History
Book Club
Wednesday,
April 27, 2016
The "Yellow Kid" cartoon of the 1890s may have given the name to "the Yellow Press"
The History
of Journalism and the Media
Wednesday,
April 27, 2016: History of Journalism and the Media. Benjamin
Franklin, Horace Greeley, Yellow Press, “Acta Diurna” in Ancient Rome; “Notizie
Scritta in Venice; The Manchester Guardian; Jonathan Swift; more.
THE BULLY PULPIT
Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard
Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism
By
Doris Kearns Goodwin, Illustrated. 909 pp. Simon & Schuster. 2013 (Kindle
Edition)
Doris Kearns Goodwin is the
quintessential presidential historian. As
the author of Team of Rivals, she
appeared on Stephen Colbert’s Late Night show a few months ago. She was brought
in on a platform carried by four half-nude Chippendale-type males with beards
and top hats à la Lincoln.
When
Colbert asked about Donald Trump’s campaign she said that there has never been
a demagogue like him elected president.
But, of course there is always a first time.
Theodore
Roosevelt family at the White House, ca. 1905
Bully Pulpit
is three stories, set in the 1890s, when America was changing from a growing
industrial country to a nation with international aspirations, on its way
toward become a super power. Goodwin tells the story of a young, sickly “Teedy”
Roosevelt, born to a privileged family. That boy overcame the sickliness and
became a model of masculine energy and achievement, the Eveready Bunny who
studied, learned, wrote scores of books, dreamed and carried out ideas, became
a leader and champion of the underdog. On his way to becoming President, he
fought corruption as a New York City Police Commissioner, served as Assistant
Secretary of the Navy at a time when he could help our Navy to become the force
that eventually defeated Japan and Germany in World War II.
William
Howard Taft family, Manila, ca. 1902
The second story is of William
Howard Taft, also born to a privileged family, who became what historian Henry
Adams felt was eminently qualified to become President. Where Will Taft began life as a husky,
handsome achiever in sharp contrast to Theodore, as time went on he became
obese, while Teddy was shooting bison in the west and hunting big game in
Africa.
The story is also of Alice,
Roosevelt’s first wife, who died after their first child was born, then Edith, the
quiet, intelligent woman who served as a brake for her impetuous husband, and
of Helen (Nellie), Taft’s wife, who had the political aggressiveness that Taft
lacked, as well as intelligence and style to help propel him through his
career.
The third story is about the
“Muckrakers”--- a group of journalists who gathered together by Sam McClure to
create a unique magazine, which served up long, detailed articles each month
which opened the eyes of intelligent middle class Americans to the predatory
activities of rapacious captains of industry, criminally cruel slumlords, and
corrupt politicians, public servants and union bosses.
Ida
Tarbell
This
collection of journalists included Ida Tarbell, whose father had been squeezed
out of the oil business by Standard Oil Company; Lincoln Steffens, who had
observed the crooked politicians who ran Minneapolis; and Ray Stannard Baker,
who had observed the labor unions who cheated their members and colluded with
their employers. There were also William
Allen White editor of the Emporia (KS)
Gazette, Albert Boyden and John Siddal.
Teddy
Roosevelt began his education of the realities of life in New York City as a
New York Police Commissioner. He soon
saw that much of police work was corrupt, from top to bottom, and he began
nightly walks around neighborhoods to see where police were actually walking
their beats, or were napping or otherwise engaged in crooked practices. Along the way he befriended Jacob Riis, who
had already devoted much energy toward chronicling the plight of new immigrants
jammed into stinking tenements.
As
a politician who actually wanted to make a difference, Teddy became one of the
Progressive Republicans, fighting crooked Tammany Hall, which was the New York Democratic party.
He
soon began friendships with the journalists of McClure’s Magazine and Riis, which helped him to learn the dark
side of his world, and gave him the opportunity to capture the attention of
millions of voters to right these wrongs.
Roosevelt and the Muckrakers formed a tight, mutually-beneficial team
for good in the city. This marked the
era when Republicans like Teddy and Taft opposed the laissez faire, get along establishment
part of the GOP.
How
different were Teddy and Will Taft, fighting status quo Republicans for
Progressive causes like improving the lot of the poor, stopping big corporate
monopolies and busting trusts. Today the “Progressive” label belongs to the
Democrats, and the Republicans have the reputation of opposing abortion, gay
marriage, denying climate change, stopping government in its tracks, unwavering
loyalty to the National Rifle Association, and, with its fundamentalist
religious wing, extreme views on evolution, the Christian bible, and creation.
