The Bully Pulpit
Theodore Roosevelt and the Golden Age of Journalism
About the book
Doris Kearns Goodwin's account of the opening decade of the Progressive era runs on two tracks. One is the bond between Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft, which broke apart in a bitter 1912 political fight that split their families and helped elect Democrat Woodrow Wilson. The other is the muckraking staff of McClure's magazine, including Ida Tarbell, Lincoln Steffens, Ray Stannard Baker and William Allen White, whose reporting fed the demand for reform. Over seven years Goodwin worked through over 400 letters exchanged by the two men, their wives' diaries and the journalists' letters, journals and memoirs. It won several accolades and made year-end best lists at The Economist, Time and The New York Times.
Bill Gates was drawn to the question it raises about how social change happens, and whether one inspiring leader can drive it or other forces must prepare the ground first.
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Bill Gates (CEO/Microsoft)
I’m especially interested in the central question that Doris Kearns Goodwin raises in The Bully Pulpit. How does social change happen? Can it be driven by a single inspirational leader, or do other factors have to lay the groundwork first? Sometimes a single leader can make a big difference: In the field of global health, Jim Grant almost single-handedly created a global constituency for children, sparking a movement to double vaccination rates and save millions of lives. But Roosevelt’s case was different. Although he tried to push through a number of political reforms earlier in his career, he wasn’t really successful until journalists at McClure’s and other publications had rallied public support for change.
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