Serve to Lead® | James Strock

Michael Patrick Cullinane is acclaimed as at the top rung of Theodore Roosevelt scholars of his generation.His latest book, Theodore Roosevelt and the Tennis Cabinet, has garnered enthusiastic reviews, including in the Wall Street Journal.Cullinane combines a scholar’s exacting standards with an entertaining, readable prose style. Recognizing the parallels of Roosevelt’s era with our own, he makes history relevant and vivid. In this wide-ranging discussion, Cullinane pulls the curtain back on the extraordinary group of informal advisers that our twenty-sixth president summoned to service as he pulled the presidency and the nation into a new century. As ever, TR’s life and work yield timeless lessons for rising generations facing new challenges.Publisher’s SummaryIn his final days in office in 1909, Theodore Roosevelt invited dozens of friends to the White House for lunch. They had never met as a group, but they had one thing in common: Each played tennis with the president and advised on policy matters. Roosevelt half-joked that the public would never know how much these tennis partners did to make his administration a success. Journalists dismissively called them the “Tennis Cabinet,” making light of their contribution, but Roosevelt knew otherwise.This inner circle led the administration’s campaigns against corporate greed, investigated public health violations, and formulated consumer protections. They founded environmental conservation policies, prosecuted civil rights violations, and implemented bureaucratic efficiencies that saved the government billions. Roosevelt’s tennis mates shaped the nation’s diplomacy, ending wars and promoting American interests abroad.Never had a more eclectic group advised a U.S. president. The Tennis Cabinet included legendary frontier lawman Seth Bullock and the starched-shirt corporate lawyer Henry Stimson, who served in five presidential administrations. Texas wolf wrangler Jack Abernathy played with stuffy bureaucrats like Labor Commissioner Charles Patrick Neill and social activist James Bronson Reynolds. The French ambassador Jean Jules Jusserand spun yarns with football hero George Washington Woodruff and Roosevelt’s college friend and banker Robert Bacon. James Garfield, namesake son of a martyred president, sipped mint juleps with Supreme Court Justice William Henry Moody. And J. P. Morgan’s silver-spooned son-in-law Herbert Satterlee kept company with rugged soldier Luther “Yellowstone” Kelly.For all their differences, these men shared a desire to help the president transform the nation from a parochial nineteenth-century republic into an imperial and industrial global power. They have escaped the attention of reporters and historians only because of Roosevelt’s towering celebrity. Turning away from Roosevelt as the singular force behind his administration, it is possible to see how the contributions of his Tennis Cabinet quietly sowed the seeds of the American Century.Critical Acclaim“The story of the Tennis Cabinet has largely been untold until now—but it clearly had an impact on the development of our Republic.” —Tevi Troy, Wall Street Journal“What the ‘team of rivals’ was to Abraham Lincoln, the ‘Tennis Cabinet’ was to Theodore Roosevelt. Michael Cullinane brings to vivid life an unusual menagerie of confidants and compatriots who met on the court to reshape a nation. This wonderful book reminds us that while many names are lost to history, no president, perhaps especially the great ones, works alone.” —Edward F. O’Keefe, author of The Loves of Theodore Roosevelt: The Women Who Created a President and CEO of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library Foundation“Michael Cullinane has written a lively and perceptive book that will become essential reading for understanding Theodore Roosevelt’s effectiveness as president. TR stands as a towering presence in presidential history because of his modernizing energy and his eagerness to address real-life problems of the American people, but until this book we have not really understood how his many accomplishments came about. Read this book to understand how TR listened to forward-looking experts in his Tennis Cabinet and then debated with them how to get great things done.” —Kathleen Dalton, author of Theodore Roosevelt: A Strenuous Life“Theodore Roosevelt and the Tennis Cabinet is a prescient book that brings the contributions of certain men surrounding the president into sharp focus. While Roosevelt is often portrayed as the lone ‘man in the arena,’ Michael Cullinane reveals him as someone who regularly sought counsel from dozens of close advisers. . . . Cullinane’s book reveals a president who was far more aware of his limitations than many biographers would have us believe, and although still a strong man, Roosevelt emerges from the pages as a wise man too. This is an important, and eye-opening, book that is both timely and enjoyable to read.” —Darrin Lunde, author of The Naturalist: Theodore Roosevelt, a Lifetime of Exploration, and the Triumph of American Natural History“The twenty-sixth president was so larger-than-life that Michael Cullinane’s Theodore Roosevelt and the Tennis Cabinet comes as quite a surprise. This delightful study reveals the diverse