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Theodore Roosevelt #3
Colonel Roosevelt
Of all our great presidents, Theodore Roosevelt is the only one whose greatness increased out of office. What other president has written forty books, hunted lions, founded a third political party, survived an assassin’s bullet, and explored an unknown river longer than the Rhine?
Packed with more adventure, variety, drama, humor, and tragedy than a big novel, yet documented down to the smallest fact, this masterwork recounts the last decade of perhaps the most amazing life in American history.
Packed with more adventure, variety, drama, humor, and tragedy than a big novel, yet documented down to the smallest fact, this masterwork recounts the last decade of perhaps the most amazing life in American history.
766 pages, Hardcover
First published November 23, 2010
733 people are currently reading
14951 people want to read
About the author
Edmund Morris
14 books1,017 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name
Edmund Morris was a writer best known for his biographies of United States presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan. Morris received his early education in Kenya after which he attended Rhodes University in South Africa. He worked as an advertising copywriter in London before emigrating to the United States in 1968.
His biography The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt won the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award in 1980. After spending 14 years as President Reagan's authorized biographer, he published the national bestseller Dutch: A Memoir of Ronald Reagan in 1999.
Morris's other books include Theodore Rex, the second in a projected three-volume chronicle of the life of Theodore Roosevelt, and Beethoven: The Universal Composer. Mr. Morris wrote extensively on travel and the arts for such publications as The New Yorker, the New York Times, and Harper's Magazine.
Edmund Morris lived in New York City and Kent, Connecticut with his wife and fellow biographer, Sylvia Jukes Morris.
Morris died on May 24, 2019 at a hospital in Kent, from a stroke at the age of 78.
Edmund Morris was a writer best known for his biographies of United States presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan. Morris received his early education in Kenya after which he attended Rhodes University in South Africa. He worked as an advertising copywriter in London before emigrating to the United States in 1968.
His biography The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt won the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award in 1980. After spending 14 years as President Reagan's authorized biographer, he published the national bestseller Dutch: A Memoir of Ronald Reagan in 1999.
Morris's other books include Theodore Rex, the second in a projected three-volume chronicle of the life of Theodore Roosevelt, and Beethoven: The Universal Composer. Mr. Morris wrote extensively on travel and the arts for such publications as The New Yorker, the New York Times, and Harper's Magazine.
Edmund Morris lived in New York City and Kent, Connecticut with his wife and fellow biographer, Sylvia Jukes Morris.
Morris died on May 24, 2019 at a hospital in Kent, from a stroke at the age of 78.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 786 reviews
September 8, 2020
This is the third book in Morris’ TR trilogy, and once again it’s great. This book covers the last ten years of Roosevelt’s life - his post-presidency - and somehow it’s just as action-packed as the other amazing periods of his life. Roosevelt’s last ten years included his “Man in the Arena” speech, the birth of the Bull Moose Party, the assassination attempt, and the trip to the Amazon that almost killed him.
I was vaguely aware of all those events, but Morris, as usual, brings them to life as if they happened yesterday. But as in all of the books in this series, the most interesting parts are the small moments. I loved the story of how Roosevelt snubbed Woodrow Wilson’s inauguration and went to an art show. The best story in the book is how TR and a furious Stephen Pichot of France attended the funeral of Edward VII and during the procession were put in a regular carriage while all the royalty in attendance rode in glass coaches.
The last half of the book deals with WWI, and I feel like the way Morris tells it is the best explanation of the war I’ve ever read (with one exception - see below). I had no idea how involved TR was in US involvement in the war (he played the role Charles Lindbergh played in WWII - lead antagonist to the president in the lead up to the war - but where Lindbergh was trying to keep FDR out of it, TR was trying to push Wilson in).
We follow the WWI story through TR’s preparedness campaign, but also through Roosevelt’s four sons, who all go off to Europe to fight. Their stories are told beautifully, and the outcome shapes the man TR becomes in the last part of his life. We don’t hear much about TR’s kids in the other books, but in this book their stories shine. I would have loved even more of it.
- As always with these books the endnotes are fantastic and I wish they had been footnotes instead so I could have tracked them easier.
- At the end of this book Morris kind of tracks TR’s legacy through the years and how Americans’ views of him changed based on events of the time. That was really good.
- Something else I hadn’t realized until I read this book - TR would have won the presidency in 1920 if he had lived.
- William Howard Taft was a welcome presence throughout this book. Loved his hot and then cold and then hot again relationship with TR.
- The only part of the book I didn’t like was the “Interlude” which describes some of the things happening in Germany pre-WWI. It was unnecessary, a little confusing, and really didn’t connect to the Roosevelt story.
I was vaguely aware of all those events, but Morris, as usual, brings them to life as if they happened yesterday. But as in all of the books in this series, the most interesting parts are the small moments. I loved the story of how Roosevelt snubbed Woodrow Wilson’s inauguration and went to an art show. The best story in the book is how TR and a furious Stephen Pichot of France attended the funeral of Edward VII and during the procession were put in a regular carriage while all the royalty in attendance rode in glass coaches.
The last half of the book deals with WWI, and I feel like the way Morris tells it is the best explanation of the war I’ve ever read (with one exception - see below). I had no idea how involved TR was in US involvement in the war (he played the role Charles Lindbergh played in WWII - lead antagonist to the president in the lead up to the war - but where Lindbergh was trying to keep FDR out of it, TR was trying to push Wilson in).
We follow the WWI story through TR’s preparedness campaign, but also through Roosevelt’s four sons, who all go off to Europe to fight. Their stories are told beautifully, and the outcome shapes the man TR becomes in the last part of his life. We don’t hear much about TR’s kids in the other books, but in this book their stories shine. I would have loved even more of it.
- As always with these books the endnotes are fantastic and I wish they had been footnotes instead so I could have tracked them easier.
- At the end of this book Morris kind of tracks TR’s legacy through the years and how Americans’ views of him changed based on events of the time. That was really good.
- Something else I hadn’t realized until I read this book - TR would have won the presidency in 1920 if he had lived.
- William Howard Taft was a welcome presence throughout this book. Loved his hot and then cold and then hot again relationship with TR.
- The only part of the book I didn’t like was the “Interlude” which describes some of the things happening in Germany pre-WWI. It was unnecessary, a little confusing, and really didn’t connect to the Roosevelt story.
