Customer Reviews

Pivotal Decades: The United States, 1900-1920

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I liked this book. It details the history of the USA in pretty sensible chronological order from 1900 to 1920, with good description of the events during those momentous decades. It is pretty balanced, and should not offend anyone with biases one way or the other. The author is an authority on the two dominating figures of those decades, Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt, and I read his dual study, The Warrior and the Priest: Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt, on October 7, 1995, with much appreciation. Cooper writes in a clear style, and even tho this book read like a college textbook, hey, it is fun to read a college textbook on such interesting subjects as this book deals with. A good and worthwhile book.

These years at the beginning of the century seemed so intense. A good read when reviewing this century that (almost) was. The author tries to write a comprehensive look at everything that was happening in the US at the time, from fashion to politics. However, make no mistake, the author's favorite topic and more richly covered is: politics. There are references at the end on the amazing amount of literary work of the era, which is tantamount. All in all, a very good introductory to that time and age, and a very good starting point for a researcher in the world of those years.

This is one of the best written books I have ever read. Professor Cooper's writing is concise and easy to read, which is an extraordinary achievement considering the enormous amount of information packed into this medium-to-small sized book. You will learn much, yet the book is a quick-paced joy to read. More history should be written like this.

The book has many pictures and other visual aids, such as maps and newspaper headlines, to help bring the story to life. It succeeds marvelously. I believe this to be the best single-volume book on the Progressive Era, beginning at the end of the Gilded Age, through World War I, to the start of the roaring twenties. An enormous amount of fascinating history takes place during that era with many fascinating characters, such as Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Fighting Bob LaFollette, William Jennings Bryant, the suffragists, the religious crusaders to solve social ills, and the Gilded Age capitalists. Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson are featured most prominantly. Indeed, the author also wrote an outstanding biography of Roosevelt and Wilson called "The Warrior and the Priest." This book can also be considered a concise and excellent biography of Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson.

The story begins during the late Gilded Age, when America was a bustling industrial superpower. Great capitalists of the era, such as Morgan and Rockefeller, enter the story. You get a balanced portrait of the economy that employed many people and created progress but had a harsh side to to it. You learn about the Muckraker reporters who uncovered scandals and the rise of socialists among the working class, although they never gained much power.

You briefly learn what America was like at that time of great change. America had been mostly a rural country and now was both a rural country and a modern industrial economy. The rural people and generally the Democratic party, with power mainly in the south and midwest, favored low tarriffs and polices helping the pastoral life. William Jennings Bryant exemplified these views. He fought for the farmers with his legendary "cross of gold" speech. Yet his rural ways and religiosity, common among many people, made his a less-desirable candidate among swing voters, and he was defeated multiple times in his bid for the presidency.

President McKinley was a mild imperialist and brought American on the world stage. He won the presidency by campaigning only from his porch in Ohio. The industrialists were so afraid of Bryant that they donated an unprecedently amount of money to McKinley. Although he was strongly pro-business and supported high tarriffs, McKinley slightly lowered tarriffs as president and began early anti-trust actions against monopolies.

Several presidents back then came from Ohio, which shows you where the power was concentrated back then.

Theodore Roosevelt is then prominantly features for much of the book. He was not the fervent trust-buster that he has been portrayed. He thought bigness was a good thing. He just did not like the bigness to become so big as to become a monopoly and thwart competition. He also wanted to establish the principle that government had the right to regulate business. He used the Bully Pulpit to lobby his causes to the public. At first he was probably more conservative than progressive, despite being very progressive, yet he became much more progressive as he got older. In his youth he felt that Hamilton was right in the original struggle between Jefferson and Hamilton, but he finally came to believe that Jefferson was right. He was a very colorful person and probably the biggest personality of his time. You will need to read this book to learn all the fascinating history surrounding Roosevelt, and there is so much in this book.

Wilson won the presidency when Roosevelt ran for president as a progressive under the Bull Moose, splitting the Republican votes. Wilson created so many things, such as the Federal Reserve (later improved by FDR), Federal Trade Commission, the progressive tax, direct election of U.S. senators, and more. At this time, women received the right to vote. You learn about the suffragists. This is fascinating history!