and complex cast of characters that profoundly but quietly (for the most part) contributed to the long list of activities and accomplishments routinely attributed to Roosevelt alone. Cullinane sheds new and important light on Roosevelt and his administration. In doing so, he also provides a timely reminder of the power and significance of the advisers, official and unofficial, who allow even those presidents who appear to go it alone to, for better or for worse, expand their reach and exercise more control.” —Nancy C. Unger, author of Fighting Bob La Follette: The Righteous Reformer“Theodore Roosevelt and the Tennis Cabinet is an important examination of Roosevelt’s inner circle, those who helped him implement and carry out his policies. Michael Cullinane writes with flair and clarity, showing that Roosevelt could never have become a legend without his Tennis Cabinet. Highly recommended.” —Benjamin J. Wetzel, author of Theodore Roosevelt: Preaching from the Bully Pulpit“To say that TR was a ‘people person’ is an understatement. But in particular, Roosevelt loved interesting people. He treasured folks from whom he could learn something new or, even better, who might accompany him on an adventure. That verve for connection is what makes Theodore Roosevelt and the Tennis Cabinet such a treasure. In flowing prose and with deft attention to the ties that bound, Michael Cullinane tells the stories of the men who made up TR’s most important advisory group. What a fascinating bunch! It’s a rare book that can both tell buddy stories and offer exacting political analysis, but Michael Cullinane does it here. Dig in, you’ll be glad you did!” —Ryan Swanson, author of The Strenuous Life: Theodore Roosevelt and the Making of the American Athlete“Theodore Roosevelt was such a force of energy that he eclipsed others in his orbit. Michael Cullinane’s book brings these individuals to the stage. In compelling portraits, he illuminates the bureaucrats, diplomats, lawyers, and others who stewarded Roosevelt’s vision, fostered alliances, and preserved our nation’s natural heritage. Cullinane has made yet another important contribution to Theodore Roosevelt studies, giving us a necessary and wonderfully written lesson on governance.” —Gregory A. Wynn, chairman of the Theodore Roosevelt AssociationAbout the AuthorMichael Patrick Cullinane is a historian, an award-winning author, and the Walton Chair of Theodore Roosevelt Studies at Dickinson State University. He also serves as a Public Historian for the Theodore Roosevelt Association and contributes to the design and curation of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library.​In addition to Theodore Roosevelt and the Tennis Cabinet, he’s the author of Remembering Theodore Roosevelt (2021), Theodore Roosevelt’s Ghost (2017), The Open Door Era: U.S. Foreign Policy in the Twentieth Century (2017), and Liberty and American Anti-Imperialism. He has published several scholarly articles and editorials in The Hill, the Washington Post, Smithsonian Magazine, the Conversation, History News Network, BBC History Magazine, and have given commentary on C-SPAN, BBC, History Channel, Sky News, NPR, and CNN.​A sought-after speaker, Cullinane regularly talks at universities, corporate events, libraries, professional associations, and other public venues.​michaelpatrickcullinane.comThe New Nationalist™ is an independent, non-partisan publication advocating political reform. Your support makes this project possible and is greatly appreciated.Image Credit | Author photograph, Theodore Roosevelt Center. Get full access to The New Nationalist at jamesstrock.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode of the Serve to Lead podcast, author Ken Khachigian discusses his important, highly readable, and critically acclaimed new book, Behind Closed Doors: In the Room with Reagan and Nixon.Khachigian has achieved a storied career in American politics. He has been a participant in some of the great events of the second half of the tumultuous twentieth century, including:—the improbable comeback of Richard Nixon, reaching the White House in the world historic year, 1968; —the high and low points of the extraordinary Nixon presidency, including the Watergate events and aftermath;—the Reagan administration and the Gipper’s historic campaigns; —the linkage of these California leaders and the Golden State to the wider arc of American history. Publisher’s SummaryIn Behind Closed Doors: In the Room with Reagan & Nixon, White House history is revealed like never before by Ken Khachigian as an eyewitness with two unprecedented perspectives: a unique, contemporary hands-on account of Ronald Reagan’s presidency and an exclusive chronicle of Richard Nixon’s emergence and political footprint in the first months and years after his resignation. Behind Closed Doors flows with insights, anecdotes and disclosures that reveal these men and their presidencies as never before.Ken Khachigian – trusted adviser, counselor and speechwriter to the Cold War’s presidential lions – brings readers behind the scenes as his bosses navigated crises, confronted opponents and staked their legacies. This intimate, riveting book takes you inside the Oval Office, Air Force One, Camp David and the Western White House as