LLL: Teddy Roosevelt & the Panama Canal

Coming Monday, Nov. 20 at 7 p.m. at the Lodge

Teddy Roosevelt and the Union of the Oceans    
Presented by Donald A. Rakestraw, Ph.D., Professor of History emeritus,
Georgia Southern University and Winthrop University

America's youngest president, Theodore Roosevelt, was responsible for one of the most important achievements of the twentieth century—the Panama Canal. The pursuit of this union of the oceans required considerable maneuvering, adept personal diplomacy, political leverage, military muscle, and, yes, some controversial shenanigans. While the canal was not the only example of his famous "speak softly and carry a big stick," it is probably the most famous. This presentation will examine how an accidental president managed to accomplish what the Atlantic world had dreamed of since Columbus; and, most impressively, did it in a mere 14 months in office and just after celebrating his 45th birthday!

About our Presenter: Dr. Donald Rakestraw received his Ph.D. from the University of Alabama and served as professor of history and director of American Studies at Georgia Southern University before coming to Winthrop in 2013.  He has published dozens of scholarly works, including Choice Academic Book of the Year Prologue to Manifest Destiny: Anglo-American Relations in the 1840s (with Howard Jones) and "The Diplomacy of the Civil War" in American Foreign Relations: A Guide to the Literature since 1600. He has also published articles on the international dimensions of the Civil War including two maritime subjects--The Trent Affair and The CSS Alabama. He has taught courses in Anglo-American relations in both the US and the UK, including a summer graduate seminar at Oxford University that ran for over a decade. Professor Rakestraw has been invited to speak at various conferences and venues, including an all-day presentation at the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Library on the diplomacy of the Civil War. In fall 2018, he published Daniel Webster: Defender of Peace at the invitation of Rowman & Littlefield's American Foreign Relations Series. He is currently completing a book on Theodore Roosevelt's foreign policy, a project inherited from his dear friend and mentor, Professor Howard Jones. Dr. Rakestraw retired from Winthrop University in June 2022 where he had served as professor and chair of the Department of History. He is honored to have been named professor emeritus at both Winthrop and Georgia Southern universities.