William Howard Taft: The American Presidents Series: The 27th President, 1909-1913
3.5/5
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this ebook
The only man to serve as president and chief justice, who approached every decision in constitutional terms, defending the Founders’ vision against new populist threats to American democracy
William Howard Taft never wanted to be president and yearned instead to serve as chief justice of the United States. But despite his ambivalence about politics, the former federal judge found success in the executive branch as governor of the Philippines and secretary of war, and he won a resounding victory in the presidential election of 1908 as Theodore Roosevelt’s handpicked successor.
In this provocative assessment, Jeffrey Rosen reveals Taft’s crucial role in shaping how America balances populism against the rule of law. Taft approached each decision as president by asking whether it comported with the Constitution, seeking to put Roosevelt’s activist executive orders on firm legal grounds. But unlike Roosevelt, who thought the president could do anything the Constitution didn’t forbid, Taft insisted he could do only what the Constitution explicitly allowed. This led to a dramatic breach with Roosevelt in the historic election of 1912, which Taft viewed as a crusade to defend the Constitution against the demagogic populism of Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson.
Nine years later, Taft achieved his lifelong dream when President Warren Harding appointed him chief justice, and during his years on the Court he promoted consensus among the justices and transformed the judiciary into a modern, fully equal branch. Though he had chafed in the White House as a judicial president, he thrived as a presidential chief justice.
Jeffrey Rosen
Jeffrey Rosen is President and CEO of the National Constitution Center, where he hosts We the People, a weekly podcast of constitutional debate. He is also a professor of law at the George Washington University Law School and a contributing editor at The Atlantic. Rosen is a graduate of Harvard College, Oxford University, and Yale Law School. He is the author of seven previous books, including the New York Times bestseller Conversations with RBG: Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Life, Love, Liberty, and Law. His essays and commentaries have appeared in The New York Times Magazine; on NPR; in The New Republic, where he was the legal affairs editor; and in The New Yorker, where he has been a staff writer.
Read more from Jeffrey Rosen
Professional Windows PowerShell for Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to William Howard Taft
Related ebooks
Accidental Presidents: Eight Men Who Changed America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Washington's Farewell: The Founding Father's Warning to Future Generations Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Roosevelt Sweeps Nation: FDR’s 1936 Landslide and the Triumph of the Liberal Ideal Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhat Kind of Nation: Thomas Jefferson, John Marshall, and the Epic Stru Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lincoln President-Elect: Abraham Lincoln and the Great Secession Winter 1860-1861 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Founding Feuds: The Rivalries, Clashes, and Conflicts That Forged a Nation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Coming of the New Deal: The Age of Roosevelt, 1933–1935 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDemagogue: The Life and Long Shadow of Senator Joe McCarthy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5No Ordinary Time: Franklin & Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5America's First Dynasty: The Adamses, 1735-1918 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Course of Human Events: The 2003 Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Imperial Presidency Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5At Canaan's Edge: America in the King Years, 1965-68 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Trials of Harry S. Truman: The Extraordinary Presidency of an Ordinary Man, 1945-1953 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation: The End of Slavery in America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5First In His Class: A Biography Of Bill Clinton Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Magnificent Catastrophe: The Tumultuous Election of 1800, America's First Presidential Campaign Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Country of Vast Designs: James K. Polk, the Mexican War and the Conquest of the American Continent Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5American Emperor: Aaron Burr's Challenge to Jefferson's America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Samuel Adams: A Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Salmon P. Chase: Lincoln's Vital Rival Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Independence: The Struggle to Set America Free Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Jefferson and Hamilton: The Rivalry That Forged a Nation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5President McKinley: Architect of the American Century Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5James Madison and the Making of America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Summer of 1787: The Men Who Invented the Constitution Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pure Goldwater Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Impeached: The Trial of President Andrew Johnson and the Fight for Lincoln's Legacy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Those Turbulent Sons of Freedom: Ethan Allen's Green Mountain Boys and the American Revolution Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Political Biographies For You
Enough Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Mein Kampf Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Putin's People: How the KGB Took Back Russia and Then Took On the West Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Nelson Mandela Biography: The Long Walk to Freedom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Watergate: A New History Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life (Revised Edition) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5General's Son: Journey of an Israeli in Palestine Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Lincoln Conspiracy: The Secret Plot to Kill America's 16th President--and Why It Failed Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer: An Edgar Award Winner Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Story of the Trapp Family Singers Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5American Values: Lessons I Learned from My Family Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Devil's Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America's Secret Government Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Disloyal: A Memoir: The True Story of the Former Personal Attorney to President Donald J. Trump Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Profiles in Courage: Deluxe Modern Classic Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Saga of the Donner Party Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Big Cheat: How Donald Trump Fleeced America and Enriched Himself and His Family Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Parting the Waters: America in the King Years 1954-63 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Benjamin Franklin: An American Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fear: Trump in the White House Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Summary of John Adams: by David McCullough | Includes Analysis Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lincoln's Melancholy: How Depression Challenged a President and Fueled His Greatness Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Art of Community: Seven Principles for Belonging Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The First Conspiracy: The Secret Plot to Kill George Washington Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Freezing Order: A True Story of Money Laundering, Murder, and Surviving Vladimir Putin's Wrath Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Letter to a Bigot: Dead But Not Forgotten Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for William Howard Taft
9 ratings1 review
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Being a workmanlike analysis of the career of Wm. Howard Taft, using his judicial philosophy and career to explicate his presidency, fair enough since Taft was always a jurist at heart. The book is useful and informative, but unfortunately the considerable space devoted to somewhat abstruse legal musings doesn't have a great deal of readership appeal, particularly since both the political issues of the day and the legal issues which Taft wrestled with were not really formulated with twenty-first century reading interests in mind. As for the more directly political chapters, I was most interested in and learned the most from the passages explicating Taft's split with his predecessor, Theodore Roosevelt.