’s own:
When Trumpets Call: Theodore Roosevelt After the
White House. New York: Simon & Schuster, c2005.
Other good books on the Progressive Party and the 1912
campaign are:
Broderick, Francis L. Progressivism At Risk: Electing
A President In 1912. New York: Greenwood Press,
1989.
Chace, James. 1912: Wilson, Roosevelt, Taft &
Debs-- The Election That Changed The Country. New
York: Simon & Schuster, c2004.
Flehinger, Brett. The 1912 Election and the Power
of Progressivism: A Brief History with Documents.
Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, c2003.
Gould, Lewis L. Four Hats In The Ring: The 1912
Election And The Birth Of Modern American Politics.
Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, c2008.
Mowry, George Edwin. Theodore Roosevelt And The
Progressive Movement. Madison: The University of
Wisconsin Press, 1947. Sixty years old, but still valuable.
For the influence of the rising use of primary elections:
Ware, Alan. The American Direct Primary: Party
Institutionalization And Transformation In The North.
New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002.
One of the liveliest Progressives was undoubtedly Robert
LaFollette of Wisconsin. These books provide excellent
background:
Unger, Nancy C. Fighting Bob La Follette: The Righteous
Reformer. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina
Press, c2000.
Weisberger, Bernard A. The La Follettes Of Wisconsin:
Love And Politics In Progressive America. Madison:
University of Wisconsin Press, c1994.
Roosevelt’s running mate, Hiram Johnson, was
almost as lively and interesting a figure as Teddy himself:
Johnson, Hiram. The Diary Letters Of Hiram Johnson,
1917-1945. Introd. by Robert E. Burke. New York:
Garland, 1983.
Lower, Richard Coke. A Bloc Of One: The Political
Career Of Hiram W. Johnson. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford
University Press, 1993.
Olin, Spencer C. California's Prodigal Son: Hiram
Johnson And The Progressives, 1911-1917. Berkeley,
University of California Press, 1968.
The Bull Moose Party wasn’t the only force in
the 1912 race. For Taft and the Republicans, take a
look at:
Anderson, Judith Icke. William Howard Taft, An
Intimate History. New York: Norton, c1981.
Burton, David Henry. William Howard Taft: Confident
Peacemaker. New York: Fordham University Press,
c2004.
Wilensky, Norman M. Conservatives In The Progressive
Era: The Taft Republicans Of 1912. Gainesville,
University of Florida Press, 1965.
For a refresher course on Woodrow Wilson and the 1912
race:
Cooper, John Milton. The Warrior And The Priest:
Woodrow Wilson And Theodore Roosevelt. Cambridge,
Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1983.
Remember that Eugene Debs, candidate of the Socialist
Party, garnered almost a million popular votes in 1912:
Ginger, Ray. The Bending Cross: A Biography Of
Eugene Victor Debs. New Brunswick, Rutgers University
Press, 1949. This is old, but very readable.
Morgan, H. Wayne (1962). Eugene V. Debs: Socialist
for President. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press,
1962.
Salvatore, Nick. Eugene V. Debs: Citizen And Socialist.
Urbana: University of Illinois Press, c2007. The most
recent Debs biography, but a bit scholarly for some
tastes.
The role of African Americans in the Progressive movement
and the 1912 Bull Moose campaign is fascinating and
tragic. This book gives a good overview:
Southern, David W. The Progressive Era And Race:
Reaction And Reform, 1900-1917. Wheeling, Ill.:
Harlan Davidson, c2005.
This study delineates the reimposition of segregation
in Washington under Wilson:
Patler, Nicholas. Jim Crow And The Wilson Administration:
Protesting Federal Segregation In The Early Twentieth
Century. Boulder: University Press of Colorado,
c2004.
Internet:
The Time/CNN website on Roosevelt, has a good “War
of 1912” segment:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1207791-1,00.html
Wikipedia’s entry is solid:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_1912
Ourcampaigns. com has a nice segment on the role of
primary elections in 1912:
http://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=55164
National Archives “Teaching with Documents”
has a lesson plan on the political cartoons produced
by the 1912 race:
http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/election-cartoons/
Harpweek’s “Explore History” section
has terrific materials on “Presidential Elections,
1860-1912”. For each election, you’ll find
a good analytical “Overview,” cartoons,
biographies of candidates, and “Events”
chronology. The sections on 1900 and 1904, of course,
give valuable materials on Roosevelt’s race as
Vice President and his first race for the Presidency.
The 1912 election inspired some great material. Don’t
miss this one:
http://elections.harpweek.com/
Another good site on the election comes from Ohio State
University:
http://ehistory.osu.edu/osu/mmh/1912/
Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of
Virginia has the "American President: An Online
Reference Resource" website that provides good
basic information, recommendations for further reading,
for Roosevelt, Taft, and Wilson:
http://millercenter.org/academic/americanpresident
The PBS American Experience episode on Woodrow Wilson
is rich in resources. Here’s a good interactive
game on the 1912 race website updated in 2001:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/wilson/sfeature/sf_election.html
as well as a lesson plan on the election:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/wilson/tguide/t_lesson_03.html
and on Wilson and African Americans:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/wilson/tguide/t_lesson_02.html
And “Further Reading” good articles and
links to Internet sources for Wilson:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/wilson/filmmore/fr.html
American Memory gives sound recordings and transcriptions
of T.R. speeches in 1912 Bull Moose campaign:
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/troosevelt_film/trfsnd.html
The Wisconsin Historical Society website has a very
helpful page on LaFollette – biographical sketch,
links to documents and other primary sources, links
to other websites and recommendations for books and
articles. Not a real surprise that this Historical Society
would do such a good job, but I always enjoy seeing
work of this quality on the web:
http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/turningpoints/tp-035/
Less expectedly, the Historical Society also gives
us a very nice piece on Roosevelt’s brush with
death in Milwaukee October 14, 1912:
http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/museum/artifacts/archives/001692.asp
Library of Congress Virtual Programs and Services “Web
Guides” are a great innovation. You’ll find
a guide to materials in LC collections and in other
Web-based publications. Bookmark this one as a “Favorite”
and keep checking back to see future additions:
http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/bibguide.html
The “Presidents” section, at present, gives
materials only for Wilson, but stay tuned as they update
the service and add materials for Roosevelt and Taft:
http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/presidents/index.html
The Eugene Debs Foundation has done a great job on
their website:
http://www.eugenevdebs.com/
I especially recommend the website for the Indiana
State University (Terre Haute) Library’s Debs
Collection which I discovered thanks to the Debs Foundation
links– most of the listings are for catalogs of
their holdings, but scroll down to photos and videos:
http://library.indstate.edu/about/units/rbsc/debs/debs-idx.html