Social Darwinism

Keith Carlson argues that Theodore Roosevelt’s four volume history The Winning of the West retains little value as a historical work and that its importance stems from the insights it grants into the “deeply held personal and political views” of its author. Carlson discusses Roosevelt’s commentary on William Jennings Bryan and Populism, his views on the treatment of Native Americans, and his relationship with the historian Frederick Jackson Turner. Carlson asserts that The Winning of the West is a valuable and under appreciated source of information about Roosevelt.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Creation Date

1994-1995

Charles C. Goetsch examines the legal, philosophical, and political dispute between Theodore Roosevelt and Simeon E. Baldwin, a Yale Law School professor, Chief Justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court of Errors, and Governor of Connecticut. He details the conservative legal outlook of Baldwin and how this view clashed with the progressive political beliefs of Roosevelt. Goetsch shows how a legal dispute over the constitutionality of the Federal Employers Liability Act extended from the courts to the 1910 election campaign where Roosevelt’s rhetoric prompted Baldwin to consider a libel suit against the former president.

Two pictures, one of Simeon E. Baldwin and the other of Theodore Roosevelt speaking from the platform of a train car, are included in the article.

A listing of the officers and the members of the executive, finance, and Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace committees of the Theodore Roosevelt Association is included in the article as well as an advertisement for the Roosevelt Savings Bank of Garden City, New York.

George F. Baer believes that the best interests of the working man are furthered by Christian men, God, and management; and not by “labor agitators.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1902-07-17