[nicollo]

If anyone is interested in the Progressive Era, here's Nicollo's brief dos and don'ts list:

Wm. McKinley
- Margaret, Leech, "In the Days of McKinley, Harper & Brothers, New York, 1959

T.R.
- Morris, as already stated above
- Henry F. Pringle, "Theodore Roosevelt: A Biography," New York, Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1931 -- a great, great, and yet enduring work. Read it.
- H.W. Brands, "T.R.: The Last Romantic," Basic Books, New York, 1997 -- a good read and an easy overview of his full life.
- Carl E. Hatch, "The Big Stick and the Congressional Gavel: A Study of Theodore Roosevelt’s Relations with his Last Congress, 1907-1909," Pageant Press, New York, 1967 -- a little noticed but excellent book on the last year of the Roosevelt presidency.

Taft
- Henry F. Pringle, "The Life and Times of William Howard Taft," New York, Farrar & Rinehart, 1939 (reprinted by Archon Books, Cambden, Connecticut, 1964) -- the defining work on Taft and a great book. I challenged many of Pringle's views on the Taft presidency.
- David H. Burton, William Howard Taft: In the Public Service, Robert E. Krieger Publishing Company, Malabar, Florida, 1986 -- a quick overview of Taft and his life mission of public service. Quite a career.
- None of the modern biographies of Taft are any good, such as those by Donald Anderson and Paulo Colleta. Stick with Pringle and my book.

Times of TR and Taft & others:
- Archie Butt, "The Letters of Archie Butt: Personal Aide to President Roosevelt, Edited by Lawrence F. Abbott, Doubleday, Page & Company, New York, 1924 and "Taft and Roosevelt: The Intimate Letters of Archie Butt," Military Aide, Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., Garden City, New York, 1930 (reprinted by Kennikat Press, Port Washington, N.Y., 1971) -- personal letters written by TR and Taft's military aide. Great running commentary on the times, although awfully full of social gossip. The real fun stuff is in the letters that DID NOT get published, and which are housed in the GA State Archives.
- Philip C. Jessup, "Elihu Root," Dodd, Meade & Co., New York, 1938 -- Root is a central character to the period. A must read.
- Allan Nevins, "Ford: The Times, the Man, the Company," Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1954 -- gotta understand automobiles to understand the era. First read my book, then read Nevins. He entirely missed the politics of the era that led to the Model T. He is otherwise entirely correct on Ford.

Progressive Era autobiographies:
- Cannon, Joseph Gurney, The Memoirs of Joseph “Uncle Joe” Cannon, Transcribed by Helen Leseure Abdill, Vermilion County Museum Society, Danville, IL, 1996 -- Uncle Joe Cannon -- gotta read it! Mr. Standpatterism himself. Cannon has been badly mistreated in history.
- Clark, Champ, My Quarter Century of American Politics, Harper & Brothers, New York, 1920 -- Speaker of the House from 1910 to 1919 (approx). Great read and a fair autobiography. He has fantastic insight on the characters of his day. Clark was a good man.
- Mark Sullivan, Mark, "Our Times: 1900-1925," Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936 -- multi-volume and long work. Often wrong, but there is good history in it.
- T. Roosevelt and Robert La Follette -- self-serving and often factually incorrect apologias and knives-in-the-backs of their enemies. Unfortunately taken as pure history, which they are not. Caveat lectur.
- William Howard Taft, "Our Chief Magistrate and His Powers," Columbia University Press, New York, 1916 (reprinted as The President and His Powers, Columbia University Press, New York and London, 1967) -- yet a classic, and a fundamental statement on the presidency. It is often studied in the context of Roosevelt's autobiography and his statements in it on the presidency, but these are entirely different works.
- William Allen White, "The Autobiography of William Allen White," The MacMillan Company, New York, 1946 -- an autobiography of a whacky Bull Mooser. Even White admits that 1912 was a mistake.
- HH Kohlsaat, H.H., "From McKinley to Harding," Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1923 -- good read, up there with Mark Sullivan's, but much easier to get through.

Must Reads on the Progressive Era, even if you disagree with the thesis:
- Richard Hofstadter, "The Age of Reform," Vintage Books, New York, 1955 -- great book, if too weighted on "reform" and missing politics.
- Gabriel Kolko, "The Triumph of Conservatism: A Reinterpretation of American History, 1900-1916," The Free Press, New York, 1963 -- Kolko is a leftist and an ass. He comes "this close" to getting it about the Era, but his commie bias gets in the way.

For idolitry of the Progressives and other books to avoid:
- Claude Bowers, "Beveridge and The Progressive Era," The Literary Guild, New York, 1932
- Manners, William, "TR and Will: A Friendship That Split the Republican Party," Harcourt Brace Javanovich, Inc., New York, 1969 -- ugggh.
- George E. Mowry, "The Era of Theodore Roosevelt: And the Birth of Modern America, 1900-1912," Harper & Row, New York and Evanston, 1958 -- 1950's academic liberal / New Dealism idolitry of big government.
- Arthur S. Link, "Woodrow Wilson and the Progressive Era: 1910-1917," Harper & Row, New York and Evanston, 1954 -- same as the Mowry book. Go here only to understand how the Academy has it all wrong, and still does.

[x]

Nice thread. Leech also did a book on Washington, DC during the Civil War, Reveille in Washington. I learned a lot of my history from reading Matthew Josephson, but don't imagine his conspiracy theories have held up very well (one of the risks in his muckraking trade is that people actually take his villains as heroes -- the creatures from Wall Street and Jekyll Island being far more exciting than the pious farmer, unfortunate immigrant or suffering widow). It's going back a long way but what about Thomas Beer on Hanna and The Mauve Decade? Constance Rourke was also a delight writing about the American Victorians in The Trumpets of Jubilee.

Freeman's Lee is more a work of mythology or hagiography than a reliable biography. Its inclusion on the list looks like a sop to the mint julep school. The Education of Henry Adams is a classic. Certainly worthy, but doesn't it deserve to be knocked off its pedestal every once in a while? By contrast, Adams's books on History of the United States During the Administrations of Jefferson and Madison are undiscovered and underappreciated classics. At their great length they are likely to remain unappreciated and unread (or at least unfinished), but it's good to see Adams try to say something solid, rather than simply hint at this or that conclusion or throw up his hands and sigh over his era.

I wish I could add some great biographical milestone here. Maybe Richard Brookhiser's recent books on Washington and other founders might qualify. Or Benjamin Thomas's Lincoln. My own favorite biographies were about more recent and troubled Presidents: the Roosevelts, Wilson, Harding, JFK, LBJ, RMN. Fascinating reading, but hardly what you'd give to kids to inspire them, anymore than you'd want them taking Hamlet, Othello or Macbeth as role models.