The author of such classic works as The Republican Roosevelt, V Was for Victory, and Years of Discord, John Morton Blum is one of a small group of intellectuals who for more than a quarter of a century dominated the writing of American political history. Writing now of his own career, Blum provides a behind-the-scenes look at Ivy League education and political power from the 1940s to the 1980s.

Blum insightfully recounts a long and distinguished journey that began at Phillips Academy, where he first realized he could make a career of teaching and writing history. He tells how young men were socialized to the values of the Northeastern establishment in those years before World War II, and how as a non-practicing Jew he learned to over-come bigotry both at Andover and at Harvard, which then had no Jewish professors.

In 1957 Blum joined the faculty of Yale University's history department, widely regarded as the nation's best, where he became both influential and popular and where his students included one future U.S. president as well as others who aspired to the office. He reveals much about the inner workings of Ivy League education and tells of controversies over the Vietnam War and the Black Panthers, his role in Eugene McCarthy's presidential campaign, and how he searched for common ground between reactionary faculty and radical students.

More than a recounting of a singular life, Blum's story explains how political history was researched and written during the second half of the twentieth century, describing how the discipline evolved, gained ascendancy, and was challenged as historical fashions changed. It also offers revealing glimpses of such prominent academics as Kingman Brewster, Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., C. Vann Woodward, and William Sloan Coffin.

Over a distinguished career, Blum witnessed considerable change in elite educational institutions, where minorities and women were grossly underrepresented when he first entered academia. In a memoir brimming with insight and laced with humor, he looks back at the academy--"not a refuge from reality but an alternative reality"--as he reflects upon his intellectual journey and his contributions to the study and writing of twentieth-century American history.

The letters of Theodore Roosevelt constitute a major contribution to the field of American history and literature. At the same time, they present an autobiography of matchless candor and vitality. They are at once a mine of information for the historian, a case study in astute and vigorous political leadership, and a delight to the general reader. All the letters needed to reveal Roosevelt's thought and action in his public and private life are included, with appropriate editorial comment; and each is printed in its entirety.

The Letters of Theodore Roosevelt constitute a major contribution to the field of American history and literature. At the same time, they present an autobiography of matchless candor and vitality. They are at once a mine of information for the historian, a case study in astute and vigorous political leadership, and a delight to the general reader. All the letters needed to reveal Roosevelt's thought and action in his public and private life are included, with appropriate editorial comment; and each is printed in its entirety. With the addition of this final installment, about 6,000 letters will have been published out of the 100,000 which Theodore Roosevelt wrote between 1868 (when he was 10) and the day of his death in January, 1919. During the last ten years of his life Roosevelt plunged into the African jungle; he visited Kaiser Wilhelm II; he led the Progressive Movement, and as a Bull Moose was defeated in 1912-permitting Woodrow Wilson to defeat William Howard Taft for the Presidency. Then, explorer once again, he escaped with his life from the wilds of Brazil, campaigned for United States' participation in World War One, and died peacefully as his cousin was on the threshold of a dynamic career. Theodore Roosevelt's letters are a treasury of information about the issues, the people, and the temper of his period. Here are available documents which tell of his thought and action in all the major and many of the minor undertakings of his public and private life. Each letter is printed in its entirety. Both in content and presentation, The Letters of Theodore Roosevelt constitute a contribution to the field of American history and literature whose value can hardly be exaggerated. At the same time they present an autobiography of matchless candor and vitality.

The Letters of Theodore Roosevelt constitute a major contribution to the field of American history and literature. At the same time, they present an autobiography of matchless candor and vitality. They are at once a mine of information for the historian, a case study in astute and vigorous political leadership, and a delight to the general reader. All the letters needed to reveal Roosevelt's thought and action in his public and private life are included, with appropriate editorial comment; and each is printed in its entirety. In the letters of 1901-1905, Roosevelt consolidates his position as President and party leader, settles the coal strike, deals with the politics of the Panama Canal, expands the Navy, extends the sphere of American interests abroad, achieves the Presidency in his own right, and works with the Russians and the Japanese to make the Peace in Portsmouth.

The letters of Theodore Roosevelt constitute a major contribution to the field of American history and literature. At the same time, they present an autobiography of matchless candor and vitality. They are at once a mine of information for the historian, a case study in astute and vigorous political leadership, and a delight to the general reader. All the letters needed to reveal Roosevelt's thought and action in his public and private life are included, with appropriate editorial comment; and each is printed in its entirety.

The Letters of Theodore Roosevelt constitute a major contribution to the field of American history and literature. At the same time, they present an autobiography of matchless candor and vitality. They are at once a mine of information for the historian, a case study in astute and vigorous political leadership, and a delight to the general reader. All the letters needed to reveal Roosevelt's thought and action in his public and private life are included, with appropriate editorial comment; and each is printed in its entirety. With the addition of this final installment, about 6,000 letters will have been published out of the 100,000 which Theodore Roosevelt wrote between 1868 (when he was 10) and the day of his death in January, 1919. During the last ten years of his life Roosevelt plunged into the African jungle; he visited Kaiser Wilhelm II; he led the Progressive Movement, and as a Bull Moose was defeated in 1912-permitting Woodrow Wilson to defeat William Howard Taft for the Presidency. Then, explorer once again, he escaped with his life from the wilds of Brazil, campaigned for United States' participation in World War One, and died peacefully as his cousin was on the threshold of a dynamic career. Theodore Roosevelt's letters are a treasury of information about the issues, the people, and the temper of his period. Here are available documents which tell of his thought and action in all the major and many of the minor undertakings of his public and private life. Each letter is printed in its entirety. Both in content and presentation, The Letters of Theodore Roosevelt constitute a contribution to the field of American history and literature whose value can hardly be exaggerated. At the same time they present an autobiography of matchless candor and vitality.

