The two essays today speak of a time when America was starting to feel its oats, so to speak. We saw that, although our production could continue without end, in order for us to continue to grow and become the greatest nation on the earth, we had to open the foreign markets to American business, and to a lesser degree, agriculture. It’s a little odd that both essays were written by women of the time. I find the first essay by Gail Bederman extremely feminist in her view of Theodore Roosevelt. For that time, and for a woman, to be speaking of male-dominated politics so openly and subjectively is intriguing. She even speaks of Roosevelt’s very famous quote, ‘Speak softly but carry a big stick’, as phallic in nature. Remarking of his days in the NY senate as effeminate and including the remarks by his contemporaries of his similarities to Oscar Wilde, she portrayed Roosevelt as a man with many personal issues confronting him. And, of course, as in the first several essays, the underlying current of white male dominance, first nationally, then growing to world domination, seems to be the key reason imperialism became something these White Anglo-Saxon Judeo Christian American males felt compelled to accomplish. At home and abroad, they felt it was their God-given duty as the ‘Chosen Race’ to fulfill this destiny irregardless of anyone else’s sovereignty or beliefs. It was our destiny, no matter whom or what got in the way. And to be honest, it is now starting to sound like something out of Nazi Germany during the Second World War. A truly higher race that was destined to government the world and show others how to do everything the Anglo-Saxon way because that wa

Some topics in this essay:
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