This is CBS I On The World.

Here's John Batchler.

It is the summer of 1912 in a very hot convention in Chicago, Illinois.

A woman known throughout the world as an active and generous person, Jane Adams,

rises to nominate for president for the progressive party, a former president of the United States,

Theodore Roosevelt.

This is a moment to begin to consider three great personalities of the early 20th century.

In a new book, The Approaching Storm, Roosevelt, Wilson, Adams, and their clash over America's future.

John Toe is the author. I welcome Neil. I congratulate him.

And we need to define who these three people were in 1912 that associated all of them with progressivism

and they themselves were keen on that title, this new thinking in America.

Neil, congratulations and good evening. Jane Adams at that moment.

Who was she and what did progressivism mean for her? Good evening.

And thank you for having me on the show. It's fine that Jane Adams is so forgotten today.

When in 1912 when my book begins, she was probably one of the most well-known women in America.

Maybe number one or number two, I think Helen Keller might ever beaten out at the time.

But she was this individual who had made her name by establishing callhouse in Chicago,

which was a settlement house to sort of minister to the poor and the immigrant community in Chicago.

And that clear on the map is that was something that really had not been done in the United States before.

And from there, she became a very significant force for liberalism and for reform in the United States.

Basically was involved in almost every reform movement. She was involved in the suffrage movement.

She was involved in child labor, a consumer issue. She was involved in the NAACP.

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