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- Date sent: Tue, 30 Apr 1996 23:10:55 -0400
-
- Outline
-
- Thesis: Theodore Roosevelt's political presence altered the course of the United States,
- transforming it into a superpower fully ready to handle the challenges of any opposition,
- and changed the role of the president and executive branch of US government, making it a
- force to be reckoned with.
-
- I. Introduction
-
- II. Before Roosevelt
- A. Post-Reconstructionist Views
- B. The Industrial Revolution
- C. The Gilded Age
- 1. Railroads
- 2. Robber Barons
- 3. Immigration
- 4. Standard Question
- D. McKinley
- III. The Roosevelt Era
- A. Early Life
- 1. Influence of Parents
- 2. Invalidism
- B. Early Political Career
- 1. Ending Corruption/Enforcing Laws
- 2. Political Bosses
- 3. Governorship
- C. Presidential Era
- 1. Vice Presidential Race
- 2. Manipulation of the Press
- 3. Federal Regulatory Laws
- 4. Foreign Policy
- 5. Strong Executive Branch
- D. Post-Presidential Era
- 1. Taft
- 2. The Progressive Party
- IV. Post-Rooseveltian America
- A. Wilson
- 1. Continued Progressivism
- 2. World War I
- a. Inactivity
- b. Activity
- B. Life After Wilson
- 1. Implementation of Roosevelt's Reforms
- 2. Roosevelt's Influence Today
- 3. Influences in the Future
- V. Conclusion
-
-
- Theodore Roosevelt:
- The Founder of an Era
-
- The turn of the century has always been a big deal for modern civilizations. One hundred
- years of life is quite large compared with the average 70 or so given to most. Because of
- that, people tend to look in trends of decades, rather than centuries or millennia. When it
- does come time for a new century, when that second digit rotates, as it does so seldom,
- people tend to look for change. Events tend to fall before or after the century, not on top
- of it, and United States history, particularly, has had a tendency for sudden change at the
- century marks. Columbus' accidental discovery of the West Indies in 1492 brought on the
- exploration age in the 1500s. Jamestown colony, founded in 1607, was England's first
- foothold on the New World. A massive population surge, brought on in part by the import of
- Africans, marks entry into the 18th century. Thomas Jefferson's presidency, beginning in
- 1800, changed the face of American politics. 1900 was a ripe year for change, but needed
- someone to help the change arrive. That someone was Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt's
- political presence altered the course of the United States, transforming it into a
- superpower fully ready to handle the challenges of any opposition, and changed the role of
- the president and executive branch of US government, making it a force with which to be
- reckoned. As the first president with progressive views, Roosevelt enacted the first
- regulatory laws and prosecuted big businesses who had been violating them and others for
- years. Roosevelt also initiated the United States' active interests in other countries, and
- began to spread the benefits of democracy throughout the world. Before Roosevelt, the
- United States was an inward-looking country, largely xenophobic to the calls of the rest of
- the world, and chiefly concerned with bettering itself. As one critic put it, "Roosevelt
- was the first modern president"(Knoll). After Roosevelt, the United States would remain a
- superpower, chiefly interested in all the world's affairs for at least a century (Barck 1).
- It would be foolish to assume that Roosevelt was a fantastically powerful individual who
- was able to change the course of the United States as easily as Superman might change the
- course of a river. It would be more accurate to say Roosevelt was the right person in the
- right place at the right time. It is necessary, though, to show how the United States was
- progressing, and how Roosevelt's presence merely helped to catalyze the progression. It
- has been said that when John Wilkes Booth murdered Abraham Lincoln, he "extinguished the
- light of the republic" (Cashman 1). While this is a small hyperbole, it serves as an
- example of the general mood that pervaded the period from 1865 to 1901. The early
- dominating factor was, of course, Reconstruction. Reconstruction was a dirty game, and
- nobody liked it. Johnson fought with congress and the end result proved very little had
- changed. The South was still largely agrarian, and the North was commercial. Most
- importantly, the Southerners and the Northerners still felt they had as little to do with
- each other as a fish does with a bicycle. To the young "Teedie" Roosevelt, this must have
- made itself apparent. He was born in a mixed household, where "Theodore Roosevelt (Sr.) was
- as profoundly...for the North as Martha Roosevelt was for the south" (Hagedorn 10). The
- fact that the family was able to live, from all accounts, very harmoniously, is quite
- astonishing and gives credit to the fine parents who raised young Theodore.
