Skip to main content

Roosevelt's European Tour

By


I started reading an advance copy of Colonel Roosevelt and am enjoying Edmund Morris' descriptions of Roosevelt's time in Europe, where he was feted by virtually every head of state, including Kaiser Wilhelm, who invited him to see German maneuvers, which apparently left Roosevelt deeply troubled about the state of military affairs in Europe, as Germany was all too obviously the best organized force on the continent.  Seems the Kaiser wanted Roosevelt to take this impression home with him, especially after the run-ins they had over Venezuela while he was President. 

Comments

  1. robertwhelanOctober 14, 2010 at 2:56 AM

    It's my understanding that TR respected the Kaiser. I'll loook in some of my WWI books to refresh my memory on how they viewed one another. I recall they met in 1910.
    I'm twitching in anticipation of the book. Does the book take TR through his death?

    ReplyDelete
  2. James FergusonOctober 14, 2010 at 8:23 AM

    Well worth looking forward to, bob. I'm a little over 1/3 of my way through the book and his coverage of the 1910 and 1912 elections is first rate. He captured Teddy in all his vacillations and vainglory as he struggles with his ebbing influence on the Republican Party. Interesting that this signaled the time, progressivism came to be adopted by the Democratic Party, although it is really hard to view Woodrow Wilson as a "progressive" in retrospect, especially given his racism. The book does carry Teddy through to the end.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Post!

By
How about this one -- I'm really looking forward to reading it:

http://www.amazon.com/Man-Who-Never-Died-American/dp/1596916966/
10 comments
Read more

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

By
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 growing s…
229 comments
Read more

News with legs

By
It is nice having a range of cable news programs again.  For the last few years the only one we got from our analog cable subscriber was CNN, but with the new digital cable subscriber we get BBC, Euronews, and other premium channels if we so choose.  You realize how badly CNN has slipped behind other news networks, seeming to have adopted the Fox model of generating faux arguments with their round table discussions.  Kate Bolduan has emerged as their answer to Megyn Kelly, replete with plexiglass tables so you can see her legs better.  Chris Cuomo has become their "Hannity," stirring up unnecessary arguments mostly to hear himself talk, albeit to the left of the political spectrum.  Wolf Blitzer lords over the station like Baba O'Reilly, although he tries hard to keep his political views right down the middle.

I suppose the success of Kate Bolduan can be measured by SNL now lampooning At This Hour, and also the fan base she now has thanks to her sexy legs.  She also anc…
Post a Comment
Read more