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Bully Boy: The Truth About Theodore Roosevelt's Legacy
vBulletin Book Store > vBulletin books beginning with B
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Bully Boy: The Truth About Theodore Roosevelt's Legacy |
Author: Jim Powell
Published: 2006-08-08 |
List price: $27.50
Our price: $3.98
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As of: December 02nd, 2008 09:48:54 PM
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Customer comments on this selection.
 Good but Not as Good as FDR's Folly
Although I consider myself very much pro-laissez faire capitalism, a few of the chapters in this book are not very convincing, which detracts from the overall utility of the book. However, it is still one of the few books that critiques the Theodore Roosevelt Administration (henceforth T.R.) from a pro-laissez-faire capitalist perspective, and is therefore still worth reading.
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br /T.R. became president at a crucial turning point in U.S. history. At this time, there was a raging political debate between Classical Liberalism and Progressivism. Classical Liberalism was the idea of the Founding Fathers, which essentially argues that the proper role of the Federal government is largely to protect civil liberties to allow all citizens to pursue happiness. Progressivism encouraged the federal government to serve as an advocate for the weak and take a more active role in public affairs for the "greater good" of society. Unfortunately, with T.R., Progressivism won, which set numerous political precedents for government regulations in business, food, medicine, the environment and just about every other facet of public life. Since the T.R. was a *decisive* victory for Progressivism over Classical Liberalism, this makes T.R. arguably the worst president in U.S. history.
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br /Although Powell seems to miss the broad philosophical turning point described above, he does identify a large collection of loathsome policies of T.R. The chapter on "trust busting", which describes the dissolution of Northern Securities and Standard Oil and the subsequent hampering of economic growth that resulted from anti-trust laws, is very good. Similarly, the chapter on the massive pricing regulations on the railroad industry and the crippling economic results is also very eye-opening. The chapter on food and drug regulations contains a lot of informative facts, such as the ludicrous campaign against Coca-Cola (well after cocaine was removed as an ingredient), but it is a little less convincing. The chapter on environmental regulation was probably the least convincing of these four.
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br /Although Powell is very good at revealing how in many situations, the government regulations did not actually make consumer products safer or the environment cleaner in many situations, his argument seems to boil down to how these things inherently became less safe in every situation, because the government got involved. While this is certainly true in many situations, it is definitely not true in all, as there are legitimate cases of fraud or negligence in consumer products or pollution that the government should be involved in. Instead, Powell's argument would have been much more compelling to base his arguments on moral rights. For example, a chronically ill patient has the right to risk his life with a non-FDA-approved drug, if he indeed rationally perceives it to be his only hope to recovering.
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br /Moreover, the chapter on Roosevelt's foreign policy is not persuasive. Roosevelt did indeed think that a country should routinely go to war to maintain national pride and would toughen men into "real men". This is indeed an alarming view for a Commander in Chief to have, since wars should be viewed as something a country is forced into to defend the rights of its citizens, not as a means to boost national moral. However, Powell goes well beyond this. Powell is heavily critical of the Panama Canal because its construction was made possible by a U.S. government backed revolution in Panama. While I think there can be a serious discussion on the propriety of this actions, to fixate on the fact that the Panama Canal was made possible by "interventionism" overlooks the prodigious achievement in civil engineering and international commerce that this canal truly represented. Furthermore, Powell labels T.R.'s handling of the Ion Perdicaris hostage situation as unnecessary interventionism, which overlooks how T.R.'s actions boldly declared that the U.S. would have zero tolerance for those who violate the rights of U.S. citizens overseas.
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br /Overall, this is a good, but definitely not great, book on the Theodore Roosevelt administration from a pro-laissez-faire capitalist perspective.
 Revisionist trying to damage TR's legacy
I was sad to see "Bully Boy" by Jim Powell in my local bookstore. Mr. Powell's book goes on a long journey of historical fantasy and revision of one of our greatest Presidents. I would highly encourage people to boycott this trash book and instead read "The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt" by Edmund Morris for a more balanced and fair look at TR. This book does not dignify a longer response or a point by point retort. It only warrants a quick toss in the recycle pile along with other trash books, tabloids and fairy tales.
 It's all about the consequences...
In FDR's Folly, Jim Powell relied heavily on the work of empirical economists to draw conclusions about FDR and his policies. While contrary to other historians who have largely ignored economic studies of the great depression, Powell evaluated FDR and the New Deal based on the actual outcomes and consequences that they produced. In a similar vein, Powell documents the policies of TR in his new book, Bully Boy, and concludes that they largely did more harm than good. Specifically, Powell discusses the following in Bully Boy:
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br /* How TR's regulations, tariff and "trust busting" policies harmed consumers
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br /* How TR's foreign policy undermined the Monroe Doctrine and set precedents for future intervention in conflicts with no clear threat to U.S. security
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br /* How TR's Meat Inspection Act and Pure Food and Drugs Act were used predominately as special interest legislation and set the foundation for the future FDA "drug lag," which has killed thousands
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br /* How TR's conservation policies were counterproductive
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br /* How TR's tax policies help to establish the federal income tax
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br /While Powell's assessment of TR cannot be found in most history books, Bully Boy is well researched and documented with approximately 29 pages of notes and a 21 page bibliography. I enjoyed the book and would recommend it to people that either love or loathe TR.
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br /Many people will obviously disagree with Powell's conclusions or will support the consequences and precedents of TR's policies that appear to trouble Powell. I look forward to reading both the positive and negative reviews of this book. My hope is that those who disagree with Powell can provide more substance than the ad hominem attacks (e.g. "smut," "garbage," "reactionary claptrap") and other rhetorical fallacies that were the main locus of criticism for FDR's Folly and Wilson's War
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He's Entitled to His Opinion, But...
Like liberals with Ronald Reagan, Powell I think misses the point about why Theodore Roosevelt was (and is) so popular--because they believed that he was genuinely interested in their concerns and problems and he spoke to them in a language they could understand. Despite his thesis most Americans probably felt (to paraphrase Reagan) that they were better off after his presidency than before. Powell is probably closer to the mark regarding TR's foreign policy, particularly the building of the Panama Canal but many Americans, similar to today (to some extent) supported a foreign policy that furthered American interests.
 Phillipine Civilian casualties in Sp.-Am. War
I failed to see any mention of the hundreds upon hundreds of thousands of Filipino wonen and children killed by Americans. Roosevelt was said to have been elated by the slaughter of "savages" for the American cause
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