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db4bb16
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Why bother with fictional characters and plots when the world was full of more marvelous stories that were true, with characters so fresh, so powerful, so new, that they stepped from into the narratives under their own power?
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writing
human-interest
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Doris Kearns Goodwin |
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1e65441
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Of Teddy Roosevelt and his siblings, the author writes they were, "armed with an innate curiosity and discipline fostered by his remarkable father."
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fatherhood
parenthood
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Doris Kearns Goodwin |
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839b4ad
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It seemed as though Theodore's passion for Alice far exceeded his genuine knowledge of her.
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college-romance
infatuation
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Doris Kearns Goodwin |
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e2f0a63
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Whereas Taft discouraged the young Yale student from extracurricular reading, fearful it would detract from required courses, Roosevelt read widely yet managed to stand near the top of his class. The breath of his numerous interests allowed him to draw on knowledge across various disciplines, from zoology in philosophy and religion, from poetry and drama to history and politics.
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education
liberal-arts
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Doris Kearns Goodwin |
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aa3bd66
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I have plenty of information now, but I can't get it into words. I'm afraid it's too big a task for me. I wonder if I will find everything in life too big for my abilities. Well, time will tell." Theodore Roosevelt, writing in naval history in his spare time while in law school" --
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writing
self-confidence
discipline
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Doris Kearns Goodwin |
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e44da4c
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If the problems created by the industrial age were left unattended, Roosevelt cautioned, America would eventually be "sundered by those dreadful lines of division" that set "the haves" and the "have-nots" against one another."
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Doris Kearns Goodwin |
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df4ea36
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Each party profited by the offices when in power," Roosevelt explained, "and when in opposition each party insincerely denounced its opponents for doing exactly what it itself had done and intended again to do."
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Doris Kearns Goodwin |
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6df2eb0
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The essence of Roosevelt's leadership, I soon became convinced, lay in his enterprising use of the "bully pulpit," a phrase he himself coined to describe the national platform the presidency provides to shape public sentiment and mobilize action. Early in Roosevelt's tenure, Lyman Abbott, editor of The Outlook, joined a small group of friends in the president's library to offer advice and criticism on a draft of his upcoming message to Cong..
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Doris Kearns Goodwin |
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752eb8b
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In the long sentences of the president's message, semicolons followed by "yet" or "but" separated clauses that balanced each side of an issue, reflecting Roosevelt's characteristic "on the one hand, on the other" style of crediting antagonistic views."
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Doris Kearns Goodwin |
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07182ae
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The vice presidency "ought to be abolished," he told his friend Leonard Wood. "The man who occupies it may at any moment be everything; but meanwhile he is practically nothing."
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Doris Kearns Goodwin |
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9ebd5a5
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To illustrate the marked atmospheric contrast between the two cities, the writer Frank Carpenter observed that in New York, "a streetcar will not wait for you if you are not just at its stopping point. It goes on and you must stand there until the next car comes along. In Washington people a block away signal the cars by waving their hands or their umbrellas. Then they walk to the car at a leisurely pace, while the drivers wait patiently an..
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Doris Kearns Goodwin |
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96ecaf5
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She was never satisfied with anything less than perfection, but she was no grind. She was too interested in people.
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friendship
graciousness
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Doris Kearns Goodwin |
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a02732f
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Liberty produces wealth, and wealth destroys liberty," Henry Demarest Lloyd"
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Doris Kearns Goodwin |
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787d4e5
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When you have worked with them, when you have lived with them, you do not have to wonder how they feel, because you feel it yourself.
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Doris Kearns Goodwin |
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e7040fb
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According to his habit, Theodore Roosevelt sought to harness anxiety through action.
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worry
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Doris Kearns Goodwin |
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2807ced
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I thereby learned the invaluable lesson that in the practical activities of life no man can render the highest service unless he can act in combination with his fellows, which means a certain amount of give-and-take between him and them.
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Doris Kearns Goodwin |
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439a5cf
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think imagination is one of the greatest blessings of life," Edith later wrote, "and while one can lose oneself in a book one can never be thoroughly unhappy."
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Doris Kearns Goodwin |
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fa05bce
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We must treat each man on his worth and merits as a man. We must see that each is given a square deal, because he is entitled to no more and should receive no less.
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Doris Kearns Goodwin |
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6475d34
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Although the guilty verdict surprised few, the size of the resulting fine stunned the company and the country. For each of the 1,462 carloads of oil that had enjoyed an illegal rebate, Landis levied the highest possible fine, $20,000, generating a spectacular cumulative total of $29,240,000. Commenting on the hefty charge, Mark Twain drolly remarked that the sum evoked the bride's proverbial astonishment on the morning after her wedding: "I..
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Doris Kearns Goodwin |
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49372fc
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American troops stationed in the Philippines suppressed the native uprising that had followed the treaty. Known as the Philippine Insurrection, that conflict had erupted when the Filipinos learned, after decades of fighting for independence, that they had been betrayed into exchanging the rule of Spain for American occupation. With 35,000 additional troops authorized by Congress, Roosevelt projected that within two years the rebellion would..
