Book Description
This volume tells the story of the Progressive Party from 1912 to 1916. It was a political party created by a split in the Republican Party in the presidential election of 1912. It was formed by Theodore Roosevelt when he lost the Republican nomination to William Howard Taft and pulled his delegates out of the convention. The party is colloquially also known as the Bull Moose Party, after the party's emblem and after Roosevelt's boast that he was "as strong as a bull moose". Though the author, Amos Pinchot (1872-1944), was a member of Roosevelt's inner circle during the Bull Moose campaign of 1912, Amos exasperated the former president with his moralistic criticism of the role of big business in the party, including his criticism of the party chairman, George W. Perkins, who was a leading industrialist and sat on the board of U.S. Steel. Pinchot ultimately joined the Democratic Party, defended the rights of workers, and became acquainted with leftist intellectuals.