August 26, 2011
I have completed now the third volume of Edmund Morris's monumental three-volume biography of Theodore Roosevelt. As I finished the first volume (THE RISE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT), I felt certain it was the best biography I had ever read. The second volume (THEODORE REX) gave me no reason to change my mind. Now the third and final book in the trilogy has convinced me even further that this is a book (or series of books) for the ages. Finishing this book felt the way I felt at the end of KING LEAR and GREAT EXPECTATIONS, that I had been witness and fellow traveler to a richness of story far greater than most writers are capable of conjuring. That this is a true story adds to its luster, for facts, no matter how well researched (and these are exquisitely researched and notated), can lie on the page like grains of sand or they can rise up in brilliant sculpture. The latter is the case with this book. Theodore Roosevelt's life and career are unlike that of any other public figure I've ever read about. A hundred different movies could be made from his life, each of them fascinating and dramatic. This last volume is, like LEAR, the one which swells with melancholy and tragic resolution. Edmund Morris has a novelist's way with words, and these 2,100 pages over three volumes flew by in a page-turning frenzy I usually only experience with thrillers. Roosevelt the man is one of the most fascinating figures I have ever discovered. His biographer has here created absolutely the best biography I have ever read. By far.
September 28, 2025
Afterwards
This book is the final volume of Edmund Morris’s ambitious trilogy on Theodore Roosevelt which focuses on his life after leaving the White House. Named Colonel Roosevelt as this was the common way Roosevelt was addressed during this period, this for me does not reach the same standard as the earlier volumes. While the book maintains the high level of research and engaging prose that defined ‘The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt’ and ‘Theodore Rex’, it ultimately falters under the weight of its own scope and tone.
First, Colonel Roosevelt suffers from being longer than necessary. At 570 pages of text, it stretches the material thin, often dragging through scenes and secondary events that dilute the focus on Roosevelt himself. This leads into a second issue: the narrative frequently veers off-topic, delving deeply into the lives and careers of supporting characters, foreign diplomats, and peripheral global events. While some of this context is useful, much of it comes at the cost of a tighter, more compelling portrait of Roosevelt.
Perhaps more disappointing is the lack of critical analysis of Roosevelt as a man. Morris presents a detailed chronology of events, but rarely pauses to reflect meaningfully on Roosevelt’s inner life, contradictions, or motivations. Beyond referencing Roosevelt’s enduring popularity in national polls and the changing common opinion of him, the biography lacks a thoughtful interpretive lens. As a result, the reader is left with the what, but not always the why.
Colonel Roosevelt also includes frequent references to world affairs such as wars, revolutions and shifting alliances, but rarely engages with them in a way that does them justice. The result feels like filler, with complex international developments flattened into oversimplified summaries that add bulk without depth.
Finally, the tone edges uncomfortably close to hagiography. Morris shows no hesitation in criticising Roosevelt’s contemporaries (especially political rivals and foreign leaders) but seems largely unwilling to turn the same critical eye on Roosevelt himself. His flaws are acknowledged but often downplayed or immediately counterbalanced with praise, which undermines the credibility of the biography as a balanced work.
As a result, Colonel Roosevelt is a solid if overlong read that benefits from Morris’s polished writing and impressive research but is hindered by its excessive scope and reluctance to engage critically with its subject. It took me way too long to read and I feel that this is a disappointing finale to a promising trilogy. Of you are looking for a definitive and probing character study may leave wanting more.
This book is the final volume of Edmund Morris’s ambitious trilogy on Theodore Roosevelt which focuses on his life after leaving the White House. Named Colonel Roosevelt as this was the common way Roosevelt was addressed during this period, this for me does not reach the same standard as the earlier volumes. While the book maintains the high level of research and engaging prose that defined ‘The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt’ and ‘Theodore Rex’, it ultimately falters under the weight of its own scope and tone.
First, Colonel Roosevelt suffers from being longer than necessary. At 570 pages of text, it stretches the material thin, often dragging through scenes and secondary events that dilute the focus on Roosevelt himself. This leads into a second issue: the narrative frequently veers off-topic, delving deeply into the lives and careers of supporting characters, foreign diplomats, and peripheral global events. While some of this context is useful, much of it comes at the cost of a tighter, more compelling portrait of Roosevelt.
Perhaps more disappointing is the lack of critical analysis of Roosevelt as a man. Morris presents a detailed chronology of events, but rarely pauses to reflect meaningfully on Roosevelt’s inner life, contradictions, or motivations. Beyond referencing Roosevelt’s enduring popularity in national polls and the changing common opinion of him, the biography lacks a thoughtful interpretive lens. As a result, the reader is left with the what, but not always the why.
Colonel Roosevelt also includes frequent references to world affairs such as wars, revolutions and shifting alliances, but rarely engages with them in a way that does them justice. The result feels like filler, with complex international developments flattened into oversimplified summaries that add bulk without depth.
Finally, the tone edges uncomfortably close to hagiography. Morris shows no hesitation in criticising Roosevelt’s contemporaries (especially political rivals and foreign leaders) but seems largely unwilling to turn the same critical eye on Roosevelt himself. His flaws are acknowledged but often downplayed or immediately counterbalanced with praise, which undermines the credibility of the biography as a balanced work.
As a result, Colonel Roosevelt is a solid if overlong read that benefits from Morris’s polished writing and impressive research but is hindered by its excessive scope and reluctance to engage critically with its subject. It took me way too long to read and I feel that this is a disappointing finale to a promising trilogy. Of you are looking for a definitive and probing character study may leave wanting more.
May 29, 2015
In Morris’ third volume we leave behind TR the thoughtful president and pick up again TR the adventurer. Following his second term in 1909, TR goes on a yearlong African safari where he and his associates kill or trap over 10,000 animals. Mostly, the animals or skins are shipped back to the Smithsonian or other museums. With the boy in him revitalized he heads off to Europe where he is entertained by royalty and prominent figures. Some of these contacts particularly the time spent with Kaiser Wilhelm will shape his attitudes towards WWI which is only a few years away.
When TR returns to America he finds that his handpicked successor, President Taft, is not carrying out the reform policies he had initiated. TR is split between his Republican loyalties and progressive ideals and begins talking out of both sides of his mouth. But he finds his voice in 1910 at Osawatomie, Kansas where he gives his “New Nationalism” speech making national headlines. He challenges the big corporations saying, “I rank dividends below human character.” He even calls for campaign finance transparency. Sounding like today's Democrats, he puts people before profits and incurs the wrath of establishment Republicans.
