The Approaching Storm - Roosevelt, Wilson, Addams, and Their Clash Over America's Future

The true story of how the three most influential American progressives of the early 20th century-Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and Jane Addams-split over America's response to World War I.

In the early years of the 20th century, the most famous Americans on the national stage were Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and Jane Addams: two presidents and a social reformer. Each took a different path to prominence: Roosevelt the Rough Rider and conservationist; Wilson the president of Princeton University and New Jersey governor; Addams the founder of Hull-House and advocate for women's suffrage. Yet all held progressive views on how to guide the United States forward. The three were, if not always friends, then at least allies in the belief that the United States must take better care of its citizens. Which they did: As president, Roosevelt championed his Square Deal, breaking corporate trusts, regulating railroads, and purifying food and drugs. Wilson oversaw the passage of his New Freedom domestic policies that created the Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Reserve. Addams worked to improve the lives of mothers and children, local public health, and lobbied for world peace.

Yet in the increasingly contentious years that led to World War I, the views of these three titans splintered in how to deal with the conflict. Roosevelt, the radical Republican, believed passionately that the United States must play a part in the Great War. Wilson, the Southern-born Democrat, clung staunchly to the concept of American neutrality until he had no other choice but to send American troops to fight in Europe. And Addams, a lifelong pacifist, never wavered from her conviction that the United States must stay out of all conflicts and that war was ultimately a waste of human life and solved nothing.

The Approaching Storm by Neil Lanctot is the true story of three extraordinary leaders and how they agreed, quarreled, and ultimately split apart as they debated the role that the United States should play in the world. By turns a color triptych of three American icons who changed history and an engrossing exploration of the clash between progressivism and the roots of World War I, this is a surprising and important story of how and why the United States emerged onto the world stage for the first time.

Story Locale: Early 20th century Washington, D.C., New York and Europe

About the author

Neil Lanctot

Summary

Winner of the 2022 award for biography from the American Society of Journalists and Authors

The fascinating story of how the three most influential American progressives of the early twentieth century split over America’s response to World War I.

In the early years of the twentieth century, the most famous Americans on the national stage were Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and Jane Addams: two presidents and a social worker. Each took a different path to prominence, yet the three progressives believed the United States must assume a more dynamic role in confronting the growing domestic and international problems of an exciting new age.

Following the outset of World War I in 1914, the views of these three titans splintered as they could not agree on how America should respond to what soon proved to be an unprecedented global catastrophe. The Approaching Storm is the story of three extraordinary leaders and how they debated, quarreled, and split over the role the United States should play in the world.
 
By turns a colorful triptych of three American icons who changed history and the engrossing story of the roots of World War I, The Approaching Storm is a surprising and important story of how and why the United States emerged onto the world stage.

Additional text

Praise for The Approaching Storm:

“Thought-provoking…Lanctot offers a well-written presentation … which general readers might compare to Justus Doenecke’s Nothing Less Than War and G. J. Meyer’s The World Remade.” —Library Journal

“Lanctot shifts smoothly among these pivotal personalities and makes the details of this broadly ranging history accessible to all sorts of readers….Lanctot’s focus on the roles of the titanic figures contributes a unique and valuable view of America’s place in the Great War’s genesis.” —Booklist, STARRED REVIEW

“Lively and enthralling…The real strength of The Approaching Storm is not its colorful and well-drawn supporting cast but the three pivotal figures at its center, who provide a remarkably revealing lens for viewing the unrelenting internecine conflicts that roiled the American home front during World War I and well into the years beyond.” —New York Journal of Books
 
“The Approaching Storm brings the reader on a journey whose destination is preordained. However, the people and circumstances that guide the way form the crux of a brilliantly told history. The heart of the book consists of the three robust personalities caught in the middle of a rapidly escalating situation. Author Neil Lanctot relates the past with elegance and flair.” —Seattle Book Review

“Accessible and engaging…The author is at his best when he writes about Addams, whose pacifism seems a logical extension of her commitment to social justice and her faith in the meliorative power of expertise. His portraits of Roosevelt and Wilson are less analytically rich, but they’re still incisive.…Lanctot’s boldest and most provocative intervention may be his decision to reframe the wartime intervention debate as a three-cornered contest.…[his] book reminds us that the seemingly inevitable transformation of the United States into a great military power was not, in fact, inevitable at all.” —Not Even Past podcast

“A meticulously researched examination of the dynamic among three important American newsmakers of the early 20th century.” ⁠—Kirkus Review

“A fresh, character-driven look at the debate over America’s entry into World War I…a rich and rewarding portrait of a crucial turning point in American history.” —Publishers Weekly

“How do you awaken a giant? In this crisply written and richly researched history, Neil Lanctot narrates a dramatic story of how America entered into World War I despite President Wilson’s profound reservations and the fierce opposition of the popular international women’s peace movement. It is a significant contribution to the literature on the Great War.” —Joel Paul, author of the bestselling Without Precedent: Chief Justice John Marshall and His Times

Product details

• Authors: Neil Lanctot
• Publisher: Riverhead
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 26.10.2021
• EAN: 9780735210592
• ISBN: 978-0-7352-1059-2
• No. of pages: 672
• Dimensions: 165 mm x 243 mm x 33 mm
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History > 20th century (up to 1945); Non-fiction book > History > Miscellaneous