e stand at Armageddon, and we battle for the Lord,” proclaimed the candidate as he accepted the party’s nomination for president. “Our cause is based on the eternal principle of righteousness; and even though we who now lead may for the time fail, in the end the cause itself shall triumph.” Theodore Roosevelt was partly correct. While it was not quite the end of the world, the election of 1912 signaled a tectonic shift in U.S. politics, toward the new gospel of liberalism.
James Chace’s book provides a compelling account of this unique episode, focusing on four extraordinary figures and the causes that divided them, arguing that the election was one of the most important in U.S. history. Indeed, it was.
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