In 1911 TR calls for regulating corporations to prevent anti-trust violations, again raising party establishment ire. Finally in 1912 he takes on Taft for the Republican nomination splitting the party between the Old Guard and its progressive wing. TR does well in the newly established primaries where he trades insults with Taft. Far more vitriolic than Obama’s criticism of Romney’s “sketchy deal”, TR concludes Taft’s, “conduct represents the very crookedest type of crooked deal.” Taft labels TR “neurotic”, a “dangerous egotist” and a “demagogue.” TR strikes back calling Taft a “puzzlewit” and “fathead”. Today’s campaigns seem tame by comparison. In the end the Old Guard controls the convention and Taft prevails.
TR, driven by anger at Taft and others who denied him the Republican nomination, accepts the Progressive (Bull Moose) Party nomination. Its platform seems amazingly modern including provisions for a minimum wage, workplace standards, medical coverage for the poor, an income tax, woman’s suffrage, corporate regulation and more. TR campaigned hard, so hard that even after being shot in the chest and bleeding profusely in an assassination attempt, he insisted on going ahead with the night’s speech before going to the hospital. TR achieved a personal objective, humiliating the incumbent Taft, who got only 23% of the vote to TR’s 27%. Wilson, the Democrat, won with 42%. TR showed that if he had gotten the Republican nomination he would likely have won.
After the election, TR takes his next trip to the wild, this time the unexplored River of Doubt deep in the Amazon rain forest. From February through May 1914 TR encounters some of the most brutal conditions any wilderness could serve up. From intense heat and humidity, to legions of stinging insects, piranhas, a wild rough unpredictable 625 mile never charted river, and Indians that had never seen a white man. The risks were great resulting in many injuries and even death. TR became so sick he had to be carried the last part of the journey. When later asked why at his age, 56, overweight, out of shape and already suffering from a variety of ailments, he would take such a trip, he replied, “It was my last chance to be a boy.”
With the outbreak of WWI and Germany’s U-boat’s torpedoing American shipping, TR becomes strident and calls for America to rearm and prepare for war. In 1916, Wilson running a “He kept us out of war” campaign, perhaps disingenuously (consider the past tense of the slogan), brings out TR’s fury and persistent attacks, but the slogan works and Wilson is reelected. The infamous Zimmerman telegram finally thrusts America into the war. TR, ready again to lead the charge, is denied his many requests to form and command a volunteer division to take into this new highly mechanized war, but he makes sure his four boys get to the front lines. Sadly, one dies and one is very seriously wounded with permanent nerve damage rendering one arm useless. TR, now again popular politically for his tough patriotic stance, is dispirited by the loss of his son, his health fails and he dies shortly after the end of the war.
Morris gives us some of his best writing in the third volume. The 1912 political campaigns and the Amazon trip are covered with zest. The treatment of the Roosevelt family in WWI and the personal impact is heartfelt. Like many biographers Morris is enamored with his subject and TR often gets the benefit of the doubt. While TR stands out as exceptionally gifted, he has his faults and one could easily take the downside of TR’s personality and create the objectionable character that many of his critics see. But I find Morris’ depiction of this extraordinary man compelling.
Having just read all three volumes, TR astounds with his unique combination of traits: Quick thinking, photographic memory, knowledgeable, confident, action oriented, personally engaging, charismatic, fearless, deeply moral, strong sense of duty, and unlimited energy. All these qualities work together to enable this larger than life man to build a better country. His accomplishments as a champion of the common man and of the environment, both of which were defenseless against corporate America without him, rank him among the most effective and important presidents. His place on Mt. Rushmore alongside Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln is well deserved.
When TR returns to America he finds that his handpicked successor, President Taft, is not carrying out the reform policies he had initiated. TR is split between his Republican loyalties and progressive ideals and begins talking out of both sides of his mouth. But he finds his voice in 1910 at Osawatomie, Kansas where he gives his “New Nationalism” speech making national headlines. He challenges the big corporations saying, “I rank dividends below human character.” He even calls for campaign finance transparency. Sounding like today's Democrats, he puts people before profits and incurs the wrath of establishment Republicans.
In 1911 TR calls for regulating corporations to prevent anti-trust violations, again raising party establishment ire. Finally in 1912 he takes on Taft for the Republican nomination splitting the party between the Old Guard and its progressive wing. TR does well in the newly established primaries where he trades insults with Taft. Far more vitriolic than Obama’s criticism of Romney’s “sketchy deal”, TR concludes Taft’s, “conduct represents the very crookedest type of crooked deal.” Taft labels TR “neurotic”, a “dangerous egotist” and a “demagogue.” TR strikes back calling Taft a “puzzlewit” and “fathead”. Today’s campaigns seem tame by comparison. In the end the Old Guard controls the convention and Taft prevails.
TR, driven by anger at Taft and others who denied him the Republican nomination, accepts the Progressive (Bull Moose) Party nomination. Its platform seems amazingly modern including provisions for a minimum wage, workplace standards, medical coverage for the poor, an income tax, woman’s suffrage, corporate regulation and more. TR campaigned hard, so hard that even after being shot in the chest and bleeding profusely in an assassination attempt, he insisted on going ahead with the night’s speech before going to the hospital. TR achieved a personal objective, humiliating the incumbent Taft, who got only 23% of the vote to TR’s 27%. Wilson, the Democrat, won with 42%. TR showed that if he had gotten the Republican nomination he would likely have won.
After the election, TR takes his next trip to the wild, this time the unexplored River of Doubt deep in the Amazon rain forest. From February through May 1914 TR encounters some of the most brutal conditions any wilderness could serve up. From intense heat and humidity, to legions of stinging insects, piranhas, a wild rough unpredictable 625 mile never charted river, and Indians that had never seen a white man. The risks were great resulting in many injuries and even death. TR became so sick he had to be carried the last part of the journey. When later asked why at his age, 56, overweight, out of shape and already suffering from a variety of ailments, he would take such a trip, he replied, “It was my last chance to be a boy.”
