The Bully Pulpit

Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism

By: Doris Kearns Goodwin

Narrated by: Edward Herrmann

Winner of the 2015 Audie Award for History/Biography and Finalist for Audiobook of the Year

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.

Doris Kearns Goodwin’s The Bully Pulpit is 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.

What a Great Book!

I loved this book and I learned so much about Theodore Roosevelt, William H. Taft and the Golden Age of Journalism. I’m a retired teacher of mostly 5th grade language arts, reading and U.S. History. Although I taught about the Progressive Era and about the muckrakers and used Sinclair Lewis as a source for the expose of the meat-packing industry, I learned so very much more about era. Wonderful writing and marvelous reading experience! Sara Slamp

Loved it.

I enjoy history. This covered an area I wasn't familiar with. It was well written and well read. Kept my attention over many miles.

Regret did not have time for unabridged

What made the experience of listening to The Bully Pulpit the most enjoyable?

The reader and the story of Taft

What did you like best about this story?

Stories about Taft

What about Edward Herrmann’s performance did you like?

Herrmannno could make phone book sound good

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

The hidden Taft

Any additional comments?

No

The Bully Pulpit

I enjoyed this book. Huge fan of Edward Hermann. Great narrator. Learned quite a bit about Taft. I knew more about Roosevelt as most people do. Didn't know that they were such great friends. It dragged a little right after Taft became President, but it did pick up again. If you like reading 📚 about history, this is a good one.

A Time of Giants

Goodwin is a great storyteller, and Edward Hermann adds tone and color to her words. Roosevelt was a great president. The story, focused on his relationship to Taft and on the impact of intelligent press, was very interesting. The contrast of their time compared to the current administration, who are trying to take down all that was built over the parts 100+ years, provides a dark background on which to understand the Roosevelt era. The book deserves a second read!