- Reconstruction's greatest (and perhaps only) accomplishment was the establishment of a
- basis for industrialization. The basic destruction of the southern agrarian process
- combined with the greater need for items in the North caused the economy of the post-war
- United States to shift toward the cities (Nash 576). The general aim of the Untied States
- had turned toward the big cities, but was still focused on building the nation's power from
- within. And along with the improvement of industry in the United States came the spark of
- ingenuity that found itself in the minds of great inventors like Edison and Bell. Once
- again maintaining the goal of "hasten[ing] and secur[ing] settlement," both men
- concentrated on improvements in communications, improving the transmission of light and
- sound (Cashman 14). The presence of these two, who are representative of so many others,
- shows the interest the citizens of the United States had at this time in improving their
- infrastructure. It is interesting to note here that Roosevelt, as the first president to
- make use of the popular press to his advantage, grew up at the same time as these men,
- eleven years their junior. The period of the United States directly before Roosevelt's was
- known as the Gilded Age, due to a book of the same name by Mark Twain that made use of
- references to "gild[ing] refined gold," and "guilt" from Shakespeare combined with the
- "guilty, gilden guilds" that had sprung up in the forms of interest groups, labor unions,
- and monopolies (Cashman 3-4). Indeed, the most dominant figures in this age (for the
- presidents were certainly beneath mention) were the robber barons. These individuals came
- to power in two generations. The first, peppered by those such as Jay Gould, Jim Fisk, and
- Daniel Drew, rose to the top quickly by acquiring the nation's railroads through not always
- legitimate means (Cashman 34). The railroads were power, as can be seen by the significant
- rise in miles of rail, nearly a 500% increase from 1865 to 1900. Those who controlled the
- railroads controlled the country, and were able to maintain a lock on the industry. Later
- robber barons, such as Rockefeller, Carnegie, and, of course, J. P. Morgan, operated much
- the same way, eliminating the competition by one way or another until they could control
- their industry (Cashman 38). As the three or four thousand tycoons made their fortunes,
- defying government, and basically creating a plutocracy of businessmen, another large group
- was entering the American melting pot in larger numbers than before. Ten million people
- came to the United States between 1860 and 1890, and the great majority of them had little
- more worth to their name save the clothes on their back and the boat ticket that had
- brought them to America (Cashman 86). Having nowhere to turn, the large majority settled in
- the port cities into which they came. These immigrations were largely unrestricted; the
- United States not yet having installed a quota system. The Chinese-Exclusion act and the
- subsequent "gentlemen's agreement" with Japan slowed the influx of Asian immigration after
- 1880, but these did not impact the numbers of immigrants as much as one would think.
- Americans could not flee, as there was no frontier left to speak of, and assimilation
- increasingly failed to be effective. The result was nativism, "a defensive type of
- nationalism" (Cashman 106). The need to impose the will of the American civilization onto
- other nations can be seen here, in its early stages. The main difference between this era
- and the next, in that respect, is that the jingoism had not yet left the country. The
- Gilded Age's strongest presidential race would end up to be its last, and the resulting
- president, McKinley, can not be classified as a Gilded Age president. However, the issue of
- the Gold and Silver standards shows the United States for the last time as a totally
- inward-looking nation. Although a metal standard would not disappear from United States
- currency until well into the mid-twentieth century, and the question of the purchase of
- silver would again be raised by President Franklin Roosevelt, the Free Silver campaign of
- William Jennings Bryan versus the Gold Standard enforced by McKinley shows the last
- internal economic agitation until the great depression. The National Grange died upon
- McKinley's election, and "after the excitement of Bryan's Free Silver campaign died down,
- the agrarian ferment largely subsided" (Barck 21). The end of the old era could now begin.
