Which was the first modern presidential election in American history? It’s a question the answer to which depends on how you define the elements that make an election “modern.” Is it with the establishment of the present bi-polar party system in 1860? Or is it with the introduction of television in 1952 and the increasing personalization of presidential campaigns that it brought?

In this book Lewis Gould makes the case for viewing the 1912 presidential election as the first modern one in American history. For Gould, the election that year deserves this distinction for a number of key factors, including its incorporation of presidential primaries into the selection process, the year-long campaigning in which the candidates engaged, the growing role of the media, and the shift from voter mobilization to voter education as the main focus of the campaigns. These are all valid and significant points, yet Gould undermines his argument somewhat by noting the transitional nature of these elements: for example, while presidential primaries received considerable attention, in the end the candidates were at the party conventions in much the same way as they had been over the previous eight decades. Conversely, media influence was hardly new to presidential campaigns, and the growing competition of sports and lurid criminal trials that Gould describes arguably diminished their influence on the contest rather than enhanced it.

While these factors might point to regarding the 1912 presidential contest as embodying transitions taking place rather than being a fully modern one in its own right, it was no less remarkable for it. In 1912 American voters faced a unique range of choices thanks to a series of developments that Gould describes. He traces the beginnings of these developments to the presidential election of 1908, in which Theodore Roosevelt’s handpicked nominee, William Howard Taft, won a comfortable victory over perennial Democratic contender William Jennings Bryan. Roosevelt had selected Taft in the belief that he shared Roosevelt’s views on political issues. Yet Taft soon demonstrated otherwise, and his handling of such matters as antitrust cases and the controversy surrounding the Ballinger-Pinchot affair increasingly soured Roosevelt on Taft’s conduct in office.

The growing dissension among Republicans gave Democrats an opportunity they were eager to take. Having lost the last four presidential elections, the Democrats were hungry for victory. While Champ Clark, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, was regarded as the front runner. Many Democrats looked to the newly elected governor of New Jersey, Woodrow Wilson, as the man best able to win the White House. Though long regarded as a conservative, Wilson’s embrace of progressive reforms enhanced his image as a broadly appealing candidate around whom the entire party could unite while the Republican Party fractured.

This fracture came when the Republicans gathered to decide their nominee. Gould’s description of the Republican primary is among the best parts of the book, as he offers a convincing explanation of the factors that led to the split. Foremost among them was Roosevelt himself, who though a beloved former president and national celebrity was out of touch with many political elements. While he dithered on whether to challenge Taft the president’s secretary, Charles Hilles, laid the groundwork for Taft to claim the nomination at the convention. Complicating everything was Robert La Follette, the Wisconsin senator who sought the presidency for himself. Even after Roosevelt announced his candidacy in February La Follette refused to withdraw, splitting the party’s progressives and paving the way for Taft’s forces to dominate the party’s convention.

As Gould makes clear, though, Taft knew that he stood no chance of winning a second term. Though his reelection was doomed the moment the progressive faction walked out of the convention, Gould makes the case that even if Roosevelt had not mounted a third-party candidacy Wilson would likely have won in 1912, as the split only laid bare the growing tension that already existed between the conservative and progressive wings of the GOP. Instead American voters that year were given a range of candidates distinguished by real ideological differences, ranging from Taft’s conservatism, Roosevelt’s “New Nationalism,” Wilson’s “New Freedom,” and the Socialist policies advocated by Eugene Debs. Yet the debate over the contrasting choices did little to alter the outcome, which Gould sees as ultimately decided by Democratic unity in the face of Republican division.

In his preface to the book Gould notes that his is far from the first account of the momentous 1912 election. It is easily the best so far, though, thanks to the author’s prodigious knowledge about the era and the depth of his research. His examination of the role of women in the presidential campaigns and how African Americans responded to the lamentable options open to them is especially valuable for the broader perspective Gould brings to his examination of voters’ responses. Though his prose is more workmanlike than engaging and his book suffers from an annoying degree of repetition, it is nonetheless the best work available about a fascinating presidential contest, and one that everyone interested in it should read. ( )