1913 WILSON'S INAUGURAL MARCH
Progressive Leaders Foreign Rivalry
Neil Lanctot, author of The Approaching Storm: Roosevelt, Wilson, Addams, and Their Clash Over America’s Future, Part One: Lanctot’s opening part examines how prominent progressive leaders Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and Jane Addams fractured over foreign policy during World War I. Starting with the 1912 presidential campaign, the narrative traces Addams establishing the Women’s Peace Party and undertaking European citizen diplomacy. Meanwhile, Roosevelt fiercely championed military preparedness, while Wilson maintained precarious American neutrality following the 1915 Lusitania sinking, prompting principled Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan’s dramatic cabinet resignation in protest. (1)