With the outbreak of WWI and Germany’s U-boat’s torpedoing American shipping, TR becomes strident and calls for America to rearm and prepare for war. In 1916, Wilson running a “He kept us out of war” campaign, perhaps disingenuously (consider the past tense of the slogan), brings out TR’s fury and persistent attacks, but the slogan works and Wilson is reelected. The infamous Zimmerman telegram finally thrusts America into the war. TR, ready again to lead the charge, is denied his many requests to form and command a volunteer division to take into this new highly mechanized war, but he makes sure his four boys get to the front lines. Sadly, one dies and one is very seriously wounded with permanent nerve damage rendering one arm useless. TR, now again popular politically for his tough patriotic stance, is dispirited by the loss of his son, his health fails and he dies shortly after the end of the war.
Morris gives us some of his best writing in the third volume. The 1912 political campaigns and the Amazon trip are covered with zest. The treatment of the Roosevelt family in WWI and the personal impact is heartfelt. Like many biographers Morris is enamored with his subject and TR often gets the benefit of the doubt. While TR stands out as exceptionally gifted, he has his faults and one could easily take the downside of TR’s personality and create the objectionable character that many of his critics see. But I find Morris’ depiction of this extraordinary man compelling.
Having just read all three volumes, TR astounds with his unique combination of traits: Quick thinking, photographic memory, knowledgeable, confident, action oriented, personally engaging, charismatic, fearless, deeply moral, strong sense of duty, and unlimited energy. All these qualities work together to enable this larger than life man to build a better country. His accomplishments as a champion of the common man and of the environment, both of which were defenseless against corporate America without him, rank him among the most effective and important presidents. His place on Mt. Rushmore alongside Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln is well deserved.
July 2, 2013
Theodore Roosevelt was the 26th US president. There are several charts ranking the US presidents and in all that I have seen he places fourth or fifth from the top. Lincoln, Washington and FDR, they are the ones that sit at the top. Jefferson and Theodore vie for the fourth position depending on which chart you look at. Maybe for this reason I can convince you to read this trilogy, written by Edmund Morris. This book is the last of the trilogy. In my view they must all be read together. The trilogy reads like one book. Although the last does cover previous incidents in his life, it does this summarily with the assumption that you have read the previous books. To understand the true marvel of the man you must read all three books, which are in chronological order. It is in the details that you learn of his character. For me it is his character, not only his deeds as President, which makes him such a remarkable person. This is the second, and I believe the strongest reason, to read these books, ie to meet the man. At the end, when I knew he would die soon, I was in tears. Well, my eyes were damp, but I do not cry when I read sad books. What a man! A vituperative bully and a pain in the butt, but moral and hardworking and a cyclone of energy, and he always tried to do the right thing….. even if it wasn’t to his own advantage.
The first two books had little about his relationship with those in his family. That you find in this book, in good measure! His charting of the Amazon is found in this book too. In addition, you are given fascinating details concerning WW1. I believe that had he been president, rather than Woodrow Wilson, he may have been able to change the course of history. Just maybe. He was a tremendous negotiator, having received the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts in ending the Russo-Japanese War. He knew on a personal level almost all of the leaders.
There are paragraphs where I don’t understand the reasoning behind or the import of the lines or the conclusions drawn. Some words used are not the most typical, plenipotentiary rather than ambassador, is one example that threw me at first. Particularly if you are listening, there are parts where you must pay close attention and sometimes rewind. There are names and ideas quickly thrown at you, and the narrator who is excellent (Mark Deakins), speaks rather quickly. As I pointed out in my review of the first book of the trilogy, the voice he uses for Theodore is absolutely perfect! You can hear this for yourself by listening to the real Theodore on You-Tube. Deakins’ French isn’t perfect, but understandable. You hear that he is an American speaking French, and he does pronounce some of the French cities wrong.
I really did love learning about Teddy. You are making a huge mistake if you think this book is just too long and not worth your time. It is a delightful read, filled with humor and sadness…… and lots of interesting facts!
**********************
Thoughts while reading:
Read carefully the GR book description. Look what I have ahead of me. Marvelous! AND, yes, a bad narrator can perhaps wreck a good book. The narrator of the second book, Jonathan Marosz, really was terrible. The minute I start listening to this, the third volume narrated by Mark Deakins, I began laughing again. YAY for Mark Deakins! I enjoy good non-fiction books that make you laugh, that teach you and are so very interesting.
I just wonder, if Theodore had been re-elected into presidency in 1913, would he / could he have averted WW1? He was perhaps the only one capable of doing this. It is utterly fascinating to watch the lead up to the war. Colonel Roosevelt, as he was called after his presidency, was present at King Edward VII's funeral. Everybody was there. Fascinating. And damn I was laughing at what he says to the kings, leaders, dignitaries and even the Pope while in Europe in 1910.
I just want to say I am loving this.
The first two books had little about his relationship with those in his family. That you find in this book, in good measure! His charting of the Amazon is found in this book too. In addition, you are given fascinating details concerning WW1. I believe that had he been president, rather than Woodrow Wilson, he may have been able to change the course of history. Just maybe. He was a tremendous negotiator, having received the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts in ending the Russo-Japanese War. He knew on a personal level almost all of the leaders.
There are paragraphs where I don’t understand the reasoning behind or the import of the lines or the conclusions drawn. Some words used are not the most typical, plenipotentiary rather than ambassador, is one example that threw me at first. Particularly if you are listening, there are parts where you must pay close attention and sometimes rewind. There are names and ideas quickly thrown at you, and the narrator who is excellent (Mark Deakins), speaks rather quickly. As I pointed out in my review of the first book of the trilogy, the voice he uses for Theodore is absolutely perfect! You can hear this for yourself by listening to the real Theodore on You-Tube. Deakins’ French isn’t perfect, but understandable. You hear that he is an American speaking French, and he does pronounce some of the French cities wrong.
I really did love learning about Teddy. You are making a huge mistake if you think this book is just too long and not worth your time. It is a delightful read, filled with humor and sadness…… and lots of interesting facts!
**********************
Thoughts while reading:
Read carefully the GR book description. Look what I have ahead of me. Marvelous! AND, yes, a bad narrator can perhaps wreck a good book. The narrator of the second book, Jonathan Marosz, really was terrible. The minute I start listening to this, the third volume narrated by Mark Deakins, I began laughing again. YAY for Mark Deakins! I enjoy good non-fiction books that make you laugh, that teach you and are so very interesting.
