The Roosevelts, In the Arena (1901-1910) An Intimate History

Streaming video - 2015

After William McKinley's assassination, Theodore Roosevelt arrives in Washington in 1901 as the youngest President of the United States. He is unwilling to let Congress dictate federal policies and he knows how to use his immense popularity with the press to disseminate his message to the public. With TR's presidency comes a string of firsts – the first to be known by his initials, the first to leave the country while in office, the first to own an automobile. He is also the first president to invite a black man – Booker T. Washington – to dine in the White House, setting off a firestorm of protest. At the time of Theodore Roosevelt's inauguration, US industrial production is booming and profits are higher than they...9;ve ever been, but only a handful of wealthy men control the trusts and reap the benefits. From the start, TR's intention is to see that "the rich man is held to the same accountability as the poor man." By the time he leaves office, President Roosevelt files suit against more than 40 trusts and becomes the first president to mediate a labor dispute while treating labor as a full partner. By 1902, Franklin Roosevelt is a Harvard sophomore, but a mediocre student who is not particularly popular with his classmates and is crushed to learn he's been blackballed from a prestigious undergraduate club, the Porcellian. By late summer of that year, the name of someone new begins to appear in FDR's diary. Both of Eleanor Roosevelt's parents are dead by the time she is ten, and after five years of living on-and-off with her grim, pious, maternal grandmother and two drunken uncles, she is sent to Allenswood, a private girl's school outside London where, for the first time in her life she is "deeply loved, and loved in return." Upon her return to New York, Eleanor becomes reacquainted with her cousin, Franklin, and by Thanksgiving of 1903 they are secretly engaged. In the beginning of the twentieth century, the United States is becoming a world power, and Theodore Roosevelt believes strongly that a canal in Central America linking the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans is vitally important. He supports rebel Panamanians in their wish to be independent of Colombia, and by doing so paves the way for construction to begin on the Panama Canal. During the 1904 Presidential campaign, Theodore Roosevelt promises voters a "Square Deal," and he wins by a landslide. But on election night he impulsively gives a statement to the press, telling them, "Under no circumstances will I accept another nomination." It is a statement he will regret for the rest of his life. Three weeks after the election, Eleanor and Franklin finally announce their engagement and on March 17, 1905, with the President officiating, they are married. By 1905, the balance of power in the Pacific is threatened by a war between Japan and Russia. President Roosevelt persuades both sides to work out an agreement. For his peacekeeping efforts TR is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize – the first American ever to receive this honor. During the remainder of his presidency, TR successfully employs his "bully pulpit" to push through bills to help solve national problems and conserve natural resources. But in 1906 his response to a racially-charged incident in Brownsville, Texas – in which black troops are wrongly accused of shooting local whites – marks one of the low points of his presidency. TR refuses to allow the men a fair hearing and rashly dismisses all 167 African-American soldiers from the service. Franklin and Eleanor's early years of marriage are spent raising their children and negotiating their own relationship, as well as the sometimes difficult one each had with Franklin's mother, Sara. Besides all living together at the Roosevelt family home in Hyde Park, FDR, ER and their family also share a twin townhouse in New York City with Sara. Eleanor's insecurity and unhappiness with the arrangement, as well as her unease with motherhood in general, only intensifies with the illness and death of her third child. It is also during these years that "thanks to Uncle Ted," Eleanor remembered, Franklin Roosevelt becomes interested in politics. Theodore Roosevelt has accomplished much during his seven years as president. Hampered by his own pledge not to run again in 1908, he handpicks a successor he thinks will carry on his progressive policies: Secretary of War, William Howard Taft. In March 1909, TR sets off on an African safari with his son, Kermit, to fulfill a life-long dream to hunt for big game – and to escape the inevitable questions from the press regarding his presidential successor. When TR returns from his travels on June 18, 1910, Franklin and Eleanor are there to greet him. It is then that Franklin asks for and receives his esteemed cousin's blessing to begin his own journey into national politics. more