Presidency of T. Roosevelt

This comprehensive one-volume study of the 26th president's administration (1901-1909) emphasizes Roosevelt's aggressive exercise of the powers of his office. Domestically, this included his ``trust-busting'' strategy, his regulation of big business and the economy, and his campaign to conserve our national natural resources. Decisiveness was equally manifest in Roosevelt's foreign policy; Gould explores TR's role as mediator in the Russo-Japanese War, his acquisition of the Panama Canal site and the start of the Canal's construction, and the controversial ``Roosevelt corollary'' to the Monroe Doctrine. On the negative side, Gould analyzes Roosevelt's ``reluctant racial tolerance,'' using as his prime example the president's harsh attitude toward black soldiers accused in 1906 of shooting up the Texas town of Brownsville. The author charges that their trial-less dishonorable discharge was a serious miscarriage of justice, one sanctioned by the chief executive, who ``could not rise above the racial values of his time.'' Roosevelt's presidency, we're shown in this balanced, scholarly assessment, exerted a profoundly positive effect on the national self-image. (Jan.)