- It is ironic that McKinley's presidency ended in assassination, for without the sudden
- change of leadership in the White House in 1901, the transformation undergone by the United
- States may have appeared as gradual as it was intended to be. McKinley was president over
- the "closing years of the nineteenth century, mark[ing] the end of comparative isolation
- and the beginning of an epoch during which the United States emerged as a world power"
- (Barck 77). Indeed, McKinley fits this description of the end of the nineteenth century
- well. He was a very transitionary character; not as bland or powerless as the three who had
- come before him, yet still figurehead enough to be led by Mark Hanna, the national
- republican boss. McKinley's stare typifies his character: "His stare was intimidating in
- its blackness and steadiness...Only very perceptive observers were aware that there was no
- real power behind the gaze: McKinley stared in order to concentrate a sluggish, wandering
- mind" (Morris 586). McKinley was president when the United States' first modern military
- interventions began. However it is clear McKinley was not an expansionist at heart. He
- declared in his inaugural address, "We want no wars of conquest; we must avoid the
- temptation of territorial aggression"(Cashman 315). However, much of America did want war
- with Spain, and after the American ship Maine blew up in Havana, killing 266 soldiers,
- Assistant Secretary of the Navy Theodore Roosevelt called for war with Spain to free Cuba.
- The subsequent defeat of the Spanish in 100 days and the capture of the Philippines
- demonstrates the expansionist nature of the United States increasing. During the election
- of 1900, Bryan ran against McKinley again. This time, both men campaigned on the same side
- of the same issue, advocating annexation of overseas territories (Cashman 329). This
- confused Democrats and allowed McKinley's re-election for the last year of the nineteenth
- century. The progress of the United States from the death of Lincoln to the Assassination
- of McKinley has shown the trend away from Jeffersonian views of a loose government,
- allowing the people to be independent, and into one more pro-government, like that of
- Hamilton. Coupled to this was a tendency to look outside United States borders into the
- global community. The pendulum of history had passed its middle mark and was sweeping
- upward. It needed, however, an individual to carry it to its apex. Theodore Roosevelt was
- in the right place at the right time. Whether he was the right person for the job remains a
- matter that must be dealt with. His foundations and his career demonstrate that he was the
- perfect person to succeed McKinley and take the United States into its modern era.
- Roosevelt was born on October 27, 1858, one week before Buchanan was elected president, and
- two and a half years before the outbreak of the Civil war. Not having much in the way of
- genuine learning skills at such an early age, Roosevelt, in a sense, "slept through [the
- war]" (Hagedorn 11). In another sense, he did not. Theodore Roosevelt was born into a house
- of strikingly opposite leaders. His father was a large, cheerful, powerful man, who tended
- to be joyful and move quickly. It is safe to say Theodore Roosevelt, junior, received his
- stature from the man bearing his name (Morris 34). If Roosevelt's father was a "northern
- burgher," his mother was an archetypal Southern belle, refined and elegant. By all accounts
- she was absolutely lovely, and had a wonderful taste for the beautiful things in life
- (Morris 36). From her, young Theodore inherited his love of the natural, his sense of
- decorum, and his strong wit. The even balance that existed in the Roosevelt home fell into
- a disarray of sorts as war broke out. TR, Senior was a Lincoln Republican and desired
- strongly a chance to fight, however his wife, her sister, and her mother, all staunch
- confederates, resided in the same house. To compromise, TR, Senior hired someone to fight
- for him and served the army in a civilian sense. TR, Junior has always been known as a
- staunch militaristic man. Although his father was, in his own words, "the best man I ever
- knew" (Miller 32), in his failure to fight for his government, Roosevelt felt ashamed, and
- never mentioned this blemish on his father's great reputation in his Autobiography. It is
- speculated that it was this lack of military display that encouraged Roosevelt to be so
- military and almost hysterically desire warfare (Morris 40). Theodore Roosevelt, Senior,
- was always a strong individual in body and soul. Consequently, he felt sympathy towards
- those about him, and strove to help them by teaching mission schools, providing care for
- poor children, and finding jobs out west for those upon whom hard times had fallen. He was
- even known to take in invalid kittens, placing them in his coat-pockets (Morris 34). The
- powerful mind and will of Theodore Roosevelt, Junior, however, was born into a sickly body.
