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Murdering McKinley
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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
This ambitious book paints a fresh picture of American culture a century ago and finds there the confused stirrings of our own age. Rauchway's lens opens on the 1901 assassination of President William McKinley by Leon Czolgosz and keeps that event in focus throughout. The author's aim is to get us to understand in new ways the dawning 20th century, when so many of our present political and social struggles took form and solutions were proposed. For instance, the involvement in Czolgosz's case of "alienists" and criminologists provides Rauchway (The Refuge of Affections) with openings into such varied issues as nativism, racism, industrial conditions and social work. As for politics, he deals skillfully with now mostly forgotten issues-such as tariffs and currency policy-that rarely appeal to readers, but which here gain clarity through Rauchway's deft brevity. Most important, he shows how the nation's culture, and Theodore Roosevelt, who gained the presidency on McKinley's death, got caught up in a debate about the reasons for the murder. Was Czolgosz spurred by his psychological state or by anarchist ideology? Did the murder's origins lie within the assassin or in the social conditions that produce desperate people? These are issues that continue to divide Americans. And the book shines in dealing with them, making an important contribution to historical understanding. Rauchway's explanation for Roosevelt's 1912 loss as "Bull Moose" candidate of the Progressive Party-that he was caught between opposing interpretations of the roots of the nation's ills-is especially provocative. That alone should make the book controversial.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From Booklist
Justice moved swiftly in 1901, dispatching the assassin of William McKinley a few short weeks after the crime. Rauchway wonders if the motives of the killer, self-proclaimed anarchist Leon Czolgosz, were sufficiently investigated. For factual backbone, Rauchway relies on evidence gathered by one Vernon Briggs, a psychologist who interviewed the Czolgosz family and was sensitive to explaining aberrant behavior in terms of social conditions. And there was much to be sensitive about in late 1890s America, whether one was a stand-pat capitalist or a protesting proletarian: Rauchway works the fears and demands of both archetypes into his interpretation of the politics of the Progressive Era. Czolgosz serves as the author's vehicle for taking his narrative in many directions, such as immigration, industrialization and poverty, concepts of race as enunciated by Theodore Roosevelt, and more. Ultimately offering a theory of Czolgosz's motive, Rauchway presents an interpretive narrative best suited to readers with at least a TR biography under their belts. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
See all Editorial Reviews
This ambitious book paints a fresh picture of American culture a century ago and finds there the confused stirrings of our own age. Rauchway's lens opens on the 1901 assassination of President William McKinley by Leon Czolgosz and keeps that event in focus throughout. The author's aim is to get us to understand in new ways the dawning 20th century, when so many of our present political and social struggles took form and solutions were proposed. For instance, the involvement in Czolgosz's case of "alienists" and criminologists provides Rauchway (The Refuge of Affections) with openings into such varied issues as nativism, racism, industrial conditions and social work. As for politics, he deals skillfully with now mostly forgotten issues-such as tariffs and currency policy-that rarely appeal to readers, but which here gain clarity through Rauchway's deft brevity. Most important, he shows how the nation's culture, and Theodore Roosevelt, who gained the presidency on McKinley's death, got caught up in a debate about the reasons for the murder. Was Czolgosz spurred by his psychological state or by anarchist ideology? Did the murder's origins lie within the assassin or in the social conditions that produce desperate people? These are issues that continue to divide Americans. And the book shines in dealing with them, making an important contribution to historical understanding. Rauchway's explanation for Roosevelt's 1912 loss as "Bull Moose" candidate of the Progressive Party-that he was caught between opposing interpretations of the roots of the nation's ills-is especially provocative. That alone should make the book controversial.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From Booklist
Justice moved swiftly in 1901, dispatching the assassin of William McKinley a few short weeks after the crime. Rauchway wonders if the motives of the killer, self-proclaimed anarchist Leon Czolgosz, were sufficiently investigated. For factual backbone, Rauchway relies on evidence gathered by one Vernon Briggs, a psychologist who interviewed the Czolgosz family and was sensitive to explaining aberrant behavior in terms of social conditions. And there was much to be sensitive about in late 1890s America, whether one was a stand-pat capitalist or a protesting proletarian: Rauchway works the fears and demands of both archetypes into his interpretation of the politics of the Progressive Era. Czolgosz serves as the author's vehicle for taking his narrative in many directions, such as immigration, industrialization and poverty, concepts of race as enunciated by Theodore Roosevelt, and more. Ultimately offering a theory of Czolgosz's motive, Rauchway presents an interpretive narrative best suited to readers with at least a TR biography under their belts. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
See all Editorial Reviews
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