Khachigian opens his diaries, secret memos, and contemporaneous notes to share untold history.Get the insider’s view of the West Wing every moment of the week leading up to the day Richard Nixon resigned, then go to Nixon’s San Clemente home as the former president worked to rebuild his shattered reputation. Witness as Nancy Reagan emerges as critical partner, and even fierce challenger, to her husband. And learn of Nixon’s secret advice to Reagan, of Reagan’s preparation to meet with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, and the first-ever account of the exchange at Reagan and Nixon’s private meeting when both were former presidents. Eavesdrop on the dramatic decisions of the 1980 and ’84 presidential campaigns and be the first to know precisely how Reagan viewed his Revolution’s crusade.Khachigian provides a fascinating glimpse behind Pennsylvania Avenue’s iron gates and secretive oaken doors as he also exposes self-serving power-grabs, betrayals and intrigues that shrouded the capital’s halls.Critical AcclaimKen Khachigian has written the most lucid, most important work about the postwar period. For an inside look at how ugly politics can be—and how noble—you cannot miss this book. I still love Ken after fifty years and you will, too, when you read this jewel of a memoir. —Ben Stein, Economist, law professor, multi Emmy awarded actor, speechwriter for Presidents Nixon and Ford, novelist, and screenwriterThis is essential reading for anyone wanting to know how Ronald Reagan shaped his crusading message of economic growth through tax cuts and limited government. Khachigian’s is a fascinating account by one who takes you into the rooms where the decisions were made. —Larry Kudlow, Host of Fox Business Network’s “Kudlow” and Former Director, National Economic CouncilTo understand Nixon and Reagan, the two crucial Presidents and coalition builders of the last third of the 20th century, the insights of Ken Khachigian, the confidant who advised them both, seem indispensable. —Pat Buchanan, White House Aide to Presidents Nixon and ReaganKen Khachigian is a great conservative and patriot, and his book will give you the inside view of a presidency that will go down in history as one of greatness and strength. —Ed Rollins, Ronald Reagan’s White House Political DirectorKen Khachigian offers a riveting account of his thrilling journey through American history at the sides of two monumental Presidents. If you care about where America has been, and where it’s going, this is a must-read! —Monica Crowley, Ph.D., Former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, News Analyst and Bestselling AuthorKen Khachigian will draw you inside a generation of White House leadership and details how Reagan revived the American economy and lit a prairie fire of patriotism across America. —K.T. McFarland, American political candidate, former government official, and political commentatorMr. Khachigian, now 79 and retired (and an occasional contributor to this newspaper’s opinion pages), concludes his anecdote-rich book with an expression of gratitude to both Nixon and Reagan, saying that it was “wonderful good fortune for me to have been at their service, and, for the country, for each of them to have served.” —Wall Street JournalBehind Closed Doors is a rich repository of hitherto unknown but highly significant stories about two leaders who many of us thought we knew everything about but obviously didn't. —NewsMaxAbout Ken KhachigianKen Khachigian served as trusted speechwriter, confidant and strategist to political legends and presidential giants Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon. Whether in the Oval Office, on Air Force One, at Camp David or the Western White House, Khachigian was an eyewitness and insider to the 20th century’s greatest historical moments.Widely regarded as the President’s favorite speechwriter, the remarks Khachigian crafted for Reagan’s delivery in 1985 at Bergen Belsen’s former concentration camp was described as the “best speech of his career.” Khachigian quickly mastered Reagan’s speaking style and gained his confidence after joining the candidate’s struggling 1980 presidential campaign – earning the distinction from political writer Anthony York as “an architect of Ronald Reagan’s 1980 White House victory.”Appointed Special Consultant to the President and senior White House staff member, they formed a unique personal relationship, beginning with Reagan’s acclaimed First Inaugural Address. Khachigian collaborated to craft language shaping the historic economic recovery plan that marked the fiscal revolution for America’s turnaround and renewed the national spirit. Khachigian teamed up with Reagan to prepare dozens of other prominent public addresses. Among them were Reagan’s re-election announcement and convention acceptance speeches in 1984, critical foreign policy remarks at the UN General Assembly, State of the Union remarks and speeches before Joint Sessions of Congress. Preparing to leave office, the President asked Ken to draft his dramatic 1988 Farewell Address to the Republican National Convention.Ken Khachigian is a sought-after speaker and commentator on public affairs based in Orange County, California.Image Credits | An employee of the Executive Office of the President of the United States, taken or made as part of that person's official duties., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons Megan Gorman Get full access to The New Nationalist at jamesstrock.substack.com/subscribe