- Teedie suffered from bronchial asthma, and incurred, along with it, a host of associated
- diseases such as frequent colds, nervous diarrhea, and other problems (Miller 31). He was
- left very weak as a young child, and was often subject to taunting. His father spoke to
- him, saying:
- Theodore, you have the mind but not the body, and without the help of the body the mind
- cannot go as far as it should. You must make your body. It is hard drudgery to make
- one's body, but I know you will do it (Miller 46).
- Accordingly, Teedie replied with fervor, "I'll make my body!" Indeed he did. The young
- Roosevelt spent hours in the gym, working on weights to make himself better. It was this
- indomitable spirit that pushed Roosevelt forward, and urged him into his form of powerful
- politics. Theodore Roosevelt, Senior, had always hated politics. He had received a
- particularly nasty dose when caught up in the Rutherford B. Hayes campaign. Roosevelt, a
- Hayes supporter, had drawn the particular ire of Hayes' opponent for the Republican
- nomination, Roscoe Conkling. Hayes attempted to put Roosevelt in as position of Collector,
- but failed to receive senate nomination due to Conkling's ire (Miller 76-8). Theodore
- Roosevelt, Junior, "inspired by his father's humiliation at the hands of the
- politicians...was determined to become part of...the governing class" (Miller 110). This
- inspiration was coupled in Roosevelt with a strong desire for power. Unlike many men who
- had gotten into the political game, Roosevelt boldly admitted that he desired power, and
- his desire served him well, allowing him to become a genuine career politician (Miller
- 111). The political game had not changed so much since Theodore, Senior had tried to run
- it, and Theodore, Junior had an uphill battle. He had to fight from the beginning, but
- fortunately was adequate in that respect. At first plagued by strict-line party voting,
- Roosevelt managed to finally secure political office, but it was there that his true
- troubles would begin. An important and revealing part of TR's early political career occurs
- during his stint as a civil service commissioner in Washington. One memorable incident
- occurred in 1889 when Roosevelt faced some difficult political maneuvering. In Milwaukee,
- Postmaster George Paul was accused of making appointments to friends and altering records
- to hide it. Hamilton Shidy, a Post Office superintendent, provided most of the damaging
- evidence. The commission was to recommend Paul's firing, when Paul announced his term of
- office was up regardless. The commission returned to Washington, where they learned Paul
- had lied about his length of service. Roosevelt immediately drafted a call for Paul's
- removal to the White House and the Associated Press. This publicity irked numerous
- republicans who were no strangers to corruption themselves. Postmaster General Wanamaker,
- who was not particularly fond of Roosevelt to begin with, was quite angry. He allowed Paul,
- who had not been removed, to dismiss Shidy, who had been promised protection by Roosevelt,
- for insubordination. Now Roosevelt was stuck between a rock and a hard place. He was bound
- both to Shidy as a protector and to uphold his post, which would warrant Shidy's removal.
