Spanish-American War: The Conflict That Made Roosevelt a Hero

Showing 4 Spanish-American War videos from Charlie Kirk's video collection.

The Spanish-American War established Theodore Roosevelt's public reputation as what historian Wilfred McClay calls the personification of energetic, forward-looking America, a status that helped carry him to a landslide 1904 election victory with a larger margin than any candidate had achieved since James Monroe ran essentially unopposed in 1820. William McKinley, the president under whom the war was fought, is credited elsewhere in this material with using the conflict to help transform the United States into a genuine twentieth-century world power, a legacy historian Jason Edwards argues has been unfairly overshadowed by McKinley's 1901 assassination, which unexpectedly elevated Roosevelt to the presidency. Roosevelt built on his war-hero image once in office by advancing the Panama Canal project, pursuing new railroad regulations and consumer protections including the Pure Food and Drug Act, and placing roughly 230 million acres of American land under conservation protection through five new national parks and eighteen national monuments. McClay frames Roosevelt's assertive presidential style, itself substantially built on his Spanish-American War reputation, as a lasting redefinition of what Americans expect from executive leadership.