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It is hard to have to rethink people who have been presented to me as heroes, had aircraft carriers named after them, and had personal qualities I admired.

I always respected Richard Nixon-but it is hard for me to defend him for his economic policies (gold standard, price controls) so I have to square that circle sometimes. In his case, I will always respect him for his bombing Hanoi and mining of Haiphong harbor to bring the North Vietnamese Communists to the bargaining table.

But is a challenge for most of us to rethink certain people, but over the last 30 years, I have had to do just that with Theodore Roosevelt. I view him quite differently now than I did as recently as the Nineties.

That’s going to continue to happen as more history gets brought to the forefront. There are people asking questions. Hopefully they’ll find the answers they’re seeking more quickly this way - I know that for me, my feeling is that ‘yes they will’. There are also those who will accidentally run into it and be a little shocked by what they didn’t learn in their Advanced Placement classes - because its more easily accessible.

I am still pushing through the J. Warren audio as time allows, and it continues to confirm for me about who I think the Founders are based on what I’ve found regarding certain quotes, but also what I wasn’t taught in educational rounds. Some sections I’ve listened to more than once, just because that’s how I do. The subsequent chapters can sometimes help reiterate the previous chapters or describe beliefs and events more fully through additional context.

To many Americans, that book will come across as shocking though. And quite frankly, they need to be shocked. That’s a good thing. The reverse is also true in the same way, if they can actually be convinced to take the time (or listen) to read a book like the one published by Croly or Wilson’s many works.

rlmorel: "But is a challenge for most of us to rethink certain people, but over the last 30 years, I have had to do just that with Theodore Roosevelt.
I view him quite differently now than I did as recently as the Nineties."

Obviously, like every other human being in history, Teddy Roosevelt was a man of his times, and so shaped and limited by them.

I think it's far too easy to do as ProgressingAmerica does, on learning the true details of history, to condemn anyone from any historical period for not living up to our own highest standards of what is right & wrong -- or even just Right and Left wing.

So I think that Teddy Roosevelt does not deserve unjust criticism and that he far more closely resembles other Republicans, from Eisenhower to Reagan and Donald Trump than he does any Democrats like Wilson, FDR, LBJ or any others from today.