- Wanamaker was trying to force Roosevelt to resign. Luckily, president Harrison intervened
- and agreed to find a place for Shidy, but the battle was not over. As he waited for Paul's
- removal orders from the White House, which were not forthcoming, Frank Hatton, the editor
- of the Washington Post decided to launch an attack, lying blatantly about Roosevelt's
- misappropriation of funds or other egregious acts. The Post fired back with more attacks,
- causing Roosevelt to angrily point to Wanamaker's misdeeds. Rather than continue the
- battle, Harrison managed to have Paul resign, and Roosevelt accepted half of a victory. He
- had successfully stopped the wheels of the political machine once. It was not to be the
- last time (Morris 403-8). Roosevelt spent several years as a commissioner of police in New
- York City, eventually rising to become president of the board of commissioners. In these
- years, the true signs of the presidency that was to come shone through. Two of Roosevelt's
- closest acquaintances were Lincoln Steffens, and Jacob Riis (Morris 482), both reporters of
- New York newspapers. It was through them that Roosevelt communicated to the people, and he
- found it good practice to have the relayers of his messages be his friends. Through Riis'
- book How The Other Half Lives, Roosevelt had learned of the plight of the poor. Roosevelt
- saw the awful living conditions present in police lodging houses, and had them done away
- with (Cashman 123). He battled police corruption, trying hundreds of officers and finding
- corruption and graft in every corner of the department (Morris 491). When McKinley's first
- vice-president, Hobart, died, Roosevelt found himself in the capacity of Governor of New
- York. He had already fought in a war and been Assistant Secretary of the Navy, where he
- helped to orchestrate the United States' roles in Cuba and Panama. Roosevelt's expansionist
- views were here seen. As governor, he continued to defy the old political tactics,
- including bossism. Platt, the political boss of New York, had gotten Roosevelt elected
- governor, yet constantly ran up against Roosevelt, who would not follow any of his orders.
- Roosevelt spent a good time of his governorship attempting to outmaneuver Platt and his
- agents who were heavily present in the state legislature (Morris 708). Hobart's death, in
- 1899, forced the search for a new vice-presidential candidate, especially due to the
- upcoming election. Roosevelt emerged as the leading candidate, to the dismay of the
- Republican National Party's boss, Senator Mark Hanna. Hanna considered Roosevelt quite
- dangerous; in the previous term Hanna had done a great deal of controlling the president,
- and he feared what would happen if Roosevelt became vice-president. McKinley did not show
- any special preference. Hanna chose his own candidate, John D. Long, but was convinced
- through some slightly shady political maneuvering to vote for Roosevelt against his own
- better judgment (Morris 727). Hanna's personal dislike of Roosevelt did not diminish in the
- slightest, however. Shortly after the 1900 elections, Hanna sent McKinley a note saying
- "Your duty to the Country is to live for four years from next March (Miller 342). McKinley
- was re-nominated unanimously, receiving all 926 votes. Roosevelt received 925, the single
- vote against him cast by himself (Morris 729). Roosevelt served four days as Vice President
- before Congress adjourned until December. And when the news of McKinley's sudden death on
- September 14 came to him he said, in a very un-Roosevelt-like manner, that he would
- "continue, absolutely unbroken, the policy of President McKinley for the peace, the
- prosperity, and the honor of our beloved country" (Barck 45). This was tradition for
- replacement presidents, although it certainly seemed odd coming from such a strong-willed
- man as Roosevelt. Roosevelt had already made himself extremely well known in the public
- eye, so his transition to president was not as awkward as it might have been. Roosevelt
- campaigned furiously during 1900, traveling a total of 21,209 miles and making 673 speeches
- in 567 towns in 24 states (Morris 730). Only Bryan had campaigned more in the 19th century.
- For this reason, Roosevelt was able to manipulate, to a certain degree, the popular press.
- Although he disliked those "Muckrakers," as he called them, who looked for wrongdoing
- everywhere and served mostly to stir sensationalistic ideas, Roosevelt had a certain
- penchant for those like Steffens and Riis, who wrote copiously on the need for social
- reform. To do his part, Roosevelt attempted reforms that would benefit the working class.
