Lion And The Journalist: Unlikely Friendship Of Theodore Roosevelt Joseph Bucklin Bishop

Theodore Roosevelt, privileged New Yorker and accidental president, and Joseph Bucklin Bishop, a wily newspaper editor from old New England stock, met when the future Rough Rider was police commissioner of New York City. Bishop hitched his wagon to the politician's star and used his positions at influential New York newspapers to buttress Roosevelt's initiatives first as commissioner, then as governor and president, adroitly shaping the opinions of voters and decision-makers. As president, after deploying his trademark gunboat diplomacy to execute plans for the Panama Canal, T. R. made Bishop secretary of the Isthmian Canal Commission in Washington, D.C. But when construction dragged and the canal became a political liability, T. R. dispatched Bishop to Panama, where he used his skills to bolster Congressional support, improve worker morale, and push public opinion in the president's favor. Here is a new and important look at one of our nation's most important leaders and the man who deftly helped him achieve his goals. It skillfully explores how a pioneering president yoked the media to his advantage and how men and machines united two vast oceans in the face of death-defying odds. It is a remarkable story of mutual loyalty and dedication that begins in shared opposition to corruption on the streets of New York City, pushes through ambition and hardship in the jungles of Panama, and culminatesin days of boldness and courage in the White House and beyond.