Synopses & Reviews
In his time, there was no more popular national figure than Theodore Roosevelt. It was not just the energy he brought to every political office he held or his unshakable moral convictions that made him so popular, or even his status as a bonafide war herothe man who led the Rough Riders up San Juan Hill in Cuba during the Spanish-American war. Most important, Theodore Roosevelt was loved by the people because this scion of a privileged New York family loved America and Americans.And yet, according to Bill Brands, if we look at the private Roosevelt without blinders, we see a man whose great public strengths hid enormous personal deficiencies. His highly exaggerated, and often uncompromising ways drove many of his business and personal friends crazy. His historical writings, which Brands quotes from extensively, are nothing if not a portrait of a boys endless macho fantasies. He was often so full of himself that his speeches and writings were the frequent subject of fierce satire in their time.Even more revealing, according to Brands, was Roosevelt as son, brother, husband, and father. According to Brands, to understand both the public and private Roosevelt one must understand the impact of his fathers death while he was still a child, denying him the opportunity to come to terms with his own manhood. When his first wife Alice died of complications from childbirth, leaving behind a baby daughter Alice, his response was to run away to shoot Buffalo in the west, leaving the newborn infant to the care of his unmarried sister Bamie. When his second wife Edith was seriously, perhaps fatally ill, he left her to fight in the Spanish-American war. His only concern when his brother Elliot, who had been his only friend as a child, became an alcoholic was to hide the news from the public. Determined that his four sons would not dishonor his belief that men, to achieve their manhood, must test themselves in war, he arranged for each to serve, often in the frontlines, during WWI. His youngest son Quentin would die in that cause.Beautifully written, powerfully moved by its subject, TR is nonetheless a biography more appropriate to todays critical times.
Synopsis
"A rip-roaring life of Theodore Roosevelt, in my view the most lovable, fascinating and creative of American presidents. Every red-blooded American should read this entertaining book.... Mr. Brands calls TR the last romantic, and it is true." --
Paul Johnson, Wall Street Journal "Roosevelt's life in Mr. Brands' able hands is a demonstration of the remarkable power of the human will. Roosevelt literally created the character he lived out, and then lived within it until he finally became his creation." --Washington Post
"Brands makes the case that Roosevelt believed in heroes and measured himself against giants of history and literature.... He puts them in vivid context with often wry narration and an impressive depth of historical research." --USA Today
"Brands outlines with suitable vigor the most important aspects of T.R.'s presidential years.... It seems likely that T.R. will stand for some time as the standard one-volume life." --Chicago Sun Times
"Brands shows how this hero of the charge up San Juan Hill, more than anyone else, led the United States onto the world stage." --Los Angeles Times
"Brands' narrative is lucid, fast-moving and unblended by hero-worship. In a single volume he has packed Roosevelt's 60 years of ambition, adventure, expediency, achievement, and, finally, frustration at having peaked too soon." --Publishers Weekly
Synopsis
From the New York Times bestselling author, an acclaimed biography of President Teddy Roosevelt
Lauded as a rip-roaring life (Wall Street Journal), TR is a magisterial biography of Theodore Roosevelt by bestselling author H.W. Brands. In his time, there was no more popular national figure than Roosevelt. It was not just the energy he brought to every political office he held or his unshakable moral convictions that made him so popular, or even his status as a bonafide war hero. Most important, Theodore Roosevelt was loved by the people because this scion of a privileged New York family loved America and Americans.
And yet, according to Brands, if we look at the private Roosevelt without blinders, we see a man whose great public strengths hid enormous personal deficiencies; he was uncompromising, self-involved, and a highly imperfect brother, husband, and father.
Beautifully written, and powerfully moved by its subject, TR is the classic biography of one of America's greatest and most complex leaders.
Synopsis
A new biography of Theodore Roosevelt, based on new documentation and a much fuller examination of the private man behind the public hero.
About the Author
H. W. Brands is a professor of history at Texas A&M University and author of The Reckless Decade, The Wages of Globalism, and The Devil We Knew.