- Unlike previous presidents, Roosevelt refused to use national force to break strikes. He
- also instituted the Interstate Commerce Act, which, with the Hepburn Act, allowed
- government regulation of transportation systems, preventing the railroad monopolies from
- instituting unfairly high prices (Barck 52). Taking a cue from Upton Sinclair's The Jungle,
- which detailed in vivid description the atrocious handling of meat at sausage factories,
- Roosevelt had the Pure Foods and Drugs Act and the Meat Inspection Act passed, preventing
- the manufacture of harmful foods and requiring inspection of meat facilities. A unique
- aspect of Roosevelt's presidency was his foreign policy. Although McKinley had been
- involved in Cuba and the Philippines, he had never expressed a wish to dominate as a world
- power. Roosevelt had, indeed, operated a large part of the United States' aggressive role
- towards Cuba, and in his presidency went even further to secure the United States as a
- dominating power. In 1904 he declared what would become the Roosevelt Corollary to the
- Monroe Doctrine in a letter to Secretary of War Elihu Root (Miller 394). Roosevelt argued
- that it was a civilized nation's right to intervene if its neighbors are engaged in
- wrongdoing. To that end, Roosevelt began to use force to preserve peace and order in the
- Western Hemisphere. The Dominican Republic needed Roosevelt's help first, as it was being
- harassed by Italy and France, to whom it owed large sums of money. To alleviate the
- problem, a loan was set up from the United States. Although the Dominicans eventually
- settled on the loan, anti-imperialists felt the United States was preparing to annex the
- Dominican Republic. It has been said that "The Roosevelt Corollary['s]...promulgation was
- proof that the United States realized its position as a world power" (Barck 100). Of
- course, this was all contingent on Roosevelt's enforcement of his doctrine. Roosevelt
- confirmed the role of the U. S. further by providing a strong military presence to wrest
- the boundary line of Alaska from Canada in 1902 and most importantly, by determination and
- perhaps a little impropriety in the annexation of the Panama Canal zone. Colombia had been
- a friendly country to the U. S., and when Panama revolted it seemed suspect that the United
- States should allow such an operation. But, as tends to be the case, Roosevelt wanted
- Panama free for other means. In his words, he wanted to "take Panama," for a canal and he
- did, demanding independence from a contract with England and grumbling when the deal ended
- up to be a 100 year lease of the canal zone, rather than an outright purchase. The Panama
- canal was, in Roosevelt's mind, to be as great a feat as the Louisiana purchase or Texas
- annexation. It was a controversial measure, and showed Roosevelt's beliefs in the
- superiority and rights of civilization (Miller 399). In 1907 Roosevelt finally decided he
- had had enough and, rather than run for a third term, which he could have easily done,
- virtually appointed William Howard Taft as his successor and went off to enjoy retirement.
- Taft was a good friend of Roosevelt and shared many of his views. Under Taft, Congress
- expanded the Conservation Laws, keeping alive TR's national parks service. In addition, 80
- suits were initiated by Taft's attorney general on companies violating the Sherman
- Anti-Trust act. Unfortunately, Taft's presidency was not nearly as successful as
- Roosevelt's, for while the country became more and more progressive, Taft stood pat,
- remaining mostly conservative (Barck 68). In response to Taft's conservative stance,
- progressives united to form the National Progressive League. Meanwhile, Roosevelt returned
- to politics. Bored with the quiet life, he desired the presidency once again, and naturally
- went for the Republican ticket. However, Taft decided to give Roosevelt a little taste of
- his own medicine, and refused to accede to Roosevelt, who was now playing the political
- boss. The friendship that had existed between these two was splintered, and Roosevelt, in a
- rage, formed the Progressive party and ran as a third candidate. Although he feared he
- would be defeated if the Democrats nominated a progressive candidate (which they found in
- Wilson), Roosevelt ran with his soul, as he did everything in life. At the Progressive
- party convention, Roosevelt read aloud his "Confession of Faith," a sweeping charter for
- reform that outlined the agenda for the twentieth century (Miller 528). The confession
- advocated direct senate elections, preferential primaries, women's suffrage, corruption
- laws, referendum and recall, a federal securities commission, trust regulation, reduced
- tariffs, unemployment insurance, old-age pensions, anti-child-labor laws, and food purity
- laws (Miller 528). Roosevelt lost the 1912 election, but he certainly did not lose power.
