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The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism (CD-Audio)

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The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism By Doris Kearns Goodwin, Edward Herrmann (Read by) Cover Image
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Doris Kearns Goodwin has hit another home run. Her in-depth examination of several of the key figures deeply involved in the early days of the Progressive Era will be sought after by every American history buff. Her research is aided by the daily letters people wrote and that other people preserved. It was a time not unlike our present day - a huge gap between the rich and the poor, highly-concentrated wealth in the hands of the few, corporations opposing and fighting against reforms. I found the discussion of McClure's Magazine and the outstanding investigative journalists Ida Tarbell, Lincoln Steffens, Ray Stannard Baker, and William Allen White the most interesting part of the book. These muckraking journalists are a far cry from our current sound bite media culture.


— Joan

The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism by Doris Kearns Goodwin. Doris Kearns Goodwin has hit another home run. Her in-depth examination of several of the key figures deeply involved in the early days of the Progressive Era will be sought after by every American history buff. Her research is greatly aided by the multiple daily letters people wrote and that other people preserved. It was a time not unlike our present day – a huge gap between the rich and the poor, highly concentrated wealth in the hands of the few, corporations opposing and fighting against reforms. I found the discussion of McClure’s Magazine and the outstanding investigative journalists Ida Tarbell, Lincoln Steffens, Ray Stannard Baker, and William Allen White the most interesting part of the book. These muckraking journalists are a far cry for our current sound bite media culture.

— Joan

Description


Winner of the 2015 Audie Award for History/Biography and Finalist for Audiobook of the Year

Pulitzer Prize–winning author and presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin’s dynamic history of Theodore Roosevelt, William H. Taft and the first decade of the Progressive era, that tumultuous time when the nation was coming unseamed and reform was in the air.

Winner of the Carnegie Medal.

Doris Kearns Goodwin’s The Bully Pulpit is a dynamic history of the first decade of the Progressive era, that tumultuous time when the nation was coming unseamed and reform was in the air.

The story is told through the intense friendship of Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft—a close relationship that strengthens both men before it ruptures in 1912, when they engage in a brutal fight for the presidential nomination that divides their wives, their children, and their closest friends, while crippling the progressive wing of the Republican Party, causing Democrat Woodrow Wilson to be elected, and changing the country’s history.

The Bully Pulpit is also the story of the muckraking press, which arouses the spirit of reform that helps Roosevelt push the government to shed its laissez-faire attitude toward robber barons, corrupt politicians, and corporate exploiters of our natural resources. The muckrakers are portrayed through the greatest group of journalists ever assembled at one magazine—Ida Tarbell, Ray Stannard Baker, Lincoln Steffens, and William Allen White—teamed under the mercurial genius of publisher S.S. McClure.

Goodwin’s narrative is founded upon a wealth of primary materials. The correspondence of more than four hundred letters between Roosevelt and Taft begins in their early thirties and ends only months before Roosevelt’s death. Edith Roosevelt and Nellie Taft kept diaries. The muckrakers wrote hundreds of letters to one another, kept journals, and wrote their memoirs. The letters of Captain Archie Butt, who served as a personal aide to both Roosevelt and Taft, provide an intimate view of both men.

The Bully Pulpit, like Goodwin’s brilliant chronicles of the Civil War and World War II, exquisitely demonstrates her distinctive ability to combine scholarly rigor with accessibility. It is a major work of history—an examination of leadership in a rare moment of activism and reform that brought the country closer to its founding ideals.

About the Author


Doris Kearns Goodwin’s work for President Johnson inspired her career as a presidential historian. Her first book was Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream. She followed up with the Pulitzer Prize–winning No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Homefront in World War II. She earned the Lincoln Prize for Team of Rivals, in part the basis for Steven Spielberg’s film Lincoln, and the Carnegie Medal for The Bully Pulpit, about the friendship between Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft. Her last book, Leadership: In Turbulent Times was the inspiration for the History Channel docuseries on Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, and Franklin Roosevelt, which she executive produced.

Edward Herrmann's films include Nixon, The Purple Rose of Cairo, Annie, and The Aviator. On television's Gilmore Girls he starred as the patriarch, Richard Gilmore. He has also appeared on The Good Wife, Law & Order, 30 Rock, Grey's Anatomy, and Oz. He earned an Emmy Award for The Practice, and remains well-known for his Emmy-nominated portrayals of FDR in Eleanor and Franklin and Eleanor and Franklin: The White House Years. On Broadway, he won a Tony Award for his performance in Mrs. Warren's Profession.
Product Details
ISBN: 9781442353152
ISBN-10: 1442353155
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Publication Date: November 5th, 2013
Language: English