A dynamic history of the muckracking press and the first decade of the Progressive era as told through the intense friendship of Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft--a close relationship that strengthens both men before it ruptures in 1912 when they engage in a brutal fight for the presidential nomination that cripples the progressive wing of the Republican Party, causing Democrat Woodrow Wilson to be elected, and changing the country's history....

George Washington crossed the Delaware. Abraham Lincoln saved the Union. President William Howard Taft, a man of great stature - well, he got stuck in the tub. But how did he get unstuck? In this larger-than-life tale of a presidential mishap, a parade of clueless cabinet members advise the exasperated president on just that! " ... Barnett's text is propelled with a pleasing rhythm, alliteration, and occasional rhymes ... Van Dusen's spread of cascading...