I was very surprised to learn that Wilson was such an internationalist. He sent marines several times to nations in latin America, including a fiasco in Mexico. His presidency climaxed in World War I. Read the book to learn the fascinating details. Wilson was also a rigidly religious man who later rigidly refused to compromise with Henry Cabbotte Lodge on the League of Nations legislation (and the compromise was better than what Wilson had originally proposed).

Southern racism and segregation were still subtle but powerful forces in American politics, although few people talked about it or even acknowledged it, except for maybe W.E.B. Du Bubois and then the vocal backlash to Roosevelt when he invited Du Bois to the White House. Thousands of African American served with distinction in World War I, and after coming home from the egalitarian France, they were subjected to segregation. Other rural whites, once seeing Paris, did not want to return to boring lives on farms. The war brought about many changes.

This is an outstanding and enjoyable book to read. You briefly learn about Hull House and the religous workers trying to solve the ills of poverty, prohibition, the railroads, popular entertainment, and more. I highly recommend it if you are interested in any of the people, movements, or history of the era, or if you are just looking for an enjoyable read. Highest rating!

I had to read this book for my US History,1914-1945 class, and I have to admit, I am quite pleased with it. It was well-organized and gives an in-depth look into the Roosevelt and Wilson presidencies. This book is a must for anyone interested in 20th-century American history.

I was required to read this book (it reads like a textbook)for an American history class I was taking in my sophomore year, and I love the book. Cooper integrated various facets (political, social, military, and cultural history) into a solid and interesting read. It can be a little dense at times, but it is a very good beginning for those interested in twentieth-century American history.

This book was one of my texts for a 20th century history class in my graduate program. I usually do not get excited over required readings but this book proved to be very well written and very interesting. This book goes into detail about the political wranglings of the early 20th century. We learn about the driving forces behind prohibition and how many politicians played this card to gain election. All together I would reccomend this book not only for history students but for anyone simply interested in the era.

For an introduction to the era this book is very good and very thorough. I would recommend it as a beginning to your study of this time in American History but the territory it covers is too broad to be satisfied there. Still, Cooper's book is a good start.

Now my march through the ages brings me to the early decades of the twentieth century. It was an era of dynamic political leadership and technological innovation of a maturing nation trying to figure out its destiny. This was a time where old ideas were being challenged and America was going to fight in an a great international conflict known as World War I. In the aftermath of the war the United States would decide if it was going to play a leadership role in the world. And that decision would to go in the opposite direction of world leadership, preferring instead retreat and withdrawal.

The century began with the reelection of the last Civil War veteran to occupy the White House. William McKinley, the 25th President of the United States, would win his re-election against William Jennings Bryan. Months into his new term, McKinley would be assassinated, and his cowboy vice president, Theodore Roosevelt, would assume the office.

One of the main themes of Copper's book is how rich America was in leadership during this time period. Each political party produced an incredible president who would help reshape the nation and the office of the presidency. The Republicans produced Theodore Roosevelt by accident. Placed in the vice presidency in an effort to get rid of him, Roosevelt would become our most dynamic president ever. No vice president who assumed the presidency had ever even been re-nominated, but Theodore Roosevelt in 1904 would go on to win a term in his own right due to his incredible performance in the White House. The Democrats produced Woodrow Wilson an academic who gained the office because of a scism within the Republican Party between Roosevelt and Taft. Wilson had studied the American political system his entire life and was about to make theory reality. He would bring back the tradition of presidents delivering the State of the Union address in person*. He would hold regular press conferences and his success with the Congress in producing legislation that was lasting, such as the Federal Reserve, dwarfed that of his predecessors.

