"Americans have not been energized"

The other reason why this election changed the country was the split in the Republican Party. Of course, there had always been people who were more liberal or more conservative in the Republican Party, as there are in all parties. The difference in 1912 was that the split between Taft and Roosevelt polarized the party very, very deeply. And that split has never really been healed. With the coming of Ronald Reagan to the White House, and now of course with George W. Bush, it seems that the conservative wing is now in control of the party.

As for the inheritor of the policies of Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, it was, of course, Franklin D. Roosevelt. The New Deal in 1933 picked up the programs that Theodore Roosevelt espoused -- the use of strong executive power to curb corporate excesses and promote social justice. Theodore Roosevelt used to say he wanted to use "Hamiltonian means to achieve Jeffersonian ends." What he meant was that Alexander Hamilton believed in strong use of executive power, and that it should be used to make a stronger democracy throughout the country. That was certainly what Franklin Roosevelt felt. And Franklin Roosevelt had served with Wilson as his assistant secretary of the Navy and had married the niece of Theodore Roosevelt, so he had learned from both men. Wilson, however, was a kind of warning to him because Wilson had been unable to get the League of Nations approved, largely because he had refused to compromise with some of the reservations that the Senate wanted to put on the Treaty of Versailles, which were not all that serious. There was a deep stubborn streak in Wilson, which was finally very self-defeating.

Any last thoughts you have about this election and its import for those of us in this election year who turn to "1912" in hope that there is a lesson for us?

I think the most important lesson is the need for reform. The masses of Americans today have not been energized toward the kind of reformers that they had in 1912. You need dynamic candidates to articulate the issues, to stir up the people -- just as these men at the beginning of the 20th century were trying to deal with the inequities of industrial capitalism and, in Roosevelt's case, to regulate the thing. In Wilson's case he wanted to break the trusts so there would be more competition. We now are facing monopolies and a need for universal healthcare and better education -- progressive policies -- a century later. Masses of people were mobilized and energized in 1912 to create an America committed to social justice and economic opportunity for everybody.

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