The Letters of Theodore Roosevelt constitute a major contribution to the field of American history and literature. At the same time, they present an autobiography of matchless candor and vitality. They are at once a mine of information for the historian, a case study in astute and vigorous political leadership, and a delight to the general reader. All the letters needed to reveal Roosevelt's thought and action in his public and private life are included, with appropriate editorial comment; and each is printed in its entirety. In the letters of 1905-1909, Roosevelt's "big stick" carries increasing weight at home and abroad. These are the years of the fleet's cruise around the world, of trust-busting and railroad regulation and currency control, and the building of the Panama Canal. They include the Panic of 1907, "Nature Faking," conservation, the choice of a successor, and the bitter conflict between President and Congress in the closing days of the administration.

The Letters of Theodore Roosevelt constitute a major contribution to the field of American history and literature. At the same time, they present an autobiography of matchless candor and vitality. They are at once a mine of information for the historian, a case study in astute and vigorous political leadership, and a delight to the general reader. All the letters needed to reveal Roosevelt's thought and action in his public and private life are included, with appropriate editorial comment; and each is printed in its entirety. In the letters of 1901-1905, Roosevelt consolidates his position as President and party leader, settles the coal strike, deals with the politics of the Panama Canal, expands the Navy, extends the sphere of American interests abroad, achieves the Presidency in his own right, and works with the Russians and the Japanese to make the Peace in Portsmouth.

The Letters of Theodore Roosevelt constitute a major contribution to the field of American history and literature. At the same time, they present an autobiography of matchless candor and vitality. They are at once a mine of information for the historian, a case study in astute and vigorous political leadership, and a delight to the general reader. All the letters needed to reveal Roosevelt's thought and action in his public and private life are included, with appropriate editorial comment; and each is printed in its entirety. In the letters of 1905-1909, Roosevelt's "big stick" carries increasing weight at home and abroad. These are the years of the fleet's cruise around the world, of trust-busting and railroad regulation and currency control, and the building of the Panama Canal. They include the Panic of 1907, "Nature Faking," conservation, the choice of a successor, and the bitter conflict between President and Congress in the closing days of the administration.

The essays in this book focus on particular questions, like the historical relationship between race and poverty, or the constraining influence of children's literature. Some essays explore particular episodes like the foreign 'scare' after World War I.

"A vivid and masterful account of the terrible discord and violence of those years." —C. Vann Woodward

Victorious in a great and "good" war, the United States in 1945 bestrode the world unchallenged, but by 1960 that dominance was eroding. For fifteen tense and troubled years, between the election of John F. Kennedy in 1960 and the resignation of Richard Nixon in 1974, the United States struggled to direct its domestic life and its role in a rapidly changing world.

These years are as rich as any in American history: rich in incident—from the Cuban Missile Crisis and the civil rights struggle to the antiwar movement and the opening of China; rich in personality—from Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr., to Henry Kissinger, Lyndon Johnson, and the Beatles. Years of Discord is a story of turning points of power and decline, conflict and idealism, of a time that has found in John Morton Blum its ablest chronicler.

"In this incisive, judicious and eminently readable book, a master historian tels the story of those tangled and turbulent years just behind us—years that shook and remolded the republic." —Arthur Schlesinger Jr.

"Once again, John Morton Blum has brought to life a critical period of American history. An illuminating account of the amazing Sixties, and an invaluable contribution to the history of our times." —Robert G. Kaiser, Washington Post

Advocates of a strong versus a weak presidency have struggled throughout American history, but never so fiercely as in the twentieth century, which saw the rise of progressivism. This is the story of four progressive presidents, from the first Roosevelt, who himself brought plenty of backbone to the office, to Woodrow Wilson , who articulated the theory of a progressive presidency, to FDR, who brought it unique power, and, finally, to Lyndon Johnson, who provided perhaps its last great surge in our century. In a time of progressive malaise, it is important to know the history, to see the benefits as well as the liabilities, in the progressive presidential tradition. That is the aim and achievement of this book.

This is a book about politics and politicians; about elections, lawmaking, governing, and how they work. It is also about power, its increasing concentration in American society, and its implications at home and abroad especially for those who exercise it. It is a book about the Republican Party during the period in which it developed the forces and frictions which still characterize it today. Finally, it is a book about a remarkably successful and vibrant man who contained within himself much of the best and the worst of his environment, who contributed generously to American life, who knew in his time disappointment, temptation, and pain, but also glory; a man remembered most by his intimates for the "fun of him." The author is in an enviable position to assess these matters. During five years as Associate Editor of The Letters of Theodore Roosevelt, he read and studied all TR's letters as well as all his published works, and delved deeply into the relevant literature of the period, including the vast material in the Congressional Record. From this rich store, John Morton Blum has drawn a new interpretation of Roosevelt the conservative, Roosevelt the professional Republican politician and Roosevelt the leader of men. He presents new material on Roosevelt's work as the manager of the Republican Party and as manager of Congress. He relates Roosevelt's roles in these situations to his conduct of foreign policy-a foreign policy so anticipatory of that of contemporary America-and to his Progressiveness-a doctrine of government with strong affinities to both the New Deal and the New Crusade.