Theodore Roosevelt Essays (4764 words) - , Term Papers

Theodore Roosevelt Outline Thesis: Theodore Roosevelt's political presence altered the course of the United States, transforming it into a superpower fully ready to handle the challenges of any opposition, and changed the role of the president and executive branch of US government, making it a force to be reckoned with. I. Introduction II. Before Roosevelt A. Post-Reconstructionist Views B. The Industrial Revolution C. The Gilded Age 1. Railroads 2. Robber Barons 3. Immigration 4. Standard Question D. McKinley III. The Roosevelt Era A. Early Life 1. Influence of Parents 2. Invalidism B. Early Political Career 1. Ending Corruption/Enforcing Laws 2. Political Bosses 3. Governorship C. Presidential Era 1. Vice Presidential Race 2. Manipulation of the Press 3. Federal Regulatory Laws 4. Foreign Policy 5. Strong Executive Branch D. Post-Presidential Era 1. Taft 2. The Progressive Party IV. Post-Rooseveltian America A. Wilson 1. Continued Progressivism 2. World War I a. Inactivity b. Activity B. Life After Wilson 1. Implementation of Roosevelt's Reforms 2. Roosevelt's Influence Today 3. Influences in the Future V. Conclusion Theodore Roosevelt: The Founder of an Era The turn of the century has always been a big deal for modern civilizations. One hundred years of life is quite large compared with the average 70 or so given to most. Because of that, people tend to look in trends of decades, rather than centuries or millennia. When it does come time for a new century, when that second digit rotates, as it does so seldom, people tend to look for change. Events tend to fall before or after the century, not on top of it, and United States history, particularly, has had a tendency for sudden change at the century marks. Columbus' accidental discovery of the West Indies in 1492 brought on the exploration age in the 1500s. Jamestown colony, founded in 1607, was England's first foothold on the New World. A massive population surge, brought on in part by the import of Africans, marks entry into the 18th century. Thomas Jefferson's presidency, beginning in 1800, changed the face of American politics. 1900 was a ripe year for change, but needed someone to help the change arrive. That someone was Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt's political presence altered the course of the United States, transforming it into a superpower fully ready to handle the challenges of any opposition, and changed the role of the president and executive branch of US government, making it a force with which to be reckoned. As the first president with progressive views, Roosevelt enacted the first regulatory laws and prosecuted big businesses who had been violating them and others for years. Roosevelt also initiated the United States' active interests in other countries, and began to spread the benefits of democracy throughout the world. Before Roosevelt, the United States was an inward-looking country, largely xenophobic to the calls of the rest of the world, and chiefly concerned with bettering itself. As one critic put it, "Roosevelt was the first modern president"(Knoll). After Roosevelt, the United States would remain a superpower, chiefly interested in all the world's affairs for at least a century (Barck 1). It would be foolish to assume that Roosevelt was a fantastically powerful individual who was able to change the course of the United States as easily as Superman might change the course of a river. It would be more accurate to say Roosevelt was the right person in the right place at the right time. It is necessary, though, to show how the United States was progressing, and how Roosevelt's presence merely helped to catalyze the progression. It has been said that when John Wilkes Booth murdered Abraham Lincoln, he "extinguished the light of the republic" (Cashman 1). While this is a small hyperbole, it serves as an example of the general mood that pervaded the period from 1865 to 1901. The early dominating factor was, of course, Reconstruction. Reconstruction was a dirty game, and nobody liked it. Johnson fought with congress and the end result proved very little had changed. The South was still largely agrarian, and the North was commercial. Most importantly, the Southerners and the Northerners still felt they had as little to do with each other as a fish does with a bicycle. To the young "Teedie" Roosevelt, this must have made itself apparent. He was born in a mixed household, where "Theodore Roosevelt (Sr.) was as profoundly...for the North as Martha Roosevelt was for the south" (Hagedorn 10). The fact that the family was able to live, from all accounts, very harmoniously, is