statman's review against another edition
4.0
Kearns is a great author of history on par with an Ambrose or McCullough. This one did not disappoint. This is less about Taft and Roosevelt and more about the politics and history of the key time period at the beginning of the 20th century. Kearns explains well how the work of Taft and Roosevelt paved the way for a later Roosevelt and the New Deal. I also enjoyed the history of the journalism of the era. At 750 pages it is not a quick read.
abrswf's review against another edition
5.0
Another tour de force by Goodwin, this book really pulled together a coherent and often gripping story of the lives and personal relationship of Theodore Roosevelt, William Taft, the brilliant muckraking journalists of their age, and their links to the Progressive movement. The pictures are fascinating too.
fionak's review against another edition
4.0
Very detailed and thoroughly researched. Really long though, and (consequently) heavy enough to be unwieldy.
scholastic_squid's review against another edition
4.0
Good book, I enjoyed learning about the two men from their childhoods thru careers and adulthood. I unfortunately couldn't finish the last CD due to it being out at the library. If I get the chance I'll finish it, however, I've heard most of it.
Teddy is great and also rode a moose across a river in his life time. Great that he could listen to people and go see for himself in order to learn and grow.
Taft is much more than I would have thought without reading this book. He is an incredible person for his family life and dance moves. The fact that he helped educate with his own money is awesome.
Teddy is great and also rode a moose across a river in his life time. Great that he could listen to people and go see for himself in order to learn and grow.
Taft is much more than I would have thought without reading this book. He is an incredible person for his family life and dance moves. The fact that he helped educate with his own money is awesome.
acarman1's review against another edition
4.0
Doris Kearns Goodwin fancies herself a social critic. "Team of Rivals" had to masquerade as a blueprint for presidential cabinets despite the fact that Lincoln's cabinet caused at least as many problems as it solved. Now she hopes her latest work will encourage journalists to work hand in glove with the government to formulate policy the way she imagines it happened in the Progressive Era. Her book is well written and contains a wealth of useful information, but her plot is lost in a rehash of Theodore Roosevelt's career...a story that is better told elsewhere. She makes heroes of the muckrakers, skating over the fact that many of them moved quickly from honest, objective reporting to deliberately pushing their agenda. She also hints that Roosevelt's great success, and Taft's biggest drawback, was the way they handled the media. The point is valid but overshadowed in the retelling. I appreciated her attempt to defend Taft, but since it was her heroes who first undermined him it doesn't fit. Still anyone interested in the period will find this a treasure trove of interesting information.
sebswann's review against another edition
5.0
"However astute Roosevelt proved in dealing with Congress, he would doubtless have failed to secure a meaningful bill without a galvanized public behind him. The combined efforts of Baker and his fellow journalists had generated a widespread demand for reform. 'Congress might ignore a president,' the Fort Wayne (Indiana) Weekly Sentinel observed, 'but could not ignore a president and the people.'
A letter discovered among Baker's papers testifies to the impact of investigative journalism on the passage of the Hepburn Bill: 'It is through writers like yourself, Mr. Steffens and Miss Tarvell that the country as a whole is beginning to understand. In the future your influence on the life of the Republic will be held to be greater than that of the men who now rule our Senate and our House.' Baker had reflected on their accomplishment and his growing confidence in the nation's future in a January letter to his father: 'This crusade against special privilege in high places is real war, a real revolution,' he wrote. 'We may not have to go as far as you did, when you fought out the slavery question with powder & blood. At the present, when any of us is wounded we bleed nothing but ink. But ink may serve the purpose."
If you like Theodore Roosevelt, William Taft, or muckraking journalism; Doris Kearns Goodwin recounts a great American friendship and the role of journalism in driving progressive policy at the beginning of the twentieth century, providing a wealth of knowledge, lessons, and wisdom for anyone trying to improve society.
A letter discovered among Baker's papers testifies to the impact of investigative journalism on the passage of the Hepburn Bill: 'It is through writers like yourself, Mr. Steffens and Miss Tarvell that the country as a whole is beginning to understand. In the future your influence on the life of the Republic will be held to be greater than that of the men who now rule our Senate and our House.' Baker had reflected on their accomplishment and his growing confidence in the nation's future in a January letter to his father: 'This crusade against special privilege in high places is real war, a real revolution,' he wrote. 'We may not have to go as far as you did, when you fought out the slavery question with powder & blood. At the present, when any of us is wounded we bleed nothing but ink. But ink may serve the purpose."
If you like Theodore Roosevelt, William Taft, or muckraking journalism; Doris Kearns Goodwin recounts a great American friendship and the role of journalism in driving progressive policy at the beginning of the twentieth century, providing a wealth of knowledge, lessons, and wisdom for anyone trying to improve society.
mjsteimle's review against another edition
4.0
Finished this behemoth! I had a lot of background knowledge going in to this book, having read the Edmund Morris trilogy on TR as well as a biography of Taft. Kearns Goodwin provides enough detail in telling the stories of Roosevelt and Taft that I don't think there were any major gaps, but I did like being able to rely on the additional depth and perspectives of the other biographies. I felt the whole "golden age of journalism" in the title is a bit overplayed. I really enjoyed the sections on McClure's and the writers of the magazine; they were some of the most enjoyable passages in the book, perhaps because the material was new to me. I also agree that Roosevelt's ability to leverage the press and Taft's inability to do so were important elements in the success or lack of success of the two administrations, but really the friendship between the two men, rather than the role of the press, is the thread that runs through this story.
Of the three portraits of Taft I've read, this one is definitely the most flattering.
Finally, the editor who didn't catch Kearns Goodwin's use of the word sanguine just about every five pages needs to be fired.
Of the three portraits of Taft I've read, this one is definitely the most flattering.
Finally, the editor who didn't catch Kearns Goodwin's use of the word sanguine just about every five pages needs to be fired.