Waubonsee Community College

The William Howard Taft presidency, Lewis L. Gould

eng

Includes bibliographical references (p. 247-259) and index

contains biographical information

illustrations

index present

non fiction

The William Howard Taft presidency

bibliography

320184932

Lewis L. Gould

American presidency series

Gould argues that Taft wanted to be president and had an ambitious agenda when he took power in March 1909. Approaching his duties more as a judge than as a charismatic executive in the mold of Theodore Roosevelt, Taft soon found himself out of step with public opinion. Gould shows how the Payne-Aldrich Tariff and the Ballinger-Pinchot controversy squandered Taft's political capital and prepared the ground for Democratic victories in the elections of 1910 and 1912. His seamless narrative provides innovative treatments of these crucial episodes to make Taft's presidency more understandable than in any previous account. On Canadian Reciprocity, Dollar Diplomacy, and international arbitration, Gould's work goes beyond earlier cliches about Taft's administration to link his tenure to the evolution of the modern presidency. The break with Theodore Roosevelt in 1912 doomed the Taft presidency, and Gould supplies an evenhanded analysis of the erosion of their once warm friendship. At bottom, the two men clashed about the nature of presidential power, and Gould traces with insight how this personal and ideological rupture influenced the future of the Republican party, and the course of American politics

"The man of the hour" in 1908 -- Being his own king -- The new president and his country -- A substantial revision downward : the Payne Aldrich Tariff -- The Ballinger Pinchot controversy -- Taft, Knox, and dollar diplomacy -- Taft and Congress, 1910 -- Taft, Roosevelt, and the 1910 election -- Taft as administrator -- Reciprocity, revolution, and arbitration -- Toward a break with Roosevelt -- "Roosevelt was my closest friend" -- The 1912 campaign -- Leaving the White House