I just wonder, if Theodore had been re-elected into presidency in 1913, would he / could he have averted WW1? He was perhaps the only one capable of doing this. It is utterly fascinating to watch the lead up to the war. Colonel Roosevelt, as he was called after his presidency, was present at King Edward VII's funeral. Everybody was there. Fascinating. And damn I was laughing at what he says to the kings, leaders, dignitaries and even the Pope while in Europe in 1910.
I just want to say I am loving this.
January 24, 2022
Morris' 3-volume biography of Teddy Roosevelt is replete with much detail that I relish in a presidential biography. I liked all three and have become more intimate with all of them thereby knowing that age better and feeling more able to appreciate literature set in those years, such as "The Man Who Loved Children" by Christina Stead.
March 17, 2022
Mount Rushmore National Memorial was carved into the side of a mountain in the Black Hills of South Dakota between 1927 to 1941. The creation of sculptor Gutzon Borglum, the memorial consists of the faces of four presidents—George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln. Borglum selected these four presidents because, in his mind, they represented the most important events in the history of the United States—the founding, expansion, preservation and unification of the United States.
Borglum is not alone in his admiration of Teddy Roosevelt. In scholarly rankings of U.S. Presidents based on surveys of academic historians and political scientists conducted from 1948 to 2021, four Presidents have always ranked in the top five: Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Theodore Roosevelt. That’s pretty rarified air. The scholarly rankings focus on presidential achievements, leadership qualities, failures and faults.
Colonel Roosevelt is the concluding volume of Edmund Morris’ definitive trilogy on the storied life of our nation’s youngest President, covering that period of his life from the end of his presidency in 1909 to his death in 1919. Even a three-volume history is barely sufficient to cover this man’s extraordinary life. Teddy was one of most dynamic, multi-talented, and charismatic Presidents in U.S. history. It’s no wonder that he became a hero to millions of Americans. In addition to being President, Roosevelt was a prolific author, rancher, conservationist, legislator, amateur naturalist, reform-minded police commissioner, soldier, governor, naval enthusiast, thrill-seeking adventurer, and Nobel Peace Prize winner. I am among those who has been fascinated with this man. Colonel Roosevelt is the eighth book I have read about this remarkable man.
Roosevelt has become the rare political figure popular with both those on the left and right. Environmentalists celebrate Roosevelt for his conservation efforts—he is known as the “father of conservation.” He set-aside 150 National Forests, the first 51 Federal Bird Reservations, five National Parks, the first 18 National Monuments, and the first four National Game Preserves. T.R. is also known for giving the progressive movement credibility by putting the prestige of the White House behind welfare legislation. Roosevelt advocated for national healthcare in 1911, nearly a century before the Affordable Care Act was enacted in 2010. As President, Roosevelt also changed the government's relationship to big business. He believed that the government had the right and the responsibility to regulate big business, so he took on the titans of industry. Theodore Roosevelt is widely regarded as the first modern President of the United States by establishing the office of chief executive as the center of the federal government. Prior to his presidency, the seat of power in the national government resided in the U.S. Congress.
The reader need not be concerned that Colonel Roosevelt covers a dull period in Roosevelt’s life after the end of his presidency. The last decade of his life covers an array of interesting events and topics. During this period, Roosevelt went on an African safari, took a dangerous journey through the Amazon River basin, and engaged in a third-party campaign for the presidency. Unfortunately, it’s also a period marked by acerbic attacks on his two successors: William Howard Taft and Woodrow Wilson.
The other books I have read about Theodore Roosevelt include the following. I recommend them all.
• The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt by Edmund Morris, winner of both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award.
• Theodore Rex by Edmund Morris, which covers his presidency
• David McCullough’s Mornings on Horseback — an interesting and engaging account of the first twenty-eight years of Teddy Roosevelt’s life.
• Candice Millard’s The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt’s Darkest Journey, which follows Roosevelt on his post-presidential adventure through the Brazilian rainforest.
• Doris Kearns Goodwin’s The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft and the Golden Age of Journalism
• Leadership: In Turbulent Times by Doris Kearns Goodwin, which has mini-biographies of four presidents who in the author’s opinion demonstrated unusual leadership abilities: Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson.
• The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire that Saved America by Timothy Egan, a book about a terrible forest fire during the infancy of the national forest service.
Borglum is not alone in his admiration of Teddy Roosevelt. In scholarly rankings of U.S. Presidents based on surveys of academic historians and political scientists conducted from 1948 to 2021, four Presidents have always ranked in the top five: Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Theodore Roosevelt. That’s pretty rarified air. The scholarly rankings focus on presidential achievements, leadership qualities, failures and faults.
Colonel Roosevelt is the concluding volume of Edmund Morris’ definitive trilogy on the storied life of our nation’s youngest President, covering that period of his life from the end of his presidency in 1909 to his death in 1919. Even a three-volume history is barely sufficient to cover this man’s extraordinary life. Teddy was one of most dynamic, multi-talented, and charismatic Presidents in U.S. history. It’s no wonder that he became a hero to millions of Americans. In addition to being President, Roosevelt was a prolific author, rancher, conservationist, legislator, amateur naturalist, reform-minded police commissioner, soldier, governor, naval enthusiast, thrill-seeking adventurer, and Nobel Peace Prize winner. I am among those who has been fascinated with this man. Colonel Roosevelt is the eighth book I have read about this remarkable man.
Roosevelt has become the rare political figure popular with both those on the left and right. Environmentalists celebrate Roosevelt for his conservation efforts—he is known as the “father of conservation.” He set-aside 150 National Forests, the first 51 Federal Bird Reservations, five National Parks, the first 18 National Monuments, and the first four National Game Preserves. T.R. is also known for giving the progressive movement credibility by putting the prestige of the White House behind welfare legislation. Roosevelt advocated for national healthcare in 1911, nearly a century before the Affordable Care Act was enacted in 2010. As President, Roosevelt also changed the government's relationship to big business. He believed that the government had the right and the responsibility to regulate big business, so he took on the titans of industry. Theodore Roosevelt is widely regarded as the first modern President of the United States by establishing the office of chief executive as the center of the federal government. Prior to his presidency, the seat of power in the national government resided in the U.S. Congress.
