Download or read book William Howard Taft written by Jeffrey Rosen and published by Times Books. This book was released on 2018-03-20 with total page 206 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The only man to serve as president and chief justice, who approached every decision in constitutional terms, defending the Founders’ vision against new populist threats to American democracy William Howard Taft never wanted to be president and yearned instead to serve as chief justice of the United States. But despite his ambivalence about politics, the former federal judge found success in the executive branch as governor of the Philippines and secretary of war, and he won a resounding victory in the presidential election of 1908 as Theodore Roosevelt’s handpicked successor. In this provocative assessment, Jeffrey Rosen reveals Taft’s crucial role in shaping how America balances populism against the rule of law. Taft approached each decision as president by asking whether it comported with the Constitution, seeking to put Roosevelt’s activist executive orders on firm legal grounds. But unlike Roosevelt, who thought the president could do anything the Constitution didn’t forbid, Taft insisted he could do only what the Constitution explicitly allowed. This led to a dramatic breach with Roosevelt in the historic election of 1912, which Taft viewed as a crusade to defend the Constitution against the demagogic populism of Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson. Nine years later, Taft achieved his lifelong dream when President Warren Harding appointed him chief justice, and during his years on the Court he promoted consensus among the justices and transformed the judiciary into a modern, fully equal branch. Though he had chafed in the White House as a judicial president, he thrived as a presidential chief justice.

Download or read book William Howard Taft 1857 1930 written by William Howard Taft and published by . This book was released on 1970 with total page 102 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Bully Pulpit written by Doris Kearns Goodwin and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2013-11-05 with total page 912 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pulitzer Prize–winning author and presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin’s dynamic history of Theodore Roosevelt, William H. Taft and the first decade of the Progressive era, that tumultuous time when the nation was coming unseamed and reform was in the air. Winner of the Carnegie Medal. Doris Kearns Goodwin’s The Bully Pulpit is a dynamic history of the first decade of the Progressive era, that tumultuous time when the nation was coming unseamed and reform was in the air. The story is told through the intense friendship of Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft—a close relationship that strengthens both men before it ruptures in 1912, when they engage in a brutal fight for the presidential nomination that divides their wives, their children, and their closest friends, while crippling the progressive wing of the Republican Party, causing Democrat Woodrow Wilson to be elected, and changing the country’s history. The Bully Pulpit is also the story of the muckraking press, which arouses the spirit of reform that helps Roosevelt push the government to shed its laissez-faire attitude toward robber barons, corrupt politicians, and corporate exploiters of our natural resources. The muckrakers are portrayed through the greatest group of journalists ever assembled at one magazine—Ida Tarbell, Ray Stannard Baker, Lincoln Steffens, and William Allen White—teamed under the mercurial genius of publisher S.S. McClure. Goodwin’s narrative is founded upon a wealth of primary materials. The correspondence of more than four hundred letters between Roosevelt and Taft begins in their early thirties and ends only months before Roosevelt’s death. Edith Roosevelt and Nellie Taft kept diaries. The muckrakers wrote hundreds of letters to one another, kept journals, and wrote their memoirs. The letters of Captain Archie Butt, who served as a personal aide to both Roosevelt and Taft, provide an intimate view of both men. The Bully Pulpit, like Goodwin’s brilliant chronicles of the Civil War and World War II, exquisitely demonstrates her distinctive ability to combine scholarly rigor with accessibility. It is a major work of history—an examination of leadership in a rare moment of activism and reform that brought the country closer to its founding ideals.

Download or read book William Howard Taft and the First Motoring Presidency 1909 1913 written by Michael L. Bromley and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2007-01-09 with total page 447 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: William Howard Taft declared, "I am sure the automobile coming in as a toy of the wealthier class is going to prove the most useful of them all to all classes, rich and poor." Unlike his predecessors, who made public their disdain for the automobile, Taft saw the automobile industry as a great source of wealth for this country. The first president to acquire a car in office (Congress granted him three automobiles), Taft is responsible for there being a White House garage in 1909. This is a meticulously researched reappraisal of the oft-maligned Taft presidency focusing particularly on his cars, his relationship to the automobile and the role of the automobile in the politics of his day. Appendices provide information on the White House garage and stable, Taft's speech to the Automobile Club of America and a glossary of terms and names.

