Episode 9: Theodore Roosevelt
A full transcript of this episode can be found here.
Show Notes
Overview:
Today’s episode is all about Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th president of the United States. Theodore Roosevelt, TR, or Teddy, was one of the all-time great personalities in American history. Larger-than-life, captured in stone on Mount Rushmore, inspiration for the Teddy Bear and featured in countless movies, he was at once is intriguing, frustrating, thoughtful and blustery, a man ahead of his times, yet also stuck in the rut of arcane thinking.
If you can understand TR you can understand America, and we’re very much still trying! Here’s a quick refresher. Born to wealth and privilege in New York in 1858, he attended Harvard, Columbia Law School, and quickly attained a seat in the State Legislature by his mid-twenties. He was a young man of great promise, but also one sadly familiar with tragedy. Losing his wife and mother on the same day in 1884, he did what Americans always did when times got toughest—he lit out for the borderlands, hoping that time spent riding horses, punching cattle, sleeping by a campfire and fighting a few Indians, would set his mind straight—like we said, sometimes problematic. Personifying the melding of East and West, and of urbane sophistication with frontier values, he ever-after promoted what he called “the strenuous life” as a cure-all for any person, or indeed, the nation.
Success soon followed, and a bit of fame too. Named Assistant Secretary of the Navy in 1897, he enthusiastically supported and then joined the Spanish-American War in 1898, winning fame and then a spot on the Republican ticket as William McKinley’s running mate only two years later.
Oh, the stories we could tell about TR’s adventures running a navy and charging up San Juan Hill…if only we had the time. All you really need to know for now is that he became the youngest President in American history, only 42 years old, when an assassin’s bullet ended McKinley’s life in 1901.
TR was a progressive in office, busting monopolies and pushing for health, environmental, and labor reforms. Know why you can go into the store today and buy some hamburger with a serious risk of salmonella? Thank TR and the investigative journalists that brought these stories to light.
Internationally, Roosevelt believed in what he and his fellow imperialists called a “large policy,” increasing the size of the navy, and most importantly, pursuing a canal to connect the Atlantic and Pacific in Panama. Following the maxim that it was best in diplomacy to speak softly and carry a big stick, he received the Nobel Peace Prize for his work resolving the Russo-Japanese War in 1906, the first American to do so.
That’s a big deal. Not only was he one of only four presidents to ever achieve that distinguished honor—stop and consider this moment. A war on the far side of the world, between a European and Asian power, settled….by the Americans! The country had truly stepped out on the world stage as never before.
TR left a legacy of economic reform, social reform, environmental reform, and a new standing for the country in the world. But…was he such a reformer on race? We’ll answer that question, and so much more, today with two experts on Roosevelt’s life and times. Together, these conversations highlighted two critical themes:
First, the importance of the concept of the frontier to American nationalism, and American racial thinking.
Second, why the president has an unparalleled bully pulpit—a term Roosevelt coined by the way—for shaping conceptions of race, citizenship, and ultimately, who could rightly claim to be an American.
Guest One: Dr. Michael Cullinan
Dr. Cullinane was born and raised in New Jersey, attended Pace University (NYC) before moving to Ireland, where he graduated with an MA and PhD in History from University College Cork (National University of Ireland). He has taught diplomatic history and United States history at University College Cork, the University of Leicester, and Northumbria University. He joined the University of Roehampton in 2017.
His research explores the foreign policies of the United States during the early twentieth century, and particularly the international relations of that period. His research tends toward multidisciplinarity, and have published books and articles that aim to answer historical questions through an evaluation of media, memory, politics, and culture. His most recent book, Theodore Roosevelt's Ghost: The History and Memory of an American Icon, is the first comprehensive examination of Roosevelt’s legacy and details the frequent refashioning of this American icon in popular memory.
His wider research interests include: Anglo-American relations, transatlantic studies, public memory and art, and international law. Dr. Cullinane’s latest research project will look at the formation of international law in the late nineteenth century and how that field developed through networks of activists.
Dr. Cullinane’s Washington Post article on Theodore Roosevelt statues.
Follow Dr. Cullinane on Twitter.
Dr. Cullinane’s website.
Guest Two: Dr. Leroy Dorsey
Dr. Leroy Dorsey is the Associate Dean for Inclusive Excellence and Strategic Initiatives, as well as a Professor of Rhetoric and Public Affairs at Texas A&M. He received his Ph.D. from Indiana University in Speech Communication.
Dr. Dorsey’s research examines the symbols used by political figures to promote their legislative agendas, shape their identities as morally sound advocates, and transform their audiences into seemingly active agents poised to support particular agendas. Specifically, he studies the public discourse of presidents ranging from Theodore Roosevelt to Barack Obama, critiquing the means they use to lead rhetorically.
Dr. Dorsey’s work centers on how presidents rhetorically create American identity. Along with examining the rhetoric of chief executives such as Woodrow Wilson, John Kennedy, and Ronald Reagan, Dorsey’s work most notably investigates the rhetoric of Theodore Roosevelt and how his use of mythic narratives attempted to reshape the notion of cultural identity. His book, We Are All Americans, Pure and Simple: Theodore Roosevelt and the Myth of Americanism, examined how Roosevelt used the frontier myth of national origin to create standards for non-whites and immigrants to achieve before they could be identified as Americans. That book won the 2008 National Communication Association Marie Hochmuth Nichols Award for the top book in public address studies.
Publications:
Theodore Roosevelt, Conservation, and the 1908 Governors’ Conference, Texas A&M Press, 2016.
We Are All Americans, Pure and Simple: Theodore Roosevelt and the Myth of Americanism, University of Alabama Press, 2013.
Announcement: Next week, we will be on vacation for Thanksgiving, but we’ll be back with an episode on Taft on December 3, 2020!
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Further Readings
Books
Michael Cullinane, Theodore Roosevelt's Ghost: The History and Memory of an American Icon (LSU Press, 2017)
John Morton Blum, The Republican Roosevelt (Harvard University Press, 1977)
Leroy G. Dorsey, Theodore Roosevelt, Conservation, and the 1908 Governors' Conference (Texas A&M University Press, 2016)
William Henry Harbaugh, Power and Responsibility: Theodore Roosevelt (American Political Biography Press, 1997)
Edmund Morris, The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt (Random House, 2010)
Henry F. Pringle, Theodore Roosevelt: A Biography (HMH Books, 2003)
Primary Resources
Theodore Roosevelt, The Rough Riders, An Autobiography (Penguin Random House, 1999)
Papers of President Theodore Roosevelt (Library of Congress, 2021)
Roosevelt's Inaugural Address (Yale Law School, 1905)
Other Resources
Theodore Roosevelt Campaigns and Elections (Article, Sidney Milkis, UVA Miller Center, 2021)
Theodore Roosevelt Foreign Affairs (Article, Sidney Milkis, UVA Miller Center, 2021)
Theodore Roosevelt Home at Sagamore Hill (National Parks Service, 2021)
Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library
Theodore Roosevelt Resource Guide (Library of Congress, 2021)
Opinion: Theodore Roosevelt would be the first to agree: His statue should come down (Article, Michael Cullinane, Washington Post, 2020)
In this episode, we spoke with scholars whose work illuminates the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt through the lenses of memory and rhetoric. Historian Michael Cullinane and communications and public affairs specialist Leroy Dorsey reflected upon TR’s outsized and legendary personality and how Roosevelt’s ideas about race and empire complicated his commitment to social and economic reform.
We’ve provided an episode transcript, primary and secondary sources, and other materials for those who want to dive deeper into the story of Theodore Roosevelt and race.