"It was ironic that Roosevelt resembled Jefferson in his intellectual range and depth. There was no predecessor whose legacy and influence, particularly on states' rights and the support of limited governmental responsibilities, the new president disliked more. As a self-proclaimed Hamiltonian, Roosevelt meant to exalt the power and prestige of the federal government. As a self-anointed heir of Lincoln and Civil War Republicanism, he yearned to preserve his party's fidelity to nationalism and centralization. But the resemblance to Jefferson was more than intellectual. Roosevelt likewise quickly became a patron of science, scholarship, art, and literature. Prominent among the Roosevelts' frequent and well-publicized guests were the painters John La Farge and Frederic Remington, the sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens, the historian James Ford Rhodes, and the Western novelist Owen Wister. The president promoted scientific research thought the Smithsonian Institution, which had been founded in 1846, and boosted public art by commissioning Saint-Gaudens to redesign the nation's coins. In all, through his public pronouncements, associations, and private encouragement and criticism, Roosevelt made himself a cultural arbiter such as the United States had rarely seen before in a president." (p.36)

Even the president who served in the middle of the two giants was a great intellectual named William H. Taft. Despite being a one-term president who was incapable of using the pulpit of the presidency as his two rivals could, Taft not only continued with the trust busting started by Roosevelt but he also had surpassed him. Taft even beat John D. Rockefeller's great machine, Standard Oil. One of the reasons Presidents Roosevelt and Taft had been so successful is they did not take permenant sides when it came to management and labor. They sided with whoever they felt was in the right.

"The greed of the rich and the envy of the poor repelled him equally, and during the 1890s he had repeatedly feared incipient social revolution. Roosevelt had then stood unhesitatingly with pro-business Republicans against radicals and Bryanite Democrats, whom he had luridly likened to the zealots of the French Revolution. Yet he had never believed that the cure for ills caused by the growth of big business and industry lay in choosing sides. In 1894, Roosevelt had told his friend Henry Cabot Lodge that to control mobs he would send troops who were 'not over-scrupulous about bloodshed; but I know that banker, the merchant and the railroad king well too, and they also need education and sound chastisement.'" (p.37-8)

Cooper points out that in addition to the presidents, on the next level on the American political ladder, the men who lost the presidential elections were great men as well. William Jennings Bryan was a legend in his own day who had helped reshape the way presidential candidates campaign. Charles Evans Hughes would go on to become chief justice of the United States Supreme Court. Only Al Parker, who was nominated in 1904, did not go on to become a legend. There were also incredible senators and governors during this period such as Henry Cabot Lodge and Robert La Follette. Among the African-American community men such as Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Dubois were continuing the debate that they had begun against each other and for the African-American community in the 1890s. And there were also women such as Jane Addams who was a pioneer in the area of social work.

Copper also discuss the average American whose life was increasingly changing because of technology. The rise of America's past time and the celebrity status of baseball greats such as Babe Ruth and the more infamous 'Shoeless' Joe Jackson, who was involved in the Black Sox scandal that tainted the 1919 World Series.

But the biggest event of these decades was World War I. America tried to stay out of the war 'over there' for the longest time but unrestricted submarine warfare and the Zimmerman note would tip America into the conflict. Led by their commander, General 'Blackjack' Pershing, American soldiers would conduct themselves valiantly. Having to go through the horror of war they helped push the tide and were ultimately responsible for victory over the Empire of the Kaiser.

"But combat was not an unrelieved horror. Because most American troops saw action in the summer and fall counteroffensives of 1918, they experienced the exhilaration of a war of movement. World War I produced its share of colorful tales of fighting and inspiring stories of heroism, such as Corporal, later, Sergeant York. Equally celebrated heroes had already emerged from the ranks of aviators. The minuscule but highly publicized air war had long provided both the movement missing on the ground and the opportunity for knight-like individual combat. Before 1917, enough Americans had joined the French air arm to form the nucleus of the Army Air Corps in France. Captain Eddie Rickenbacker, a former automobile racer who went to France as General Pershing's chauffeur and learned to fly there, downed twenty-six German aircraft and later became a pioneer in civilian aviation." (p.282)

Instead of the America embracing its role as a leading world power, the United States would ultimately shrink from its responsibility. Woodrow Wilson would fail at what had mattered to him most, the League of Nations. This travesty would do a great deal of damage to America's next generation. John Milton Cooper does a great job telling the story of the early twentieth century America. I highly recommend this book to anyone.

*Presidents Washington and Adams had done it, but Jefferson had ended the practice.

Pivotal Decades along with Perils of Prosperity, provide a large part of the missing links in the Oxford History of The United States series. Readers who enjoy the Oxford series will likely be pleased with Pivotal Decades.