1912; Wilson, Roosevelt, Taft & Debs--the Election That Changed the Country

New York: Simon & Schuster, 2004. First Edition, First Printing. Hardcover. x, 323, [3] pages illus., notes, bibliographical note, index. Pencil erasure residue noted at a couple of places. Minor page discoloration noted. In 1912, four formidable personalities clashed in their quest for the Presidency--Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, Woodrow Wilson, and Eugene Debs. In the course of this election, the Republican Party split, and Woodrow was elected by less than a majority of the popular vote. James Clarke Chace (October 16, 1931 – October 8, 2004) was an eminent historian, writing on American diplomacy and statecraft. His writings, known for elegant and even literary prose, often influenced American thought in policymaking — his coining of the phrase "the indispensable nation" with Sidney Blumenthal to describe America was widely used when Secretary of State Madeleine Albright began including it in her speeches. Chace graduated from Harvard University with a degree in Classics. He went to France in 1954 to conduct graduate-study research on painter Eugène Delacroix and writer Charles Baudelaire, but soon found his interest drawn to the current intellectual arena of literature and politics, which led to an intense interest in French political writers including Albert Camus and Jean-Paul Sartre. He returned to France later the same year as a soldier and in 1955 and 1956 worked as an Army translator, which involved the translation of French newspapers for the Central Intelligence Agency. After his return to the United States his interest in foreign policy grew as he served as managing editor for East Europe, a political review of Soviet bloc affairs, from 1959 to 1969, during which time he wrote his book Conflict in the Middle East about the Six-Day War. In 1990, he was appointed Professor of Government at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, in upstate New York. He later helped found and chair Bard's international affairs program, the Bard Globalization and International Affairs Program (BGIA), in New York City. Chace's work focused on American statesmanship, the interplay of American interests with American values, and the use of American power. He believed that any statesman effectively leading a nation will understand that resources are limited — including blood and political will — and that in protecting the interests of the nation those resources cannot be overtaxed.

Eugene Victor "Gene" Debs (November 5, 1855 – October 20, 1926) was an American union leader, one of the founding members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW or the Wobblies), and five times the candidate of the Socialist Party of America for President of the United States. Through his presidential candidacies, as well as his work with labor movements, Debs eventually became one of the best-known socialists living in the United States. Early in his political career, Debs was a member of the Democratic Party. He was elected as a Democrat to the Indiana General Assembly in 1884. After working with several smaller unions, including the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen, Debs was instrumental in the founding of the American Railway Union (ARU), one of the nation's first industrial unions. After workers at the Pullman Palace Car Company organized a wildcat strike over pay cuts in the summer of 1894, Debs recruited many into the ARU. He called a boycott of the ARU against handling trains with Pullman cars, in what became the nationwide Pullman Strike, affecting most lines west of Detroit, and more than 250,000 workers in 27 states. To keep the mail running, President Grover Cleveland used the United States Army to break the strike. As a leader of the ARU, Debs was convicted of federal charges for defying a court injunction against the strike and served six months in prison. Debs ran as a Socialist candidate for President of the United States five times, including 1900 (earning 0.63% of the popular vote), 1904 (2.98%), 1908 (2.83%), 1912 (5.99%), and 1920 (3.41%), the last time from a prison cell. Debs was noted for his oratory, and his speech denouncing American participation in World War I led to his second arrest in 1918. He was convicted under the Sedition Act of 1918 and sentenced to a term of 10 years. President Warren G. Harding commuted his sentence in December 1921.
Condition: very good / very good.

Keywords: U.S. Presidents, 1912 Election, Woodrow Wilson, Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, Eugene V. Debbs, Bull Moose Party, Socialist Party, Progressives

ISBN: 0743203941

[Book #72313]

Price: $45.00

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