Overview

This powerful book reminds us of the enormous power the nation accords its political leaders and how in the significant period, 1897--1913, these leaders failed to meet their responsibilities. Their inadequacies, the authors feel, delayed the administration of justice for all citizens, neglected the Negro, and seriously impaired the future effectiveness of their own once viable, successful, and justly proud Republican Party. The authors follow the maneuvers of McKinley, Roosevelt, Taft, Senators Aldrich, Platt, Allison, and Spooner, and House Speaker ""Uncle"" Joe Cannon as they juggled pressing domestic questions, perpetuating themselves in power without really confronting the public need. From the outset, when the party came into power in 1897 under remarkably auspicious circumstances, until it met final defeat at the hands of Woodrow Wilson in 1912, the Republican leaders laid a foundation by default for the Democratic return to power. Their neglect of major national problems afforded the Democrats a golden opportunity to appropriate those issues as their own.

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9780813153766

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Reviews

-Perceptive and trenchant, The Republican Command is one of the most quotable books on the Progressive Era and a major contribution to the political history of the early twentieth century.- -- Frank Friedel, Charles Warren Professor of American History, Emeritus, University of Washington

Perceptive and trenchant, <i>The Republican Command</i> is one of the most quotable books on the Progressive Era and a major contribution to the political history of the early twentieth century. -- Frank Friedel, Charles Warren Professor of American History, Emeritus, University of Washington</p>

Perceptive and trenchant, The Republican Command is one of the most quotable books on the Progressive Era and a major contribution to the political history of the early twentieth century. -- Frank Friedel, Charles Warren Professor of American History, Emeritus, University of Washington

Author Information

Horace Samuel Merrill is professor of history at the University of Maryland. Marion Galbraith Merrill is a specialist in manuscript research.

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