Download or read book William Howard Taft and the Philippines written by Adam D. Burns and published by Legacies of War. This book was released on 2020 with total page 189 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Adam Burns explores the American imperial venture in the Philippines through the lens of a single individual: William Howard Taft. Taft held a number of positions (head of the second Philippine Commission, first US civil governor of the islands, US Secretary of War, and US president) which mark him out from others in the period as an individual of unparalleled influence over US-Philippine policy during its formative years. Although initially a skeptic of imperialism, Taft came to believe that the best course for US-Philippine relations was a permanent imperial bond much like the relationship between Great Britain and Canada or Australia at the time. Based largely on personal correspondence and other primary documentation, this books researches in great depth Taft and his views on empire-building from 1900 to 1921, when Taft was appointed to the Supreme Court"--

Download or read book Presidential Leadership at the Crossroads written by Michael J. Korzi and published by Texas A&M University Press. This book was released on 2022-01-18 with total page 380 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Presidential Leadership at the Crossroads: William Howard Taft and the Modern Presidency, Michael J. Korzi examines Taft’s presidency against the backdrop of early twentieth century politics, placing particular emphasis on Taft’s theory of presidential leadership. Though Taft’s legacy is often overshadowed by those of Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, his predecessor and successor, respectively, Taft’s model of presidential leadership was complex and nuanced, forged in a time of changing expectations, at the crossroads between traditional and modern views of what the role of a president should be. This focus on Taft’s leadership adds new dimension to our understandings of the Progressive era and presidential leadership in general. Ultimately, Taft’s leadership represented a middle-ground position, one that faced serious challenges from both conservative as well as radical forces, particularly the latter. While embodying some features of the modern presidency, Taft’s model also represented a partial challenge to, and critique of, modern presidential leadership. Korzi reveals that Taft was considerably more modern in his leadership aspirations than previously thought and that his shift to traditionalism, or conservativism, only emerged with the threat of a third Roosevelt term on the horizon. Presidential Leadership at the Crossroads makes an important contribution to our understanding of presidents and their leadership. Taft’s model is particularly relevant today, given the prominence of the modern presidency and its values and expectations. Taft’s moderate, middle-way position provides a foundation for critiquing the excesses of the modern presidency, while offering a vision for strong, if disciplined, presidential leadership.

Download or read book My Dearest Nellie written by Lewis L. Gould and published by University Press of Kansas. This book was released on 2011-09-15 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Few presidential couples enjoyed a closer relationship in the White House than Will and Nellie Taft. Throughout William Howard Taft's rise in American politics, she had been his most intimate confidant. When circumstances separated them, as when Helen Herron Taft became incapacitated by a stroke and was unable to accompany the president on his storied travels-or was herself on recuperative trips-she pressed him for letters, and he obliged with gossipy correspondence that provides a fascinating account of his presidency at decisive moments in his single term. These 113 letters, all but a few never before published, represent a rare glimpse into the mind of a chief executive speaking candidly about individuals and issues. In them, Taft commented on political issues he encountered and decisions he made-as well as his growing disillusion with Theodore Roosevelt, his unhappiness with Congress, and his struggles with his weight and golf score. Breathing new life into a bygone era in all of its complexity and humanity, they also open a new window on Washington early in the twentieth century-providing Taft's reactions not only to social figures of the Progressive Era but also to the impact of innovations like the automobile and rudimentary air conditioning. Sometimes indiscreet and frustrated with his political prospects, Taft comes through as a man who worked hard at a job for which he was not well suited. Indeed, Taft has been written off as a failed chief executive who was pushed into office by his wife; yet, as he insisted to Nellie, he was a creditable chief executive confronted with a changing political environment. Taft's letters may not warrant calling him a great president, but they reveal a more thoughtful occupant of the White House than scholars have acknowledged. Other than those that Harry Truman wrote to Bess, there is no comparable archive of modern presidential letters to a spouse that equals the letters to "Dearest Nellie" that Will Taft sent. Edited and introduced by a leading historian of the Progressive Era, Taft's letters not only reveal the inner workings of a presidency at decisive moments but also humanize a chief executive to whom history has been less than kind.

Download or read book Looking East written by Margo Taft Stever and published by University of Cincinnati Press. This book was released on 2015 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1900, Cincinnatian William Howard Taft successfully completed his tenure as Dean of the University of Cincinnati College of Law and began an appointment under President William McKinley as Governor-General of the Philippines. As a federal administrator and diplomat, Taft negotiated amicable trade and cultural interactions between East and West, and in 1905 President Theodore Roosevelt dispatched him on a mission to China, Japan, and the Philippines to further improve U.S.-Asian relations. His large entourage included prominent fellow Cincinnatians and the president's daughter, Alice, as well as photographer Harry Fowler Woods and a host of American diplomats. This is the remarkable story of Taft's mission and Woods' fascinating documentary photographs.

Download or read book William Howard Taft written by David Henry Burton and published by St. Joseph's University Press. This book was released on 2004 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: All this is spelled out in William Howard Taft: Confident Peacemaker, a landmark study, relying on historical analysis and supplemented by critical documentation."--BOOK JACKET.

