4042 William Jennings Bryan II. Progressive Politician and Moral Statesman 1909-1915, by Paolo E. Coletta (read 4 July 2005) This is the second volume of Coletta's three-volume biography and covers the years from 1908 to Bryan's resignation as Secretary of State in June of 1915. The account of the Baltimore convention in 1912 is especially well-done and it is clear to me that but for Bryan Champ Clark would have been nominated and I suppose elected President in 1912--and it is fascinating to think how the history of the world since would have been changed if that had happened. The account of Bryan's years as Secretary of State did not seem as interesting, and I was not as caught up in the account as I was when I read Arthur S. Link's magisterial account of those same years in his books on Wilson, which I read in July of 1980, especially the volume called Wilson: The Struggle for Neutrality 1914-1915 (read 4 July 1980). But as I felt when I read those Link books, there is a lot to be said for Bryan's position re the Lusitania sinking. For an antidote to Link's volumes and this one re neutrality in 1914-1916, read The World War and American Isolation 1914-1917 by Ernest R. May (read 1 Nov 1984). ( )