THE ERA OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 1900-1912

by George E. Mowry ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 20, 1958

A political-economic-social study (the three seem simultaneous as George Mowry writes), this is researched to the nines and copiously footnoted and follows the various national, international dynamisms, the personal incentives, the moral atmosphere of the formative Rooseveltian period which ended with Wilson's rise to power. Mowry is blessedly free of the endless analyzings and tentative, speculative conclusions one might expect. He reports, fact by fact, what happened - be it Ida Tarbell's fervent girlhood prayer never to marry or Taft's gluttonous eating habits or the three friars in the Philippines who balked at give up church lands with the spread of American colonialism. The study is not merely readable to anyone with a historical turn; it is engrossing. Mowry's tracings of the progressive movement; the Federal struggle with monopoly capitalism; the pious orientations of the wealthy classes to square God and mammon; the social reform programs and the revelation of widespread municipal corruption -- these patient, incisive, eventful themes are perhaps Mowry's finest achievements. But in all that he traces and explores, there is sure, productive scholarship. Serious but never formidable, weighty but forceful.

Pub Date: Aug. 20, 1958

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Harper

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1958

Categories: NONFICTION