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Doris Kearns Goodwin |
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011bcbb
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private citizens were asked to open their homes;
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Doris Kearns Goodwin |
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865d0a8
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There is no one left," McClure exhorted his readers as he cast about for a remedy to America's woes at the turn of the twentieth century, "none but all of us."
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Doris Kearns Goodwin |
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bd14c65
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The meanest man in the world," he remarked, "is the man who forgets the old friends that helped him on an early day and over early difficulties."
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Doris Kearns Goodwin |
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c4982b0
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I have always been fond of the West African proverb: 'Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far,'
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Doris Kearns Goodwin |
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7aca0ac
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But the same "personal charm" that had propelled Taft to the presidency ultimately proved "dangerous" to him, Baker concluded. For far too long, his amiable nature had kept him from the rough-and-tumble of politics, from the need to fight for himself and his convictions. Had he come into the White House" --
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Doris Kearns Goodwin |
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6cf816c
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After a quarter of a century in politics, Roosevelt observed, he had found that change was realized by "men who take the next step; not those who theorize about the 200th step."
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Doris Kearns Goodwin |
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1c72e2c
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As governor general of the Philippines, Taft had welcomed every political group at Malacanan Palace, making it "a rule never to pay any attention to personal squabbles and differences."
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Doris Kearns Goodwin |
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08a0cda
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I don't know that I will ever make a political speech again." Would he care to qualify that statement? one reporter queried. "Yes," Roosevelt laughingly said. "I won't say never."
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Doris Kearns Goodwin |
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9da8d36
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As S. S. McClure well understood, the "vitality of democracy" depends on "popular knowledge of complex questions." At"
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Doris Kearns Goodwin |
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ecf2780
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The only question now," he said, "is which corpse gets the most flowers."
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Doris Kearns Goodwin |
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f806ccb
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All the cartoonists at heart liked him, and there was seldom or never anything bitter or really unfriendly in their portrayals of him; they were uniformly good-natured." Caricatures even transformed his failure during a mid-November bear hunt into a triumph, conjuring an image of the president steadfastly refusing to shoot a small bear furnished for the occasion. As renditions of the original Clifford Berryman cartoon proliferated, the bear..
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Doris Kearns Goodwin |
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cc30a87
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There is no one left; none but all of us.
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Doris Kearns Goodwin |
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0553d3f
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Hearst's papers and magazines" were his intended target and promised his speech would clarify that he abhorred "the whitewash brush quite as much as of mud slinging."
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Doris Kearns Goodwin |
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812f541
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She feared that she would become a slave to superficial, symbolic duties.
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priorities
distraction
materialism
ritual
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Doris Kearns Goodwin |
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b8e2540
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That was my first lesson in real politics. . . . If you are cast on a desert island with only a screwdriver, a hatchet, and a chisel to make a boat with, why, go make the best one you can. It would be better if you had a saw, but you haven't. So with men.
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Doris Kearns Goodwin |
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e923e83
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FORTY THOUSAND VISITORS descended upon Chicago in the middle of May 1860, drawn
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Doris Kearns Goodwin |
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83d02c8
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if slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong,
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Doris Kearns Goodwin |
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04c2a18
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There will be some one at the White House whom you will like more than me," Roosevelt had predicted during his final meeting with the press corps, "but not one who will interest you more."
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Doris Kearns Goodwin |
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f3ac239
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In the reflected gaze of his (her husband's) steady admiration, she saw the face of the girl he had fallen in love with.
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marriage
encouragement
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Doris Kearns Goodwin |
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ed15493
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The failed deal crushed McClure, precipitating a nervous breakdown in April 1900 that propelled him to Europe to undergo the celebrated "rest-cure" devised by an American physician, S. Weir Mitchell. Prescribed for a range of nervous disorders, the rest cure required that patients remain isolated for weeks or even months at a time, forbidden to read or write, rigidly adhering to a milk-only diet. Underlying this regimen was the assumption t..
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Doris Kearns Goodwin |
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8a3dd17
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This extreme treatment was among the proliferating regimens developed in response to the stunning increase in nervous disorders diagnosed around the turn of the century. Commentators and clinicians cited a number of factors related to the stresses of modern civilization: the increased speed of communication facilitated by the telegraph and railroad; the "unmelodious" clamor of city life replacing the "rhythmical" sounds of nature; and the r..
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Doris Kearns Goodwin |
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239ba37
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There was no need to remind Roosevelt who controlled the senate. "I persistently refused to lose my temper," he recalled. "I merely explained good-humoredly that I had made up my mind." Though he steadfastly refused" --
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Doris Kearns Goodwin |
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8e3f017
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In Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress," he began, "you may recall the description of the Man with the Muck-rake, the man who could look no way but downward." Bunyan's muckraker, he suggested, "typifies the man who in this life consistently refuses to see aught that is lofty, and fixes his eyes with solemn intentness only on that which is vile and debasing."
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Doris Kearns Goodwin |
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d695349
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Don't hit till you have to; but, when you do hit, hit hard.
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Doris Kearns Goodwin |