Germany sustained a political earthquake in recent elections in the eastern states of Thuringia and Saxony. The parties of the national governing coalition sustained grievous losses—and a populist surge propelled the right-wing Alliance for Germany to record votes. Some sense ominous echoes of the rise to prominence of the Nazi Party in 1924.Jürgen Resch is well suited to evaluate the historic changes underway. He leads the respected NGO, Deutsche-Umwelthilfe. He is a co-founder of the Euronatur Foundation, the Global Nature Fund, and the Lake Constance Foundation. Active worldwide, including throughout the European Union and the United States, he is a recipient of many recognitions, including the Haagen-Smit Award from the California Air Resources Board.The New Nationalist is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support the project, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.In discussion with James Strock, Resch illuminates the recent shock election results, including their implications for Germany and the broader European political landscape. He surveys the challenges faced by Germany's current federal government coalition, the rise of populism, and the decline of traditional political parties. Resch considers the consequences for environmental and energy policies in Germany, the impact of electric vehicles on the auto industry, and the future of renewable energy.Jurgen Resch is the author of a well-received book detailing his effective activist approach to environmental and energy politics: Druck machen!: Wie Politik und Wirtschaft wissentlich Umwelt und Klima schädigen–-und was wir wirksam dagegen tun können.Image Credit | Deutsche-Umwelthilfe. Get full access to The New Nationalist at jamesstrock.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode of the Serve to Lead podcast, noted journalist Kourosh Ziabari shares his perspective on the intertwined destinies of Iran and America. Ziabari represents a rising generation in Iran and the US. Currently enrolled in the master’s program of the Columbia Journalism School, he has accrued experiences worthy of an extended career. Ziabari urges Americans to distinguish between our reactions to the authoritarian regime in Teheran and our affinities with the Iranian people. Get full access to The New Nationalist at jamesstrock.substack.com/subscribe

Philip K Howard is a leading reformer of American law and government. He combines thought and action: A prolific, best-selling writer and frequent commentator who founded the non-partisan group, Common Good.He is the author of an eagerly awaited new book, Everyday Freedom: Designing the Framework for a Flourishing Society.In this episode of the Serve to Lead podcast, Howard discusses the urgent need and prospects for change, in time for vigorous and informed citizen engagement in the pivotal 2024 national elections. In additional to national issues, he offers informed perspectives on state and local developments, including the vast reach of the California state budget. Get full access to The New Nationalist at jamesstrock.substack.com/subscribe

Landmark environmental statutes of the past half-century are in the news—but in a way few might have anticipated: They stand accused of becoming impediments to effective governance, including environmental protection. In Washington, D.C., Senator Joe Manchin is leading congressional efforts to ensure that infrastructure improvement and electrification of the grid are not stymied by permitting delays.In Sacramento, California Governor Gavin Newsom, recognizing the same problem, is tussling with legislators to cut permitting delays that imperil priority projects in housing and climate. In this episode of the Serve to Lead podcast, noted environmental lawyer Jennifer Hernandez illuminates the stakes—and proposes common-sense reforms. Get full access to The New Nationalist at jamesstrock.substack.com/subscribe

Sasha Stone is a pioneering blogger and founder of Awards Daily, as well as a widely-read, provocative Substack, “Free Thinking Through the Fourth Turning.”She is on the vanguard of the realignment and re-sorting underway in our politics and culture.Sasha Stone’s lived experience is representative of those Bridget Phetasy calls “the politically homeless.” This refers to the rising plurality of Americans—nearing a majority of voters—who reject the enforced duopoly of the Democrats and Republicans. It’s as if the legacy parties are in a war of attrition, prompting a flood of refugees who have no place to call their own.In this episode of the Serve to Lead podcast, Sasha Stone discusses her journey from Hillary Clinton activist to politically independent. She concludes that some of the core values that inspired her earlier affiliations have prompted her to find unanticipated empathy with many Americans who are routinely marginalized and disrespected by the dominant political and cultural narrative of our polarized moment. Get full access to The New Nationalist at jamesstrock.substack.com/subscribe