The reader need not be concerned that Colonel Roosevelt covers a dull period in Roosevelt’s life after the end of his presidency. The last decade of his life covers an array of interesting events and topics. During this period, Roosevelt went on an African safari, took a dangerous journey through the Amazon River basin, and engaged in a third-party campaign for the presidency. Unfortunately, it’s also a period marked by acerbic attacks on his two successors: William Howard Taft and Woodrow Wilson.
The other books I have read about Theodore Roosevelt include the following. I recommend them all.
• The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt by Edmund Morris, winner of both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award.
• Theodore Rex by Edmund Morris, which covers his presidency
• David McCullough’s Mornings on Horseback — an interesting and engaging account of the first twenty-eight years of Teddy Roosevelt’s life.
• Candice Millard’s The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt’s Darkest Journey, which follows Roosevelt on his post-presidential adventure through the Brazilian rainforest.
• Doris Kearns Goodwin’s The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft and the Golden Age of Journalism
• Leadership: In Turbulent Times by Doris Kearns Goodwin, which has mini-biographies of four presidents who in the author’s opinion demonstrated unusual leadership abilities: Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson.
• The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire that Saved America by Timothy Egan, a book about a terrible forest fire during the infancy of the national forest service.
February 4, 2019
This is the long-anticipated trilogy completion of Edmund Morris' masterful biography of Theodore Roosevelt. He wrote the first installment, "The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt" in 1979; the story was continued with "Theodore Rex" in 2001.
"Colonel Roosevelt", reflecting the manner in which he preferred to refer to himself, starts when Theodore's life seems to be reaching its fulfillment, at age fifty, in 1909. Roosevelt had just handed the reins of the United States government to his good friend William Howard Taft. Taft was pledged to continue the progressive Republican agenda the former President had established, involving regulation of businesses and natural resource conservation. Teddy's children were all growing, with the last of the brood preparing to enter Harvard. He and wife Edith were devoted to each other. As events would unfold in the book, Roosevelt was probably the best-known and admired man in the world, with the possible exception of the polar explorers who were in the news at that time.
The book begins with Roosevelt's post-presidential gift to himself, a months-long extravaganza of a safari in Africa accompanied by his son Kermit. Roosevelt had to be mindful by this time of protecting his reputation as a friend of the wilderness, so he had to subsume his passion for killing wildlife under the greater aims of scientific specimen-gathering. Part of this meant that the safari would travel with full-time taxidermists who would field-dress killed animals of every size, from monkeys and birds to lions, elephants and rhinos for shipment to the Smithsonian, while maintaining detailed records of animals and vegetation encountered on the trip. As Morris shows, Teddy alone tarried 296 "items" that he shot and killed, while Kermit almost matched his father with 216 killed animals (p. 26).
The safari extended into 1910. T.R. was joined by his wife at its completion, and she toured the Continent with him. He was treated by the crowned heads and chief executive officers of Europe as the celebrated recent, and very possibly future American president. There was no earthly reason Roosevelt should concern himself with trying to return to power, but he harbored intense ambitions and lust for power, and he was greatly disturbed by reports he received from his old political allies, as early as his stay in Africa, that his successor was allowing the Republican agenda to founder through his weak management of the government. Even after he returned to the United States months later, Roosevelt publicly emphasized his support of the administration, hoping to preserve the Republican party's strength through the mid-term elections. Taft's coattails proved to be elusive and the party lost hugely in the 1910 Congressional elections.
By that time, Roosevelt was a Republican in name only. He had been considering offers of leadership from the more radical, progressive members of his party, including the Pinchot brothers. He established progressivism with a capital "P' in his landmark 1910 speech in Osawatomie, Kansas in which he broke from his party's leadership, deriding the dominance of bosses in politics and dependence on direction from America's corporate elite. He announced his belief in the need for a "square deal." In language that would sound like it came from Mars, to the ears of any current Republican Congressman or Senator (or reactionary Supreme Court Justice), he made the distinction between our Constitutional protections to property and the spirit of "New Nationalism" (p. 109), which fostered a judiciary in favor of individual over property rights. Roosevelt flatly declared that there is no Constitutional right of suffrage granted to any corporation. He favored a law prohibiting the use of corporate funds for any political purpose, and declared that business executives, especially board members, should be legally responsible for any breaches of antitrust law. Where have we gone wrong in the last 100 years?
Other Rooseveltian square dealing included the prioritizing of natural resource conservation second only to national defense, graduated income and inheritance taxes on substantial fortunes, and workmen's compensation acts (p. 108). The public's fondness for seeing Teddy in power again, combined with the fracturing of the Republican party under the stresses induced by progressivism, brought Roosevelt into direct opposition with Taft during the 1912 Republican convention. Taft was able to prevail as the standard-bearer of a greatly weakened party. Teddy agreed to let the Progressives draft him as their standard-bearer in a three-party election which included the Democrats' fresh new face, Woodrow Wilson. Roosevelt, the king of monosyllable speech, announced "My hat is in the ring. The fight is on and I am stripped to the buff." (p. 170). Thus, "Hat in the Ring" joined other Rooseveltian phrases as "The Big Stick", "The Strenuous Life", "Malefactors of Great Wealth" and others (p. 170).
My personal favorite Teddyism comes from his disparagement of Taft as a leader in 1911, when he called his successor "a flub dub with a streak of the second-rate and common in him" (p. 145). Take that, Taft!
All three of the party conventions were raucous affairs in 1912, with the Progressive conclave of August adding an aura of a religious revival. Roosevelt gave a two-hour acceptance speech which built on the Osawatomie blueprint and included an espousal of woman suffrage, a nationwide presidential primary system, popular election of senators, full disclosure of campaign funding and the triple progressive holy grail of the initiative, referendum and recall (p. 225). Much concern was directed to the plight of workers cast out of the workplace due to job-related injuries; the insecurities of old age; our country's depleted soils and stripped mountainsides. Minimum wages, workplace (safety) standards, even a system of "social insurance" (p. 226) to provide medical coverage for the poor were advocated.
