Biograhy: THE BULLY PULPIT, Doris Kearns Goodwin

Teddy Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, 

SS McClure, Ida Tarbell, Lincoln Steffens, Ray Baker

Published 2013, 928 pages

Dialectic Journal/Lesson Plans: 313 pages, 129,938 words, visuals

To be sure, Roosevelt had faced a pernicious underlying crisis, one as pervasive as any military conflict or economic collapse. In the wake of the Industrial Revolution, an immense gulf had opened between the rich and the poor; daily existence had become more difficult for ordinary people, and the middle class felt increasingly squeezed. Yet by the end of Roosevelt’s tenure in the White House, a mood of reform had swept the country, creating a new kind of presidency and a new vision of the relationship between the government and the people. A series of anti-trust suits had been won and legislation passed to regulate railroads, strengthen labor rights, curb political corruption, end corporate campaign contributions, impose limits on the working day, protect consumers from unsafe food and drugs, and conserve vast swaths of natural resources for the American people. The question that most intrigued me was how Roosevelt had managed to rouse a Congress long wedded to the reigning concept of laissez-faire—a government interfering as little as possible in the economic and social life of the people—to pass such comprehensive measures

The people that brought down the Trusts and the Robber Barons were Theodore Roosevelt, and William Howard Taft (surprising star of this book). SS McClurel Ida Tarbell, Lincoln Steffens, and Ray Baker were the writers (journalists, muckrakers, social service writers) who helped. Very similar to our times in 2025.