- Over the next century, he would have every single part of his agenda made national law. The
- turn towards progressivism was only beginning, and continued with Wilson. Although a
- democrat, his views were remarkably progressive. They were also remarkably Rooseveltian.
- Like Roosevelt, Wilson had a strong will and did not take kindly to dissent, as can be seen
- by his appointment of Louis Brandeis to the supreme court over the objections of at least
- six former presidents of the American Bar Association (Barck 110). Wilson also formally
- reinvented the role of a strong executive demonstrated so heartily by Roosevelt by
- delivering speeches directly before Congress, rather than having them read by a clerk.
- Wilson kept alive Roosevelt's ideals with tariff reductions, the Federal Reserve System.
- Wilson even advocated the democratization of the Philippines, even though he was strongly
- anti-imperialist (Barck 121). Until the war in Europe distracted America long enough to
- lead it eventually back into a post-war depression, Wilson carried on the traditions of his
- political opponent, in the redefined presidency of the newly powerful United States.
- Although the United States was moving ever forward in its effort to "policing the world" it
- was not as progressive as all that in 1914. Even TR himself did not advocate joining in on
- World War I, seeing no reason to take part in an affair that did not concern the United
- States in the slightest. However, once German U-boats began sinking ships carrying American
- passengers, Roosevelt changed his tune, along with a percentage of the American people.
- Eventually, enough popular sentiment urged Congress to declare war, and it was done. It
- seems here as if Wilson was dragging his feet, but in another generation, the mere
- consideration of war in Europe would have been ludicrous. Having gotten its feet wet, the
- United States became a first-class country with first-class responsibilities. The United
- States advocated by TR continued after the war and beyond. After a brief interlude in which
- everything seemed to revert back to the old ways and Americans looked again toward the
- individual, another Roosevelt, Franklin Delano, used the ideas of his cousin to
- reinvigorate the economy and rebuild the nation. Today, the reforms advocated by TR exist
- and are in full use, while other more progressive reforms, like national health care, are
- being considered. Although our civilization may not end abruptly in 1999, as predicted by
- numerous psychics and fortune-tellers, it is probable that some large revolutionary act
- will change the way our country works in four years or so, just as it has before. While our
- Roosevelt may not have the immense popularity or wonderful charm as the original, it is not
- doubtful that whoever it is will have to have will, strength, brains, and fortitude equal
- to or above that of the original.
-
-
- Bibliography
-
- Barack, Oscar Theodore Jr., and Nelson Manfred Blake. Since 1900: A History of the United
- States in Our Times. New York: MacMillan, 1974.
-
- Cashman, Sean Dennis. America In the Gilded Age: From the Death of Lincoln to the Rise of
- Theodore Roosevelt. New York: New York University Press, 1984.
-
- Hagedorn, Hermann. The Boys' Life of Theodore Roosevelt. New York: Harper and Brothers,
- 1918.
-
- Knoll, Erwin. Review of Theodore Roosevelt: A Life, by Nathan Miller. New York Times Book
- Review, February 28, 1993. p.14. CD-ROM: Resource One.
-
- Miller, Nathan. Theodore Roosevelt: A Life. New Yor: William Morrow, & Co., 1992.
-
- Morris, Edward. The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt. New York: Goward, McCann, & Geoghegan,
- 1979.
-
- Nash, Gary, et. al. The American People: Creating a Nation and a Society. New York: Harper
- Collins, 1990.
-
-
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