Wilson of course won the election with a minority of votes against the combined Republican and Progressive totals. Roosevelt hedged on whether he would be available for nomination in 1916, and went home to nurse his wounds while planning a Brazilian river exploration expedition for the following year. Roosevelt's advancing age made the arduous trek through the Amazonian jungle an almost unsurmountable obstacle. He would continue to show depletion of his physical condition for the rest of his life, due to the effects of living an active, strenuous life in defiance of earlier medical warnings to refrain from taxing his Rhuematic-fever damaged heart; the trauma of surviving a 1912 assassination attempt and the effects of continuing to carry the non-removable bullet in his body; and the lingering, worsening effects of malaria, renewed in his trip to Brazil.
Not that Teddy ever planned to stop working as a magazine correspondent, and planning to renew his past Rough Rider glory by leading American soldiers in any foreign threat that occurred. He had a letter of intent placed on file at the War Department to raise and lead an army division since the two Moroccan crises, in which German encroachment on France's Moroccan colony prior to World War I created a potential flash point for hostilities. As the teen years of the new century approached, it was becoming more evident every day that serious trouble was brewing in Europe. One of the great joys of reading this book was following Morris' unraveling detail on the antecedents of World War I, and of the events that weighed on American politics after the German-Austrian Teutonic crackdown on Slavic societies resulted in a Serbian military threat which enveloped the whole world.
Morris provides very interesting detail of the lobbying that influential friends of Roosevelt conducted to get him into the war when America became involved. Wilson and his Secretary of War Newton D. Baker were able to outmaneuver this pressure, and Teddy had to be content to watch his four sons go into uniform, and serve in the worst of the fighting with the American forces in 1918. He would have to endure hearing of the serious battlefield injuries suffered by Theodore Jr. and Archie, but most dreadfully, had to join Edith in facing the loss of their son Quentin after his airplane was shot down. Roosevelt's health had already been declining and the heartache of this last piece of news was devastating.
Roosevelt lived long enough to see the worst war in history end. He had to endure reading the news accounts of how President Wilson, who never heeded Teddy's warnings to engage in military preparedness while the early years of the war raged, was now touring European capitals, drawing unprecedented throngs of admiring Parisions and Londoners. Wilson had wowed his wartime allies with a post-war "Fourteen Points" plan to maintain peace in Europe by employing the rule of law to keep aggressors from starting future wars. Roosevelt saw this as an idealistic farce which would reward powerful nations while leaving ethnic minorities in the dust, while the recent aggressor, Germany, would be accorded equal status with the other world powers.
Theodore Roosevelt became very ill at the end of 1918, and died a few days after the new year of 1919 at age 60. He had become civil, even friendly, to old political allies who had been estranged from him over his progressive third party bid for the presidency. He never stopped condemning Woodrow Wilson, however. While, as Morris points out, both Roosevelt and Wilson professed a belief in a world government based on "democratic imperialism" (p. 564), they viewed the preeminence of the United States on the world stage after World War I in opposite ways. Roosevelt believed in an organized peace keeping force for keeping order in the world, in which armed force could be brought to bear, with the knowledge that the United States would remain as the prime example of world policeman. Wilson saw world peace post-World War I being guaranteed by nations working together through legal means, with the United States, and its leader Wilson, being held in esteem as models of democracy. Wilson got the upper hand by living longer, but this victory would be very short lived. Wilson became very ill and finished his last year in office as a "peevish recluse" (p. 562).
His vision of a post-war Europe had been turned upside down by England's Lloyd George and France's Clemenceau, who wanted the victorious powers to grind the economies of Germany and Austria into the dust. Roosevelt's old political and personal friend Henry Cabot Lodge, and other Republican Senators shot down Wilson's League of Nations treaty, presaging a fall in Wilson's popularity which, as Morris notes, was as precipitous as Napoleon's fall from power. By the time the new decade of the nineteen-twenties started, Republicans were beginning a long domination of the presidency (Morris bluntly attributes Warren Harding's 1920 landslide victory to the voters' memory of the late candidate they would have preferred to place in office again) and Theodore Roosevelt was being lionized by biographers as the greatest president since Washington and Lincoln.
This has been a great biography of a man which I don't think I could ever read enough about. As with most books, or series of books on a subject, which are so well written, it is a joy to devour the pages while being conscious that this particular reading enjoyment will end. Nevertheless, this has been a great three-book adventure.
"Colonel Roosevelt", reflecting the manner in which he preferred to refer to himself, starts when Theodore's life seems to be reaching its fulfillment, at age fifty, in 1909. Roosevelt had just handed the reins of the United States government to his good friend William Howard Taft. Taft was pledged to continue the progressive Republican agenda the former President had established, involving regulation of businesses and natural resource conservation. Teddy's children were all growing, with the last of the brood preparing to enter Harvard. He and wife Edith were devoted to each other. As events would unfold in the book, Roosevelt was probably the best-known and admired man in the world, with the possible exception of the polar explorers who were in the news at that time.
The book begins with Roosevelt's post-presidential gift to himself, a months-long extravaganza of a safari in Africa accompanied by his son Kermit. Roosevelt had to be mindful by this time of protecting his reputation as a friend of the wilderness, so he had to subsume his passion for killing wildlife under the greater aims of scientific specimen-gathering. Part of this meant that the safari would travel with full-time taxidermists who would field-dress killed animals of every size, from monkeys and birds to lions, elephants and rhinos for shipment to the Smithsonian, while maintaining detailed records of animals and vegetation encountered on the trip. As Morris shows, Teddy alone tarried 296 "items" that he shot and killed, while Kermit almost matched his father with 216 killed animals (p. 26).
The safari extended into 1910. T.R. was joined by his wife at its completion, and she toured the Continent with him. He was treated by the crowned heads and chief executive officers of Europe as the celebrated recent, and very possibly future American president. There was no earthly reason Roosevelt should concern himself with trying to return to power, but he harbored intense ambitions and lust for power, and he was greatly disturbed by reports he received from his old political allies, as early as his stay in Africa, that his successor was allowing the Republican agenda to founder through his weak management of the government. Even after he returned to the United States months later, Roosevelt publicly emphasized his support of the administration, hoping to preserve the Republican party's strength through the mid-term elections. Taft's coattails proved to be elusive and the party lost hugely in the 1910 Congressional elections.