The
goal of McClure’s Magazine was to
educate literate middle class Americans, and it worked for several years. They
priced the magazine within reach of the middle class (35¢) and readers gobbled
up issues loaded with lengthy stories which revealed sleazy, greedy, avaricious
practices of big industry, big labor, government, and landlords. The McClure’s
team dug out stories that exposed wrongdoing, and their readers often gave
leaders like Roosevelt and Taft the backing to achieve legislative and
regulatory change. Goodwin wrote that the muckrakers were “putting
faces and names to the giant corporations, shining a bright light on the sordid
maneuvers that were crushing independent businessmen in one sector after
another.”
McClure's Magazine in 1902 featured Tarbell's History of Standard Oil
For years the railroads had worked a scheme of charging
different rates for different customers.
Ida Tarbell’s father had been a small oil producer in the country’s
first oilfields at Titusville, PA.
Rockefeller’s Standard Oil had a special low rate for his oil shipments,
but Tarbell had a much higher rate. This
forced small producers out of business.
All over the country there were deals like this. One of Roosevelt’s first targets after taking
office was to regulate the railroads, and to empower the Interstate Commerce
Commission to set rates and root out discriminatory practices. Ray Stannard
Baker produced a multi-part article, 50,000 words total, which each month
revealed more of the railroads’ trickery.
Roosevelt and Baker collaborated on this measure, because
in Congress, with senators well taken care of by the railroad lobby, it was
going to be nearly impossible. After
several months, and against fierce opposition, but with an angry public well
informed on the issue, the legislation passed.
This was a great example of how Roosevelt and the media could gain the
support of the public to right an old wrong.
Bully Pulpit is
also a story of a strange friendship, between two quite dissimilar men. Teddy
admired Taft, and brought him into his cabinet as Secretary of War, where he
performed well. After nearly eight
years, Teddy urged his old friend to run for President. Taft really did not want the job, but his
wife, Nellie did, and she urged him to run.
The book ends with the election of 1912. Taft has completed his term and is running
for a second term against Democrat Woodrow Wilson. Teddy, after a year’s hunting trip in Africa
and other adventures, has unfriended Taft, and ends up running for President as
a third party candidate. The party is
his own creation, The Progressive Party, or The Bull Moose party. Teddy lost,
dragging Taft down with him, and Wilson went on to face The Great War.
-end-
Future
History Book Club Topics
Here
are the topics for the rest of 2016.
Feel free to comment on these topics, and to suggest additional or
substitute topics.
Wednesday,
May 25, 2016: Modern Life in the Middle East and the Islamic State.
Iraq from its formation after WWI, Syria, the Caliphate, Origins of conflict,
Sunni vs. Shii vs. Kurds vs. Alewhites Vs. Wahabi vs. ? Modern technology with Seventh-century
ideas, Impact of USSR and U.S. in Afghanistan, U.S. combat in Iraq; Arab Spring;
Turkey and Islam, Jordan, The Gulf States, Egypt, much more.
Wednesday,
June 29, 2016: Africa since 1900. Colonization
by Belgium, France, Britain, Germany and Portugal; End of Colonialism;
Democracy and Dictatorship; Rwanda; Jomo Kenyatta; Apartheid and South Africa;
Congo; Angola; more….
Wednesday,
July 27, 2016: American Foreign Policy from the Barbara Pirates to today. Civil
War alliances by both Union and Confederacy; Gunboat Diplomacy;
Spanish-American War; “He Kept Us out of War!”; Britain and the U.S. in WWII;
The Cold War; more.
Wednesday,
August, 31, 2016: Germs and Plagues: A history of epidemics in the world. Plague
of Athens (429 BC), Plague of Justinian (541 AD), “Black Death” in 1346,
Cocoliztli Epidemic in Mexico (1528), Wampanoag Smallpox in 1616, 1918 Flu
Pandemic, more.
Wednesday,
September 28, 2016: Scaremongering and Witch Hunts in America. Salem
Witch Trials, House Un-American Activities Committee; McCarthy Investigations;
more.
Wednesday,
October 26, 2016: Political Parties in
America. Whigs, Know-Nothings, Federalists, Copperheads;
Communists, Socialists, Republicans, Democrats, more.
Wednesday,
November 30, 2016: Colonization in America. Jamestown,
Plymouth, Gloucester, St. Augustine, Junipero Serra, Roger Williams, Quebec,
Nieuw Amsterdam, more.
December: No Meeting
