Judge Napolitano: Theodore and Woodrow

I’ve been looking for a book on the Progressive Era that delineates the ideologies of both Republican and Democratic politicians of that period.  I do believe Judge Napolitano’s latest work accomplishes what I’m looking for.

 

 Considering the hagiographies I’ve had to endure, namely, Arthur Walworth’s Pulitzer Prize biography of Woodrow Wilson, an honest and refreshing history is much needed, especially in this day and age of progressivism run amok.  And how do I know that Judge Napolitano’s book meets that criterion?  Publisher Weekly did a hit job review.  That’s how I know.

Fox News regular and former New Jersey judge Napolitano (Constitutional Chaos) seeks to prove that presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson were not heroes but A-list bad guys.. Napolitano claims that Roosevelt and Wilson “pushed aside the traditionally accepted and constitutionally mandated restrictions on the federal government and used it as an instrument to redistribute wealth, regulate personal behavior, enrich the government, and enhance the government’s health with wars.” With the draft, instituted by Wilson in WWI, the U.S. instituted “a form of slavery and therefore tyranny.” Napolitano repeatedly links what he views as Roosevelt’s and Wilson’s Progressive era folly and perfidy to the present, claiming that Wilson instituted the federal income tax we know today, which the authors calls “theft” and that, thanks to Roosevelt’s foreign meddling, the U.S. is the “most imperialistic country in the history of the world.” This hit job takes on the Federal Reserve, compulsory education, industrial regulation, and race with equal lack of subtlety. Roosevelt and Wilson, according to Napolitano, were agents of central economic planning. Whatever political points Napolitano is trying to score, he doesn’t accomplish. Agent: Bob Barnett. (Nov.)

Off to the bookstore I go!

Source: http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-59555-351-5

H/T:  NC Renegade