1898: The Birth of the American Century

The year 1898 is remembered in the U.S. as ""one of those rare years [that] changed the course of American history."" Traxel (An American Saga: The Life and Times of Rockwell Kent) has a flair for the good story and the telling anecdote that he puts to skillful use as he reviews the year's high points. They include the creation of the five-borough City of New York; the Great Blizzard; the sinking of the Maine during the Spanish-American War; the triumph of Teddy Roosevelt (the prototype of the modern politician); the creation of the National Biscuit Company (the prototype of the modern marketing empire); the great newspaper circulation wars between Hearst and Pulitzer; a cruel coal miners' strike; one of the last Indian battles; the emergence of John Muir and the conservation movement; and the beginnings of an overseas American empire in Hawaii and the Philippines. Traxel's footnotes indicate that his sources are rarely firsthand, but he is as proficient a name-dropper as he is a storyteller, and we hear about Edison, Ford, Frank Baum, Gifford Pinchot, Frederick Taylor, Clara Barton, Stephen Crane, Dewey (both the admiral and the educator) and William Jennings Bryan. And 1898 is presented as the year that marked the end of the old WASP America and the beginnings of a new America full of Catholics, Jews, blacks and all the social and ethical issues faced by a country that has suddenly become an international power. The year may not have been as tidy a turning point as Traxel portrays it, but his account of it is certainly entertaining to read. Photos. (May)