Episode 38 - Theodore Roosevelt's Tennis Cabinet with Michael Cullinane

Hosts Larry Marple & Kurt Skinner are joined by historian Michael Cullinane to discuss his highly anticipated new book "Theodore Roosevelt and the Tennis Cabinet."

In 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. (notes from the publisher University of Nebraska Press)

Alford W. Cooley's Tennis Cabinet diploma https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/object/nmah_1067525

President Roosevelt, Tennis Cabinet. [March 5, 1909]. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs.
https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/digital-library/o290529. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University.