Doris Kearns Goodwin, The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft and the Golden Age of Journalism


Doris Kearns Goodwin is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American historian, author, and political commentator, known for her biographical works on U.S. presidents. Published in 2013, her book The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism examines the complex relationship between two presidents and the rise of investigative journalism in the Progressive Era. 
About the author: Doris Kearns Goodwin
About The Bully Pulpit


Pulitzer Prize–winning author and presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin’s dynamic history of Theodore Roosevelt, William H. Taft and the first decade of the Progressive era, that tumultuous time when the nation was coming unseamed and reform was in the air.

Winner of the Carnegie Medal.

The gap between rich and poor has never been wider…legislative stalemate paralyzes the country…corporations resist federal regulations…spectacular mergers produce giant companies…the influence of money in politics deepens…bombs explode in crowded streets…small wars proliferate far from our shores…a dizzying array of inventions speeds the pace of daily life.

These unnervingly familiar headlines serve as the backdrop for Doris Kearns Goodwin’s highly anticipated The Bully Pulpit—a dynamic history of the first decade of the Progressive era, that tumultuous time when the nation was coming unseamed and reform was in the air.

The story is told through the intense friendship of Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft—a close relationship that strengthens both men before it ruptures in 1912, when they engage in a brutal fight for the presidential nomination that divides their wives, their children, and their closest friends, while crippling the progressive wing of the Republican Party, causing Democrat Woodrow Wilson to be elected, and changing the country’s history.

The Bully Pulpit is also the story of the muckraking press, which arouses the spirit of reform that helps Roosevelt push the government to shed its laissez-faire attitude toward robber barons, corrupt politicians, and corporate exploiters of our natural resources. The muckrakers are portrayed through the greatest group of journalists ever assembled at one magazine—Ida Tarbell, Ray Stannard Baker, Lincoln Steffens, and William Allen White—teamed under the mercurial genius of publisher S. S. McClure.

Goodwin’s narrative is founded upon a wealth of primary materials. The correspondence of more than four hundred letters between Roosevelt and Taft begins in their early thirties and ends only months before Roosevelt’s death. Edith Roosevelt and Nellie Taft kept diaries. The muckrakers wrote hundreds of letters to one another, kept journals, and wrote their memoirs. The letters of Captain Archie Butt, who served as a personal aide to both Roosevelt and Taft, provide an intimate view of both men.

The Bully Pulpit, like Goodwin’s brilliant chronicles of the Civil War and World War II, exquisitely demonstrates her distinctive ability to combine scholarly rigor with accessibility. It is a major work of history—an examination of leadership in a rare moment of activism and reform that brought the country closer to its founding ideals.




Peri E. Arnold, Remaking the Presidency: Roosevelt, Taft, and Wilson, 1901-1916


Peri E. Arnold is a professor emeritus of political science at the University of Notre Dame and a recognized scholar of the U.S. presidency and public administration. In his book, Remaking the Presidency: Roosevelt, Taft, and Wilson, 1901–1916, he examines the Progressive Era presidents and their role in transforming the office of the president. 
About Peri E. Arnold
  • Academic career: Arnold joined the faculty of the University of Notre Dame in 1971, where he taught courses in political science. During his tenure, he served three terms as department chair and was the founder and director of the university's Washington Program. He became a professor emeritus in 2015.
  • Awards: He won the Brownlow Book Award from the National Academy of Public Administration in 1987 for his book Making the Managerial Presidency. His book Remaking the Presidency was selected as an "outstanding academic title" for 2010 by Choice Magazine.
  • Other work: Since retiring, he has continued teaching, including his involvement with the Westville Prison Education Initiative in Indiana. His more recent research focuses on the consolidation of Chicago's Democratic machine.
  • Fellowships: He is a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration. 
About Remaking the Presidency: Roosevelt, Taft, and Wilson, 1901–1916 
  • Synopsis: The book analyzes how the Progressive Era presidents—Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and Woodrow Wilson—transformed the American presidency. He shows how they moved the office away from its 19th-century passive role and toward a more expansive, activist one, even when faced with a powerful Congress.
  • Case studies: Arnold uses specific policy case studies to illustrate how these presidents experimented with their new authority.
    • Roosevelt: Case studies include the Northern Trust and naval modernization.
    • Taft: His actions on tariff reform and the Pinchot-Ballinger conservation dispute are examined.
    • Wilson: Policy cases include the Federal Reserve and the Federal Trade Commission.
  • Legacy: The book helps to understand the early development of the modern American presidency and how the Progressive Era presidents and their policies continue to influence today's political landscape.



In a period of American history marked by congressional primacy, presidential passivity, and hostility to governmental action, Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson became iconic presidents through activist leadership. Peri Arnold, a leading presidential scholar, goes beyond the biographers to explain what really set Roosevelt apart from his predecessor William McKinley, how Wilson differed from his successor Warren G. Harding, and how we might better understand the forgettable William Howard Taft in between.

This is the first comparative study of the three Progressive Era presidents, examining the context in which they served, the evolving institutional role of the presidency, and the personal characteristics of each man. Arnold explains why Roosevelt and Wilson pursued activist roles, how they gained the means for effective leadership in a role that had not previously supported it, and how each of the three negotiated the choppy crosscurrents of changing institutions and politics with entirely different outcomes.

Arnold delineates the American political scene at the turn of the twentieth century, one characterized by a weakening of party organizations, the rise of interest groups and print media, and increasing demands for reform. He shows how the Progressive Era presidents marked a transition from the nineteenth century's checks and balances to the twentieth's expansive presidential role, even though demands for executive leadership were at odds with the presidency's means to take independent action.

Each of these presidents was uniquely challenged to experiment with the office's new potential for political independence from party and Congress, and Arnold explains how each had to justify their authority for such experimentation. He also shows how their actions were reflected in specific policy case studies: the Northern Trust and naval modernization under Roosevelt, tariff reform and the Pinchot/Ballinger debate over conservation under Taft, and the Federal Reserve and Federal Trade Commission under Wilson.

Ultimately, Arnold shows how the period's ferment affected both the presidency and its incumbents and how they in turn affected progressive politics. More important, he helps us better understand two presidents who continue to inspire politicians of differing stripes and relates their leadership styles to the modern development of the presidency.