Download or read book The 1912 Election and the Power of Progressivism written by Brett Flehinger and published by Macmillan Higher Education. This book was released on 2019-01-04 with total page 329 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Faced with the challenge of adapting America’s political and social order to the rise of corporate capitalism, in 1912 four presidential candidates — Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, Woodrow Wilson, and Eugene Debs — shaped Americans’ thoughts about their public futures. Their positions would come to frame national conversation over the role of corporations in American life, determine the relation between the state and society that still controls our thinking about market regulation, and usher in a period of Progressive reform. Connecting the debates of 1912 to some of the most pressing issues of the Progressive Era, this volume presents selected sensational speeches, correspondence between these important figures and their allies and opponents, and 12 lively political cartoons. The documents are supported by an interpretive essay, a chronology, a bibliography, and a series of questions for student consideration, including ideas for a classroom debate.

Download or read book Addresses by President William Howard Taft Mr Andrew Carnegie Mr Herbert Putnam written by Howard University. Libraries and published by . This book was released on 1910 with total page 34 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Recollections of Full Years written by Helen Herron Taft and published by . This book was released on 1914 with total page 530 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Philippines written by Theodore Roosevelt and published by . This book was released on 1902 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Mexico on the Verge written by E. J. Dillon and published by . This book was released on 1921 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Let the People Rule written by Geoffrey Cowan and published by National Geographic Books. This book was released on 2017-01-17 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The best new discussion of the primary system." —Jill Lepore, author of These Truths In 1912, Theodore Roosevelt came out of retirement to challenge William Howard Taft for the Republican nomination. TR seized on the campaign theme “Let the People Rule”—a cry echoed in today’s elections—and through the course of his run helped create thirteen new primaries. Though he won most of the primaries, party bosses proved too powerful, and Roosevelt walked out of the convention to create his own Bull Moose Party—only to make the shocking political calculation to ban black delegates from his new coalition. In Let the People Rule, Geoffrey Cowan takes readers inside the dramatic campaign that changed American politics forever.

Download or read book The American Republic written by Bruce Frohnen and published by . This book was released on 2002 with total page 724 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Many reference works offer compilations of critical documents covering individual liberty, local autonomy, constitutional order, and other issues that helped to shape the American political tradition. Yet few of those works are available in a form suitable for classroom use, and traditional textbooks give short shrift to these important issues. The American Republic overcomes that knowledge gap by providing, in a single volume, critical, original documents revealing the character of American discourse on the nature and importance of local government, the purposes of federal union, and the role of religion and tradition in forming America’s drive for liberty. The American Republic is divided into nine sections, each illustrating major philosophical, cultural, and policy positions at issue during crucial eras of American development. Readers will find documentary evidence of the purposes behind European settlement, American response to English acts, the pervasive role of religion in early American public life, and perspectives in the debate over independence. Subsequent chapters examine the roots of American constitutionalism, Federalist and Anti-Federalist arguments concerning the need to protect common law rights, and the debates over whether the states or the federal government held final authority in determining the course of public policy in America. Also included are the discussions regarding disagreements over internal improvements and other federal measures aimed at binding the nation, particularly in the area of commerce. The final section focuses on the political, cultural, and legal issues leading to the Civil War. Arguments and attempted compromises regarding slavery, along with laws that helped shape slavery, are highlighted. The volume ends with the prelude to the Civil War, a natural stopping-off point for studies of early American history. By bringing together key original documents and other writings that explain cultural, religious, and historical concerns, this volume gives students, teachers, and general readers an effective way to begin examining the diversity of issues and influences that characterize American history. The result unquestionably leads to a deeper and more thorough understanding of America's political, institutional, and cultural continuity and change. Bruce P. Frohnen is Associate Professor of Law at Ohio Northern University College of Law. He holds a J.D. from the Emory University School of Law and a Ph.D. in Government from Cornell University. Click here to print or download The American Republic index.

Download or read book The American President written by William E. Leuchtenburg and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2015-11-19 with total page 903 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The American President is an enthralling account of American presidential actions from the assassination of William McKinley in 1901 to Bill Clinton's last night in office in January 2001. William Leuchtenburg, one of the great presidential historians of the century, portrays each of the presidents in a chronicle sparkling with anecdote and wit. Leuchtenburg offers a nuanced assessment of their conduct in office, preoccupations, and temperament. His book presents countless moments of high drama: FDR hurling defiance at the "economic royalists" who exploited the poor; ratcheting tension for JFK as Soviet vessels approach an American naval blockade; a grievously wounded Reagan joking with nurses while fighting for his life. This book charts the enormous growth of presidential power from its lowly state in the late nineteenth century to the imperial presidency of the twentieth. That striking change was manifested both at home in periods of progressive reform and abroad, notably in two world wars, Vietnam, and the war on terror. Leuchtenburg sheds light on presidents battling with contradictory forces. Caught between maintaining their reputation and executing their goals, many practiced deceits that shape their image today. But he also reveals how the country's leaders pulled off magnificent achievements worthy of the nation's pride.