Description
Book SynopsisJust as essential to Theodore Roosevelt's accession to the Presidency as his charge up San Juan Hill was his election as Governor of New York four months later. A defeat would have seriously set back and perhaps even destroyed his chances to gain the White House.
Trade ReviewIn the vast scholarship on the political career of Theodore Roosevelt, this book is destined to have only a minor place. Using primarily standard secondary sources and newspaper accounts, Corry provides an interesting yet familiar narrative of Roosevelt's political career to 1898. The primary contribution to the literature is the detailed account of the New York gubernatorial election in 1898. In acknowledging the importance of this narrow victory to Roosevelt's eventual ascension to the White House, the author convincingly shows that it was only Roosevelt's energetic whistle-stop tour of the state and his extraordinary ability to stir audiences that saved him from defeat and possibly irreparable damage to his political career. Readers will get an insightful look at Boss rule and machine politics from the author's discussion of Republican "Easy Boss" Thomas Platt and Democratic Boss Richard Croker, gain a sense of the political frustration often encountered by reform-minded independents like John Jay Chapman, and obtain a realistic sense of the art of political compromise as Roosevelt struggled to balance his own moral commitment to reform with the often amoral positions of his party's state leadership. Recommended for general readers. * —Choice *
