This is a book that
came out I think a little over a year ago and I had heard overall
very positive things about it. Being, of course, a Roosevelt fanboy I
was rather interested in more information about Roosevelt and his
presidency, and the promise of comparing Taft with his predecessor,
especially in their handling of press relations, was very promising.
Personally, I think I had very different expectations of this book
than what other people had because I was a little disappointed with
Goodwin's approach. This book is very heavily biographical, rather
than a large-picture view of history (which I am unabashedly in favor
of), and there's a lot of focus in comparing and contrasting Taft and
Roosevelt's personalities and lives, which definitely shaped public
perception of both those gentlemen as president. Roosevelt seems to
dominate the work, but this is not terribly surprising considering
Roosevelt had an incessant need to be center stage in almost
everything that he did. It does make me wish for more information
about Taft, though, because he's simply no match personality-wise
with Roosevelt. Despite my disappointments I did find this book
informative and hope to expand my personal readings about both Taft
and Roosevelt in the future.
The
book begins by focusing on Taft and Roosevelt biographically,
comparing and contrasting their childhoods, education, family lives,
and personal ambitions, all which served to shape Roosevelt into the
quintessential politician and Taft into the epitome of judicial
wisdom. Both Edith Carow and Nellie Herron receive their own chapters
to show how these women complimented their husbands and had their own
differences in personality as well. Along the way, the book brings in
the biography of S.S. McClure, eventual founder of McClure's
magazine, a prominent progressive publication in the early years of
the twentieth century, as well as briefly talking about the lives of
staff members such as Ida Tarbell, Ray Baker, Lincoln Steffens, and
William White. In a way, McClure's
gets its own biography in the story as well when Goodwin chronicles
its inception, zenith, and eventual decline. The result is the
personal life stories of several unique individuals that get weaved
together and influence each other for a number of very critical
years, resulting in landmark legislation like the Pure Food and Drug
Act.
I
think my biggest disappointment was the fact that McClure's
(and then the work of the most prominent staff members of McClure's)
was the central focus of Goodwin's analysis of the early twentieth
century press. The late nineteenth and early twentieth century saw a
tremendous growth in print culture, expanding access to literature
and information to a level simply unheard of before. McClure's
was one of many, many publications, and definitely not the only
muck-raking publication on the market either. Although incredibly
prominent, McClure's
represents only one part of the entire market of print media.
Obviously a complete analysis of the entire printing industry in the
early 1900's would be extremely difficult to say the least, but I had
hoped for a more in-depth comparison.
What I
really appreciated was more information on Roosevelt and his more
progressive policies. In Theodore Rex,
TR's conservation and water management policies are talked about, but
very little to no attention was given to landmark regulations passed
under Roosevelt's administration. The Bully Pulpit
does do an excellent job in showing how publications like McClure's
were influential in shaping public opinion on subjects such as
trusts, patent medicines, and railroad regulation, creating political
pressure for the largely business-friendly Republican congress to
pass such regulatory legislation. In addition, this book shows how
Roosevelt is able to capitalize on this public opinion to force
through his legislation, although I felt like it didn't do as great a
job showing Taft's inability (or unwillingness) to utilize the press
for political purposes. From my readings in The Rise of
Theodore Roosevelt and Theodore
Rex, Roosevelt definitely has a
strong rapport with the members of the press, realizing its political
potential, and you see that in The Bully Pulpit as
well. Taft, as Goodwin illuminates, seems to be used to delivering
judicial opinions rather than making press conferences and does not
have Roosevelt's charisma when it comes to media relations. However,
in this book it doesn't feel sufficiently expanded upon, especially
because that's the central theme of the book.
I think much of my
disappointment stems from this book is more a collection of
intertwining biographies rather than a unified historical narrative.
It definitely sheds some much-appreciated light on print culture in
the early twentieth century as well as the Taft and Roosevelt
administrations, but there's much that's left to be desired as well.
I'd definitely recommend it as a supplemental book, but I feel it
requires a lot of extra knowledge to fill in gaps that are otherwise
left from this text.
- Kalpar
No comments:
Post a Comment