The Legacy of Teddy Roosevelt

This blog is essentially a review of the information in Chapter 28 and how it will impact American History up to and through the 1920s (Chapters 29, 30).



"When I say I believe in a Square Deal, I do not mean...to give every man the best hand.  If the cards do not come to any man, or if they do come, and he has not got the power to play them, that is his affair.  All I mean is that there shall be no crookedness in the dealing."

Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt was perhaps the single most defining President since Lincoln, as Lincoln was since Jackson, and Jackson since Washington.  He was dynamic and forceful, a man who felt the weight and majesty of destiny, a man who would make America what it should be no matter what.  However, he was also a man whom others felt threatened by, a man who was perhaps too consumed with his desire to "do, do, do!"

As you look over Chapters 28-30, consider the impact that Roosevelt had at first, and the long shadow of influence that his example cast over future Presidents and America itself.  To what extent was Teddy Roosevelt a great President who mastered the major issues of his time, and to what extent did his performance shape and define the Presidents after him and the country's view of itself, too.

DUE DATE: Monday, March 4, 2013

Word Count: 500 words minimum

Quick Facts on His Life & Presidency:
http://millercenter.org/president/roosevelt

The Teddy Roosevelt Center:
http://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/

The White House:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/presidents/theodoreroosevelt

The Roosevelt Thesis: America Had Become Effeminate

In addition to having been the Assistant Secretary of the Navy under McKinley, Governor of New York, and then running mate to and Vice President of McKinley, followed shortly after once McKinley was assassinated by becoming President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt was also an historian who posited an interesting and controversial thesis about why America did what it did in the late 1800s and early 20th century.  In short, Roosevelt had asserted that America had become too soft, to complacent, to effeminate over the course of the Gilded Age.  You have seen now that the time period from 1865 - 1900 was filled with many and diverse competing interests, from Reconstruction and how to faciliate it, to the rise of a Populist Party from the persistent monetary and financial issues that shaped the West and reflected the interests of the East, to the resurgence of Women for their rights and how that would sweep like a backlash from West to East instead of East to West, to the fate of the former slaves, Chinese, Japanese, Eastern Europeans, and Native Americans in all areas of the growing country.  On top of all of this was the rise of Billionaires and their massive industrial and financial monopolies which were supported by the Federal Government over the plight and desperation of the labor force.  And then there were the financial panics and the deep recession of the 1890s.

To what extent do you agree or disagree with Roosevelt's thesis that America had become too "womanly" or soft by the late 1890s and thus the territorial conquests of 1898 and their after effects were necessary to restore American vigor and manliness?  Include in your answers such topics as diplomacy, the Panama Canal, the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, and such groups as women, blacks, Native Americans, Cubans, Puerto Ricans, Filipinos, and Hawaiians to contest or support his assertion that such groups were bound to be conquered by WASP America.

Refer to American Pageant pp 646-653.

DUE DATE: Monday, February 11, 2013 by midnight

WORD COUNT: 500 words minimum