The bully pulpit

The first decade of the Progressive era was a tumultuous time when the nation was coming unseamed and reform was in the air. The story is told through the intense friendship of Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft -- a relationship that ruptured when they engaged in a brutal fight for the presidential nomination. It is also the story of the muckracking press, which aroused the spirit of reform that helped Roosevelt push the government to shed its laissez-faire attitude toward robber barons, corrupt politicians, and corporate exploiters of our natural resources.