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President McKinley: Architect of the…
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President McKinley: Architect of the American Century (edição: 2017)

de Robert W. Merry (Autor)

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284692,286 (4.13)3
"In this great American story, acclaimed historian Robert Merry resurrects the presidential reputation of William McKinley, which loses out to the brilliant and flamboyant Theodore Roosevelt who succeeded him after his assassination. He portrays McKinley as a chief executive of consequence whose low place in the presidential rankings does not reflect his enduring accomplishments and the stamp he put on the country's future role in the world. Republican President William McKinley in his two terms as president (1897 - 1901) transformed America. He established the US as an imperial power. Although he does not register large in either public memory or in historians' rankings, in this revealing account, Robert W. Merry unfolds the mystery of how this bland man managed so much powerful change. McKinley settled decades of monetary controversy by taking the country to a strict gold standard; in the Spanish-American war he kicked Spain out of the Caribbean and liberated Cuba from Spain; in the Pacific he acquired Hawaii and the Philippines through war and diplomacy; he developed the doctrine of "fair trade"; forced the "Open Door" to China; forged our "special relationship" with Great Britain. In short, he established the non-colonial imperialism that took America into global preeminence. He expanded executive power and managed public opinion through his quiet manipulation of the press. McKinley paved the way for the bold and flamboyant leadership of his famous successor, Teddy Roosevelt, who built on his accomplishments (and got credit for them). Merry writes movingly about McKinley's admirable personal life, from his simple Midwestern upbringing to his Civil War heroism to his brave comportment just moments before his death by assassination (it was only six months into his second term when he was shot). Lively, definitive, and eye-opening, President McKinley resurrects this overlooked president and places him squarely on the list of one of the most important"-- "In this great American story, acclaimed historian Robert Merry resurrects the presidential reputation of William McKinley, which loses out to the brilliant and flamboyant Theodore Roosevelt who succeeded him after his assassination. He portrays McKinley as a chief executive of consequence whose low place in the presidential rankings does not reflect his enduring accomplishments and the stamp he put on the country's future role in the world"--… (mais)
Membro:Orsisius
Título:President McKinley: Architect of the American Century
Autores:Robert W. Merry (Autor)
Informação:Simon & Schuster (2017), Edition: First Edition, 624 pages
Coleções:Sua biblioteca
Avaliação:
Etiquetas:Biography

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President McKinley: Architect of the American Century de Robert W. Merry

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Well-written, in-depth bio. ( )
  mlevel | Jan 22, 2024 |
Good presidential biography that gives a lot of historical context to what is happening at the time of McKinley's presidency. The Spanish American War is a big topic, how the US was pulled into war with Spain and ended up with Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines as territories.

There is a historical debate about whether McKinley actively changed the presidency and the United States's place in the world or if he just happened to be the president when these things happen. This author seems to be defending McKinley as an active participant but does try to give some insight into both view. ( )
  littlemuls | Dec 17, 2021 |
Though nowadays overshadowed by his young, energetic successor that built upon his foreign policy successes in history, if not for his transformative Presidency the 20th Century could have gone differently for the United States. President McKinley: Architect of the American Century by Robert W. Merry explores the four and a half years of William McKinley in office and whether he led events or where led by them.

Merry begins his biography by leading up to its end, the assassination of McKinley in Buffalo at the Pan-American Exposition after the recently reelected President made a speech that seemed to show him turning towards freer trade and away from the protective tariffs that had defined his political career. After this dramatic beginning, Merry goes back to the first McKinleys to arrive in the Ohio territory where the future 25th President would live his life when not in the Union Army or in politics. Quickly going through McKinley’s early years, Merry spent a little more time following McKinley’s military career and how he rose quickly from a private to a Lieutenant within a year before finishing the war as a Major. After quickly covering McKinley’s time in law school, Merry covered his early years in Canton as a rising lawyer and meeting his future wife, Ida. As McKinley’s political career began and slowly took off, Merry slowed the pace of the narrative to give more facts including the how McKinley became a specialist on the tariff and dynamics of the Ohio Republican party that would impact his career. Once McKinley is in the White House, Merry slows down the narrative and focuses on the eventual four and a half years the redefined the United States at the end of the 19th Century leading to the 20th on the world stage from the lead up to and through the Spanish-American War to the Insurgency in the Philippines afterwards and the Boxer Rebellion in which the United States became a Great Power. Though McKinley’s time in office is now viewed as more foreign policy Presidency, McKinley himself had wanted to focus domestically more and Merry covered the many issues at home from the tariff to the gold standard to anti-imperialist sentiment that McKinley dealt with.

Merry began and ended his Presidential biography with how McKinley having been reelected based on his accomplishments of his first term was evolving his long-held political positions to meet new requirements to set up and complete his view of McKinley making decisions then incrementally push the political attitudes of others towards supporting his new position. Throughout Merry’s look at McKinley’s time in office, he showed evidence of McKinley’s incremental decision making and its high success rate but also the times when events moved too fast and how McKinley dealt with those events. Though focused on McKinley’s time in office more than the rest of his life, Merry’s biographical background of McKinley before his Presidency was fine but at times went back and forth in time during his political career that made things hard to follow and anticipate.

President McKinley is a well-written, informative political biography by Robert W. Merry of the 25th President’s time in office and how he made the decisions he made. While not a thorough biography of McKinley, it succeeds at it’s aim at covering the four and a half years that dramatically changed the United States standing in the world. ( )
1 vote mattries37315 | Jun 28, 2021 |
An interesting and readable biography of a forgotten president. Interesting as a bio of McKinley, an understated personality who kept getting the better of flashier politicians who perpetually underestimated the Civil War major.

