The
Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt and the Golden Age of Journalism, by
Doris Kearns Goodwin
Theodore
(Teddy) Roosevelt was a remarkable figure.
He was a cowboy, a soldier, a
policeman, a historian, a naturalist, a big game hunter, an intellectual and
much, much else. He is a rebuke to the bland careerist politicians that we see
on both sides of the Atlantic.
This book though is not just a biography of
Roosevelt, but rather a joint biography of him, William Taft - his successor as
President - and a group of remarkable journalists, who helped both Roosevelt and
Taft reform the United States in the first decade of the Twentieth Century.
The
work is Doris Kearns Goodwin’s first book since her blockbuster work about
Lincoln and his cabinet. It is a worthy successor; she is a master of her
material and tells the interwoven stories with pace and telling detail.
One of the first things the book does is
rescue poor William Taft from the ranks of forgotten Presidents. He achieved
much for a one term President and the man of whom he most reminded me was President
George Bush Senior.
They were both decent high achievers who made it to the
Presidency; who were better at governing than politics, and who paid the price for
it in defeat when seeking re-election. Both were overshadowed by charismatic
predecessors, and both had tough, ruthless wives who aided their careers.
The
other striking fact I took from the book was how much the Progressive Era in
American Politics achieved, especially in light of the gridlock of modern day
Washington.
It is
impossible to imagine the modern Republicans advocating the attacks on trusts, the regulation of food safety, and the proposal
for a federal income tax, that both Roosevelt and Taft championed. On the other side you
had Democrats calling for restrictions in federal spending, not something you
would see today.
The
journalists that aided these reforms are another admirable and diverse group
that would probably get nowhere today in the era of celebrity gossip and
partisan news channels.
The most remarkable of them all was Samuel McClure, who began in grinding poverty in
Ulster and followed the American Dream to found his own magazine and help
transform America.
I would recommend it to anyone interested in
American History, and to anyone who isn’t but who enjoys a great story, well told.
My
last thoughts on finishing the book was that I could not help but note that
such was Teddy Roosevelt’s lasting fame that though the work should have been
called Roosevelt and Taft, but poor President Taft got elbowed aside, probably
on the basis nobody would have heard of him.
Such is the harshness of history
and of the publishing industry.
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