Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919), 26th President (1901–1909), is the Progressive-era embodiment of the strong nationalist state disciplining monopoly — the "Square Deal" president who expanded executive power in the name of the people against both plutocracy and radicalism.
Record
- Trust-busting (Northern Securities, 1904; Standard Oil, 1911), the Hepburn Act regulating railroads, Pure Food and Drug Act.
- Conservation: national forests, parks, and monuments on a continental scale — state stewardship of land against speculative plunder.
- Big-stick imperialism: Panama Canal, Roosevelt Corollary, Great White Fleet — the turn of American nationalism outward.
- 1912 Bull Moose run: social insurance, women's suffrage, and "New Nationalism" — Hamiltonian means for progressive ends.
Infrared reading
TR demonstrates the American precedent for state capitalism from above: when monopoly decay threatened the republic, the nationalist wing of the elite itself moved to subordinate finance to national power. Infrared cites him in arguing that economic patriotism and strong sovereign government are native American traditions, not foreign imports — while criticizing his imperial turn as the beginning of the Anglo-American imperial synthesis (see Woodrow Wilson, Anglo Box).