Review by Choice Review
Wolraich, characterized on the jacket flap as a "political writer," covers a mass of material on the Progressive movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He never loses sight of the two major figures, Theodore Roosevelt and Robert M. LaFollette. There is adequate attention to William Howard Taft and less to Woodrow Wilson. Wolraich carefully discusses the twists and turns in the political scene, and he presents the "Standpatters" (people like John Coit Spooner, Nelson Aldrich, Stephen Elkins, and Joseph Foraker) as three-dimensional, if not favorable, human beings. Even Joseph G. Cannon, "Uncle Joe," is a real, if not likeable, political figure. Particularly interesting are the views of contemporary journalists like Lincoln Steffens and Ray Stannard Baker. The author's focus is on what united and divided Roosevelt and LaFollette. Wolraich presents Roosevelt as someone who will accept "half a loaf"; LaFollette is someone who believes that a defeat in the short run will result in victory in the long run. Even those familiar with the era and the characters will find themselves reading on to see what pithy phrases Wolraich will use to effectively summarize an event or individual. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above. --Paul L. Silver, Johnson State College
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
From 1904-1912, the American political system underwent enormous growing pains, and political writer Wolraich (Blowing Smoke) gives this decade an exhaustive, detailed examination, from the first "creeping sense" of a new political body into a "war with only two sides" that birthed America's enduring bipartisan identities. He chronicles the mobilization of a group behind a unified ideology and the book's massive cast provides the means to deliver a character-driven historical narrative. It a story of change, with larger societal shifts traced back to individual transformations, embodied in Roosevelt's initially pragmatic middle-ground political stance giving way to an embrace of a divisive progressivism that articulated a "historic conflict between privilege and democracy." The pressing issues of this first progressive era became ongoing touchstones for inter-party debate and lasting national concerns, including environmental conservation, overhaul of tariff systems, centralization of banking, modification of Congressional responsibilities, and the introduction of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Amendments. Wolraich probes this historic moment in light of an American political reawakening to the idea of the interests of the citizens as separate from, and potentially victim to, the interests of corporations and capital holders; it is a mighty and relevant insight into the cyclical nature of history. (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A bulletin from an earlier era of American political paralysis.A century ago, much of America was frustrated and angry with a do-nothing Congress held captive by wealthy interests and controlled by obstructionist Republicans led by Sen. Nelson Aldrich and the colorful speaker of the house, Joe Cannon. Wolraich (Blowing Smoke: Why the Right Keeps Serving Up Whack-Job Fantasies about the Plot to Euthanize Grandma, Outlaw Christmas, and Turn Junior into a Raging Homosexual, 2010) ably explores the birth of the movement within the Republican Party that broke the legislative logjam and released a torrent of reformist legislation, but at the cost of splitting the party and electing a Democratic president and Congress. The Progressives were the tea party of their day, led by Robert "Fighting Bob" La Follette of Wisconsin, and they were viewed by the party establishment as unreasonable extremist nuisances. They rejected compromises and half-measures as sops intended only to delay genuine reform and campaigned against fellow Republicans who obstructed them. Their attitude exasperated Theodore Roosevelt, a moderate reformer who, during his presidency, advocated only for politically palatable incremental change before seizing the Progressive banner from La Follette during the wildly contentious election of 1912. These shifts in influence among the Progressives, moderates and conservative "standpatters" occupy Wolraich more than the personalities of the Progressives themselves; La Follette's allies appear only as spear-carriers, and their crafty opponents loom at least as large here. The author's lively prose struggles to overcome the narrative challenge presented by the points of congressional contention at the time: tariff schedules and railroad rate regulation, issues that understandably fail to hold modern readers passions. A clearer distinction among the platforms of the Republican Progressives, the Democratic populist William Jennings Bryan and the ultimately triumphant Woodrow Wilson would also have been helpful.Though he breaks no new ground, Wolraich presents an engaging survey of a movement's progress from radical extremism to conventional wisdom. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
