William Howard Taft was the 27th president of the United States, serving from 1909 to 1913. He succeeded Teddy Roosevelt, who criticized Taft for his conservatism. When Taft held to his beliefs, Teddy Roosevelt formed the Bull Moose Party, creating a split in the Republican Party that allowed Democrat Woodrow Wilson to get elected instead. When reflecting on the incident, Taft said he didn’t think he could have done anything different, demonstrating Carnegie’s point that criticism doesn’t work—it only makes people defensive and stubborn in their ideas.
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William Howard Taft Character Timeline in How to Win Friends and Influence People
The timeline below shows where the character William Howard Taft appears in How to Win Friends and Influence People. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Part 1, Chapter 1
...that show how futile criticism is. When Theodore Roosevelt left the White House in 1908, Taft succeeded him; both were Republicans. But afterward, Roosevelt denounced Taft for his conservatism, formed the...
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Part 3, Chapter 9
President Taft appreciated the value of sympathy: one woman whose husband had political influence asked him to...
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