About Neil Lanctot
Neil Lanctot, Ph.D. is a historian who has written four books, each of which has combined meticulous research with compelling story-telling.
His first, Fair Dealing and Clean Playing: The Hilldale Club and The Development of Black Professional Baseball, 1910-1932, was published in 1994 by McFarland and Company. The book has since emerged as a classic in the genre and was later reprinted by Syracuse University Press.
In 2004, his second book, Negro League Baseball – The Rise and Ruin of a Black Institution, was published by the University of Pennsylvania Press. The book received almost universal rave reviews from the popular and scholarly press, including front cover treatment by the New York Times Book Review.
His third book, Campy – The Two Lives of Roy Campanella, was released in March 2011 by Simon & Schuster to critical acclaim from the Los Angeles Times, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Philadelphia Daily News, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, and numerous other publications. Campy was also named an alternate selection for the Book of The Month Club.
His latest book, The Approaching Storm, was published by Penguin/Random House in October 2021.
Lanctot’s writing has appeared in the Smithsonian, Chicago Tribune, Philadelphia Inquirer, Baltimore Sun, and several other journals and anthologies.
Where to find Neil Lanctot
The Approaching Storm: Roosevelt, Wilson, Addams, and Their Clash Over America’s Future
The fascinating story of how the three most influential American progressives of the early twentieth century split over America’s response to World War I.
In the early years of the twentieth century, the most famous Americans on the national stage were Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and Jane Addams: two presidents and a social worker. Each took a different path to prominence, yet the three progressives believed the United States must assume a more dynamic role in confronting the growing domestic and international problems of an exciting new age.
Following the outset of World War I in 1914, the views of these three titans splintered as they could not agree on how America should respond to what soon proved to be an unprecedented global catastrophe. The Approaching Storm is the story of three extraordinary leaders and how they debated, quarreled, and split over the role the United States should play in the world.
By turns a colorful triptych of three American icons who changed history and the engrossing story of the roots of World War I, The Approaching Storm is a surprising and important story of how and why the United States emerged onto the world stage.