Pivotal Decades: The United States, 1900-1920

Contemporary American began in the first two decades of this century.

These were the years in which two of our greatest presidents-Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson-transformed the office into the center of power; in which the United States entered the world stage and fought its first overseas war; in which the government's proper role in the economy became a public question; and in which reform became an imperative for muckraking reporters, progressive politicians, social activists, and...