Popular Government: Its Essence, Its Permanence, and Its Perils

Popular Government was written by citizen Willam Howard Taft, having assumed the chair of the Kent Professor of Law at Yale University shortly after leaving the White House. Its value as a book is multiple, but here I am interested in adding context to the consequential election of 1912. His views on government are clearer here than perhaps they were in the election, where he finished third. Taft was one of four presidential candidates that year (the incumbent), and Popular Government is the fourth book in a series republishing the books of the main candidates in that election. The books of Roosevelt (The New Nationalism) and Wilson (The New Freedom) are well known to historians and students. The books of Taft and Debs are more obscure, but no less interesting. Two of the candidates claimed progressive credentials and two did not. But all fit under that rather large tent. Taft is clearly in the latter group, but there are reasons to think otherwise--not for his sake but for the sake of progressivism. His administration prosecuted many more companies for violating the Sherman Anti-trust Act than had Roosevelt. It was after all an issue of law, and law animated Taft, both as the 27th President, a Law Professor, and later as 10th Supreme Court Chief Justice. Each is presented with shorter paragraphs than in their original publications, in hope of making them more readable. Read more