Review: Ken Burns’ and Geoffrey Ward’s ‘The Roosevelts’
It would be hard to name three people who had more of an impact on their time than this trio had on the 20th century: Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and Eleanor Roosevelt. The two men occupied the White House for 19 of the first 45 years of the “American Century,” as Henry Luce dubbed it, and Eleanor Roosevelt was arguably the most famous woman on earth for her globe-trotting good works until her death, 17 years after her husband’s, in 1962.
And they were blood relatives, to boot. The men, who were fifth cousins, turned the American presidency upside down, transforming it into a “Bully Pulpit” and the “Imperial Presidency” it largely remains today. When big things needed doing, these two men in the White House led the way, whether it was digging the Panama Canal and fighting monopolistic trusts or establishing much of today’s federal safety net and leading the nation to victory in World War II.
Teddy and Franklin, and Eleanor as well, talked directly to the American people by cultivating the press as none of their predecessors had – and in Eleanor’s case as none have since. Teddy adamantly believed (he did everything adamantly) that the American president should be dominant over the U.S. Congress because he alone was elected by all of the American people – as opposed to those nattering provincials on Capitol Hill.