The New Nationalism

Both Morris and Cooper attach much importance to the 1910 speech Roosevelt made on The New Nationalism while stumping for Republican candidates in Osawatomie, Kansas. He had lifted the title from a book by Herbert Croly. He would later combine this speech with other speeches in a book of his own. But, this speech contained the germ of his idealistic vision of a more vigorous America. Essentially, an America modeled upon himself.

What he wanted most was for Americans to rise above materialistic persuits and understand their unique role in shaping America's course. He pushed for greater regulations of industry, but at the same time recognized the value of industry. He wanted Americans to forgo their sense of isolationism and become more aware of America's growing dominance on the world's stage. It was almost like he was conferring a sense of noblesse oblige on all Americans.

Cooper notes that the subsequent 1912 election, which pitted Roosevelt against Wilson, lifted American politics to a level not seen since 1800, where grand political philosophies were being hashed out on the stump by two of America's most dynamic speakers. In many ways both Wilson and Roosevelt shared this sense of a "New Nationalism," but approached it from different angles.

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Dylan in America

Whoever it was in 1969 who named the very first Bob Dylan bootleg album “Great White Wonder” may have had a mischievous streak. There are any number of ways you can interpret the title — most boringly, the cover was blank, like the Beatles’ “White Album” — but I like to see a sly allusion to “Moby-Dick.” In the seven years since the release of his first commercial record, Dylan had become the white whale of 20th-century popular song, a wild, unconquerable and often baffling force of musical nature who drove fans and critics Ahab-mad in their efforts to spear him, lash him to the hull and render him merely comprehensible. --- Bruce Handy, NYTimes ____________________________________________ I figured we can start fresh with Bob Dylan. Couldn't resist this photo of him striking a Woody Guthrie pose. Looks like only yesterday. Here is a link to the comments building up to this reading group.

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

Welcome to this month's reading group selection. David Von Drehle mentions The Melting Pot , a play by Israel Zangwill, that premiered on Broadway in 1908. At that time theater was accessible to a broad section of the public, not the exclusive domain it has become over the decades. Zangwill carried a hopeful message that America was a place where old hatreds and prejudices were pointless, and that in this new country immigrants would find a more open society. I suppose the reference was more an ironic one for Von Drehle, as he notes the racial and ethnic hatreds were on display everywhere, and at best Zangwill's play helped persons forget for a moment how deep these divides ran. Nevertheless, "the melting pot" made its way into the American lexicon, even if New York could best be describing as a boiling cauldron in the early twentieth century. Triangle: The Fire That Changed America takes a broad view of events that led up the notorious fire, noting the gro

Team of Rivals Reading Group

''Team of Rivals" is also an America ''coming-of-age" saga. Lincoln, Seward, Chase et al. are sketched as being part of a ''restless generation," born when Founding Fathers occupied the White House and the Louisiana Purchase netted nearly 530 million new acres to be explored. The Western Expansion motto of this burgeoning generation, in fact, was cleverly captured in two lines of Stephen Vincent Benet's verse: ''The stream uncrossed, the promise still untried / The metal sleeping in the mountainside." None of the protagonists in ''Team of Rivals" hailed from the Deep South or Great Plains. _______________________________ From a review by Douglas Brinkley, 2005

Dispatches from Vilnius

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