"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"--
"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"--
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.
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.
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.
Henry Fowles Pringle (1897–1958) was an American historian and writer most famous for his witty but scholarly biography of Theodore Roosevelt which won the Pulitzer prize in 1932, as well as the scholarly biography of William Howard Taft. Although he won the Pulitzer Prize in biography for Theodore Roosevelt, a Biography, Henry F. Pringle's most famous work is considered The Life and Times of William Howard Taft: A Biography. The William Howard Taft biography was published in 1939 and is often considered the definitive biography of the 27th president. Pringle's biography of Taft was a more balanced and thoughtful piece of work than the Roosevelt study. He had unlimited access to the large collection of Taft papers. Moreover, he discovered in Taft a "tortured soul" whose life could best be understood from the inside rather than from the outside. This offered a more serious challenge to the biographer than the chiefly visible exploits of Teddy Roosevelt. A newspaper reporter, he later become a professor at the Columbia University School of Journalism, and served as chief of the publications division of the Office of War Information in 1942-1943.
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.
Examines the life and career of the lawyer whose relatively unsuccessful presidency was followed by a happy term as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