But to me the best part of this book was as a way to use history as a lens on our own time. Reading recent history, one can be struck by how similar everything seems to the present day — not invaluable, but also adding limited perspective.

In contrast, more remote history has a different impact. People in periods such as the early American republic fought about different issues from today, and thought about them in ways that can seem alien to us.

The period covered in this book, at the close of the 19th Century, is a happy medium. Many of the issues that consumed William McKinley and his rivals were largely different than the biggest issues today: the tariff, the metallic basis of the currency, war with other great powers, building a Central American canal. (Others are eerily similar: military efforts to suppress insurgencies in developing nations, international trade deals, scandals about the management of the army.) But McKinley and his contemporaries think in a recognizably modern way. Thinking about how Gilded Age politicians saw questions of the tariff or bimetallism as questions of political life or death in the same way that we see income tax rates or health care really helps put things in perspective.

So do many of the process fights: the way candidates framed campaigns as "outsiders versus party bosses," how state legislatures drew new district lines in an attempt to secure partisan gain, attempts to segment the electorate with targeted messages.

McKinley may deserve to be more highly rated as a president than he traditionally has been — Merry's largely laudatory biography argues that he was a major mover on many decisions that helped set up America's geopolitical dominance in the 20th Century. (Merry also doesn't grapple in depth with some of the moral issues involving the annexation of Hawai'i or the occupation of the Philippines. He often acknowledges the questionableness of those decisions but swiftly moves on or focuses on their implications for American power.) But this book is worth reading if only as a relatively breezy portrait of its times — times not so dissimilar from our own. ( )
  dhmontgomery | Dec 13, 2020 |
I read this biography of William McKinley immediately after reading Kotkin’s Stalin: Waiting for Hitler and the contrast between the two writing styles was jarring. While Kotkin’s biography of Stalin was a chore to get through, very densely presented and at times confusing, this work on the life of William McKinley was engaging and approachable, to the point of perhaps being overly simplistic, though perhaps that was just a function of so closely following the Kotkin book.

I am very familiar with the early American Presidents, through Andrew Jackson, and the Presidents of the 20th century, however with the exception of the Civil War era, the 19th century Presidents tend to run together for me, and I know very little about them. Prior to reading this book, the only thing I knew about William McKinley was that he was assassinated in office and succeeded by his Vice President, Theodore Roosevelt.

From reading this biography, it would seem that most historians view him as a very mediocre President, and that while many positive events transpiring during the course of his presidency, he gets little credit for them. As with many biographers, the author engages in a bit of hagiography, arguing that McKinley is underappreciated and misunderstood. Certainly, during McKinley’s term, the economy prospered, bi-metalism was resolved in favor of a gold standard, the United States attained Great Power status through victory over the Spanish and acquisition of Hawaii, Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippines, in addition to playing a leading role in the Chinese Boxer Rebellion resolution.

The question of course, is whether McKinley earned credit for these accomplishments, or whether he was simply along for the ride. Certainly, many historians view him as a bland, indecisive puppet of Ohio Senator Mark Hanna, and it is doubtful that McKinley would have ever risen to even the level of Ohio Governor without Hanna’s significant political acumen. The author argues, however, that McKinley’s supposed “indecision” was instead a form of incrementalism and a very successful management style. Critics allege that he was dragged involuntarily to success while the author argues instead that he guided events to their ultimate resolution. Perhaps most unfortunate for McKinley was his succession by Theodore Roosevelt, who was everything that McKinley was not; bold, decisive, energetic and wildly popular.

In any event, McKinley’s term served as a true turning point in American history. Whereas before, America was a largely insular, economically inconsistent, factionalized country, by the time of his death in 1901, The United States was a major force on the world stage, a colonial power with a thriving economy and a strong sense of national destiny. How much of this inures to the credit of William McKinley is open to debate. ( )
  santhony | Feb 5, 2018 |
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"In this great American story, acclaimed historian Robert Merry resurrects the presidential reputation of William McKinley, which loses out to the brilliant and flamboyant Theodore Roosevelt who succeeded him after his assassination. He portrays McKinley as a chief executive of consequence whose low place in the presidential rankings does not reflect his enduring accomplishments and the stamp he put on the country's future role in the world. Republican President William McKinley in his two terms as president (1897 - 1901) transformed America. He established the US as an imperial power. Although he does not register large in either public memory or in historians' rankings, in this revealing account, Robert W. Merry unfolds the mystery of how this bland man managed so much powerful change. McKinley settled decades of monetary controversy by taking the country to a strict gold standard; in the Spanish-American war he kicked Spain out of the Caribbean and liberated Cuba from Spain; in the Pacific he acquired Hawaii and the Philippines through war and diplomacy; he developed the doctrine of "fair trade"; forced the "Open Door" to China; forged our "special relationship" with Great Britain. In short, he established the non-colonial imperialism that took America into global preeminence. He expanded executive power and managed public opinion through his quiet manipulation of the press. McKinley paved the way for the bold and flamboyant leadership of his famous successor, Teddy Roosevelt, who built on his accomplishments (and got credit for them). Merry writes movingly about McKinley's admirable personal life, from his simple Midwestern upbringing to his Civil War heroism to his brave comportment just moments before his death by assassination (it was only six months into his second term when he was shot). Lively, definitive, and eye-opening, President McKinley resurrects this overlooked president and places him squarely on the list of one of the most important"-- "In this great American story, acclaimed historian Robert Merry resurrects the presidential reputation of William McKinley, which loses out to the brilliant and flamboyant Theodore Roosevelt who succeeded him after his assassination. He portrays McKinley as a chief executive of consequence whose low place in the presidential rankings does not reflect his enduring accomplishments and the stamp he put on the country's future role in the world"--

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