A conventional, even melodramatic, political history of the Progressive Era

Review of The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt and the Golden Age of Journalism by Doris Kearns Goodwin

In spite of the promising “Bully Pulpit” theme – where TR's direct democracy coalesced with the investigative journalism of the muckrakers – Kearns' book is a sentimental, rather conventional political history. It is way too long, often loses the narrative thread in trivial biographical detail, and never really makes a clear point. OK, I'm comparing this with her great masterpiece, Team of Rivals, but I expected a much better book about this pivotal period.

The story is built around a triple biography of Teddy Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and S.S. McClure. TR comes off as an ebullient juggernaut, blazing a progressive trail and unafraid to fight the system. Taft is more of a manager, a good follower without an original mind, and ill-suited to the career of a political leader (into which his wife had pushed him). McClure, along with his stable of phenomenal reporters, is a great innovator in journalism, not only allowing his writers to pursue stories in unprecedented investigative depth, but a confidant and goad to politicians and especially TR.

Unfortunately, instead of sticking to events and what impact they had on American society, Kearns concentrates on the personal drama of the characters as they interact. Nearly half of the book is on the breakdown of TR's relationship with Taft. The same goes for McClure and his reporters, though thankfully in less detail. The stories carry some interest, to be sure, just not as the centerpiece of a long narrative.

What gets neglected or under-covered are the vast changes underway with industrialization, urbanization, and the intimate networking of most Americans into the political system for the first time. Monopolies sprung up, conspiracies to defraud the working class flourished, etc.; while Kearns mentions them all, she fails to follow up in sufficient detail (at any rate for me) on how the actions of her protagonists impacted these issues. I got little idea of how the American people saw and adapted to these issues, except as it operated through the political system as managed by leaders at the very top. You get the lives and loves of the three, but far too little on the times in which they operated as key actors. This was frustratingly incomplete for me.

Kearns covers very well the way that TR changed the presidency, that is, using his personal charisma and energy to speak directly to the people, his attempts to enlarge their participation in elections, the symbiosis with the great journalists of the time, and his courage in shaking up a complacent and corrupt system. I also learned most about the muckrakers, whose work exposed many of the ills inherent in early modern capitalism. The only caveat I have is that these developments are covered better elsewhere – for such a massive book, Kearns adds nothing really new.

What gets dished up are details. Taft's wife is the one who planted the cherry trees in DC; her stroke deprived him of political advice at a crucial moment of his presidency. TR had a happy marriage with his second wife and could not move on once his time had passed. McClure operated for a moment as an editor of genius, only to blow it with his manic behavior. Etc. Fun, but why do we need to read about them in a book that's supposed to explain the mechanics of the Progressive Era?

This book was somehow always off kilter, never finding the sweet spot that linked the details presented with an original and compelling interpretation of some sort. As such, I would recommend this to fans of Kearns and those who want a general, if superficial, introduction to pre-WWI American as it was reaching its industrial-capitalist apogee.