Theodore Rex [Paperback]

Theodore Rex examines the Roosevelt presidency, from William McKinley's assassination by an anarchist in September of 1901, to the swearing in of "Big Bill" Taft in a blizzard in March of 1909.

If you want to read about Roosevelt before his presidency, I would recommend Edmund Morris' The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt. It is similar, in that it is an immensely readable historical examination of one of America's greatest leaders.

Theodore Rex, though, gives great insight into the life and times of Mr. Roosevelt, the way he changed the presidency, the way he changed America, and the way he changed the world.

Roosevelt's (and America's) role in the Panamanian revolution and secession from Colombia, and the subsequent securing of the Panama Canal Treaty, is highly enlightening, and at times bordering on humorous.

To briefly quote from the book (page 290):

"...another cable from Panama City announced that a government gunboat had tossed five or six shells into the city, 'killing a Chinaman in Salsipuedes street and mortally wounding an ass.' If that was the extent of Colombia's rage so far, a tired President could get some sleep."

The story of the kidnapping in Morocco of Ion Perdicaris, a wealthy, American-born expatriate who had given up his citizenship during the Civil War (unbeknownst to the U.S. at the time), and the pressure Roosevelt applied ("Perdicaris alive or Raisuli dead"), during the 1904 Republican presidential nominating convention in Chicago, to secure Mr. Perdicaris' freedom, is another fascinating bit of American history. It is a prime example of America's rising stature in the world, and of Theodore Roosevelt's famous "big stick."

Other parts, big and small, of Roosevelt's presidency are conveyed with a keen knack for detail and a high degree of objectivity: mediating an impasse between labor and capital on more than one occasion and in more than one context; negotiating a peace between Japan and Russia (which won Roosevelt the Nobel Prize); intervening in Cuba; managing the Philippines; dining with Booker T. Washington; commissioning and sending off of the "Great White Fleet" around the world; and even just moments with his family and friends.

A look at a truly independent and forward-thinking individual, Theodore Rex is a joy to read and ponder. Any serious student of American history ought to read this book, but by no means should this book be limited to history buffs. Highly and excitedly recommended!

Morris however does an excellent job of including Roosevelt's associates in his narrative. John Hay in particular comes across as someone who is somewhat uncertain of how to take T.R. and is often swept aside by his sometimes rash boss. On the other hand, the reader will easily begin to see that Hay and Roosevelt bonded in such a way as to end in a deeply affectionate relationship. His relationships with the rest of his entourage are well covered also as one gets a pretty full picture of their interaction. Morris has also done an excellent job of presenting Teddy's relationship with several members of Congress, including GOP stalwarts such as Mark Hanna and Joseph Foraker, along with a few Democrats like "Pitchfork" Ben Tillman. Through these relationships one gets a very clear picture of the President as he moves with great political skill, picking a fight here, and spreading manure there to get his way. It becomes very clear very early in this book that Theodore Roosevelt was one of the great politicians of all time.

The Roosevelt foreign policy is a little harder to figure as his decision making process, if indeed there was one, is a little hard to fathom. It is clear of course that he is an imperialist but some of his actions regarding conflicts in Europe defy description. Although he spent a large amount of time in Germany in his youth, Roosevelt come across as very anti-German. In a sad comment on Roosevelt's style of leadership, he seems to have sometimes made judgments based on the advice of his favorite tennis buddies. The French Ambassador being one of his favorite tennis opponents might help to explain the President's attitude toward Germany.

After being elected on his own in 1904, Roosevelt made a leftward shift and began pushing even more progressive reforms. The shift is clear in this book but not much discussed and in fact much more than half of the book is taken by the first term. In dealing with the second term the author seems to dwell on the President's legislative successes and mostly ignores the many things Roosevelt unsuccessfully tried to push through Congress. Unfortunately, the failures may much more clearly illustrate the real Roosevelt than the successes and again an opportunity to more fully understand the subject of the book is lost. Morris does however touch on Roosevelt's growing admiration for William Jennings Bryan, a clear indication of the President's leftward shift.

Morris has put together a book that is sometimes very informative and sometimes a little lacking in depth. It is overall a very good book and is a well-written and easy to read volume. Some of the more personal antidotes dealing with T.R. are excellent and Morris certainly had an interesting subject to work with. Unfortunately, one never gets the feeling of really knowing Roosevelt. There is a lot of fascinating information here but I can't help but feel that something is missing. Still, I highly recommend this book because while it may come up a little short of the mark, it is no doubt the best work on Roosevelt's presidency to date.

Unlike perhaps other biographies of TR, this one only hints at his life before his ascendancy to the White House, and ends somewhat abruptly on the day he transferred the mantle of power to William Howard Taft on 4 March 1909. In between, Morris hits all the high points of Roosevelt's two administrations: acquisition of the rights to build the Panama Canal, settlement of the 1902 coal strike, arbitration of the treaty ending the Russo-Japanese War, build-up of the American Navy, establishment of Cuban independence, and the calling of a national conservation conference. And certainly the low point - Theodore's response to the 1906 Brownsville Incident, wherein 20-30 Black troops of the 25th U.S. Infantry allegedly went on a shooting rampage in that Texas town.

One of the strengths of the author's prose is that it never becomes ponderous. Indeed, at times, it approaches oddly lyrical, as when he describes the signing of the canal treaty between newly independent Panama and the U.S.:

"Pens scratched across parchment. Wax melted on silk. Two oceans brimmed closer, ready to spill."

THEODORE REX isn't solely about great affairs of State. Did you know that both Teddy and his eldest daughter, Alice, habitually carried pistols. What would today's anti-gun lobby make of that!

The book also serves to dispel a Hollywood myth regarding the 1904 Perdicaris Affair, in which an American citizen in Tangier was kidnapped by the desert insurgent Ahmed ben Mohammed el Raisuli, an event memorialized in celluloid by the vastly entertaining 1975 film, THE WIND AND THE LION, starring Candice Bergen and Sean Connery. Had the movie been more true to fact, Ms. Bergen couldn't have played the role unless dressed in drag.

With my short attention span and too many books waiting on the shelf, this narrative of Roosevelt's Presidency is just about as good as it gets. At 555 paperback pages, it's long, but not too long to bog me down for weeks. It's detailed, compiled from a nine-page bibliography of sources, but not so detailed as to become tedious. And it's got photographs - one or two in each of its thirty-two chapters. At the book's conclusion, I felt I had a satisfactory appreciation of Teddy the man, and was glad I'd taken the opportunity to pick up this excellent volume. My only criticism is the lack of a brief post-epilogue noting Teddy's abortive 1912 attempt to regain the Presidency at the head of the Bull Moose Party, thus splitting the Republican vote and handing the election to Woodrow Wilson, which would have perhaps better rounded out the saga.

Bully!