The

The President, Theodore Roosevelt and J.P. Morgan.

They were arguably the two most powerful figures of their time,

Roosevelt, the popular young president who transformed the political landscape,

and Morgan, the Wall Street power broker, who dominated American finance. Both men emerged

on the national stage just as the United States was rising to its status as a global giant.

Both men played major roles in their nation's rise, and both men found

themselves at odds over some of the basic questions of power and justice in the 20th century.

Theirs was an epic clash that helped define a major era in American history. Susan Barefield

has written a book exploring that story.

She is the award-winning investigative reporter who wrote the book, The Hour of Fate,

Theodore Roosevelt, J.P. Morgan, and the Battle to Transform American Capitalism. It's a story

that explores the nexus between political and financial

power in the United States and one that has lessons for us today. Susan, welcome to our show.

Thanks so much. Happy to be here, Richard. So my listeners are familiar with Theodore Roosevelt

from our previous episodes and his life story. So give me an idea of who

J.P. Morgan was. What was his background and what was he like? So J.P. Morgan, who always preferred

to use his middle name, Pierpont. So Pierpont Morgan, in the early 1900s, was really at the peak of his power as a financier.

He had come, like Roosevelt, from a very wealthy family.

Like Roosevelt, he had been raised by a very strong father, had a mother who was a little distant. Both of them lost their first

wives to illness when they were very young and just a few years into their marriage. In Morgan's

case, actually just a few months after they were married. And they both had periods of depression.

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