By that time, Roosevelt was a Republican in name only. He had been considering offers of leadership from the more radical, progressive members of his party, including the Pinchot brothers. He established progressivism with a capital "P' in his landmark 1910 speech in Osawatomie, Kansas in which he broke from his party's leadership, deriding the dominance of bosses in politics and dependence on direction from America's corporate elite. He announced his belief in the need for a "square deal." In language that would sound like it came from Mars, to the ears of any current Republican Congressman or Senator (or reactionary Supreme Court Justice), he made the distinction between our Constitutional protections to property and the spirit of "New Nationalism" (p. 109), which fostered a judiciary in favor of individual over property rights. Roosevelt flatly declared that there is no Constitutional right of suffrage granted to any corporation. He favored a law prohibiting the use of corporate funds for any political purpose, and declared that business executives, especially board members, should be legally responsible for any breaches of antitrust law. Where have we gone wrong in the last 100 years?
Other Rooseveltian square dealing included the prioritizing of natural resource conservation second only to national defense, graduated income and inheritance taxes on substantial fortunes, and workmen's compensation acts (p. 108). The public's fondness for seeing Teddy in power again, combined with the fracturing of the Republican party under the stresses induced by progressivism, brought Roosevelt into direct opposition with Taft during the 1912 Republican convention. Taft was able to prevail as the standard-bearer of a greatly weakened party. Teddy agreed to let the Progressives draft him as their standard-bearer in a three-party election which included the Democrats' fresh new face, Woodrow Wilson. Roosevelt, the king of monosyllable speech, announced "My hat is in the ring. The fight is on and I am stripped to the buff." (p. 170). Thus, "Hat in the Ring" joined other Rooseveltian phrases as "The Big Stick", "The Strenuous Life", "Malefactors of Great Wealth" and others (p. 170).
My personal favorite Teddyism comes from his disparagement of Taft as a leader in 1911, when he called his successor "a flub dub with a streak of the second-rate and common in him" (p. 145). Take that, Taft!
All three of the party conventions were raucous affairs in 1912, with the Progressive conclave of August adding an aura of a religious revival. Roosevelt gave a two-hour acceptance speech which built on the Osawatomie blueprint and included an espousal of woman suffrage, a nationwide presidential primary system, popular election of senators, full disclosure of campaign funding and the triple progressive holy grail of the initiative, referendum and recall (p. 225). Much concern was directed to the plight of workers cast out of the workplace due to job-related injuries; the insecurities of old age; our country's depleted soils and stripped mountainsides. Minimum wages, workplace (safety) standards, even a system of "social insurance" (p. 226) to provide medical coverage for the poor were advocated.
Wilson of course won the election with a minority of votes against the combined Republican and Progressive totals. Roosevelt hedged on whether he would be available for nomination in 1916, and went home to nurse his wounds while planning a Brazilian river exploration expedition for the following year. Roosevelt's advancing age made the arduous trek through the Amazonian jungle an almost unsurmountable obstacle. He would continue to show depletion of his physical condition for the rest of his life, due to the effects of living an active, strenuous life in defiance of earlier medical warnings to refrain from taxing his Rhuematic-fever damaged heart; the trauma of surviving a 1912 assassination attempt and the effects of continuing to carry the non-removable bullet in his body; and the lingering, worsening effects of malaria, renewed in his trip to Brazil.
Not that Teddy ever planned to stop working as a magazine correspondent, and planning to renew his past Rough Rider glory by leading American soldiers in any foreign threat that occurred. He had a letter of intent placed on file at the War Department to raise and lead an army division since the two Moroccan crises, in which German encroachment on France's Moroccan colony prior to World War I created a potential flash point for hostilities. As the teen years of the new century approached, it was becoming more evident every day that serious trouble was brewing in Europe. One of the great joys of reading this book was following Morris' unraveling detail on the antecedents of World War I, and of the events that weighed on American politics after the German-Austrian Teutonic crackdown on Slavic societies resulted in a Serbian military threat which enveloped the whole world.
Morris provides very interesting detail of the lobbying that influential friends of Roosevelt conducted to get him into the war when America became involved. Wilson and his Secretary of War Newton D. Baker were able to outmaneuver this pressure, and Teddy had to be content to watch his four sons go into uniform, and serve in the worst of the fighting with the American forces in 1918. He would have to endure hearing of the serious battlefield injuries suffered by Theodore Jr. and Archie, but most dreadfully, had to join Edith in facing the loss of their son Quentin after his airplane was shot down. Roosevelt's health had already been declining and the heartache of this last piece of news was devastating.
Roosevelt lived long enough to see the worst war in history end. He had to endure reading the news accounts of how President Wilson, who never heeded Teddy's warnings to engage in military preparedness while the early years of the war raged, was now touring European capitals, drawing unprecedented throngs of admiring Parisions and Londoners. Wilson had wowed his wartime allies with a post-war "Fourteen Points" plan to maintain peace in Europe by employing the rule of law to keep aggressors from starting future wars. Roosevelt saw this as an idealistic farce which would reward powerful nations while leaving ethnic minorities in the dust, while the recent aggressor, Germany, would be accorded equal status with the other world powers.
Theodore Roosevelt became very ill at the end of 1918, and died a few days after the new year of 1919 at age 60. He had become civil, even friendly, to old political allies who had been estranged from him over his progressive third party bid for the presidency. He never stopped condemning Woodrow Wilson, however. While, as Morris points out, both Roosevelt and Wilson professed a belief in a world government based on "democratic imperialism" (p. 564), they viewed the preeminence of the United States on the world stage after World War I in opposite ways. Roosevelt believed in an organized peace keeping force for keeping order in the world, in which armed force could be brought to bear, with the knowledge that the United States would remain as the prime example of world policeman. Wilson saw world peace post-World War I being guaranteed by nations working together through legal means, with the United States, and its leader Wilson, being held in esteem as models of democracy. Wilson got the upper hand by living longer, but this victory would be very short lived. Wilson became very ill and finished his last year in office as a "peevish recluse" (p. 562).
His vision of a post-war Europe had been turned upside down by England's Lloyd George and France's Clemenceau, who wanted the victorious powers to grind the economies of Germany and Austria into the dust. Roosevelt's old political and personal friend Henry Cabot Lodge, and other Republican Senators shot down Wilson's League of Nations treaty, presaging a fall in Wilson's popularity which, as Morris notes, was as precipitous as Napoleon's fall from power. By the time the new decade of the nineteen-twenties started, Republicans were beginning a long domination of the presidency (Morris bluntly attributes Warren Harding's 1920 landslide victory to the voters' memory of the late candidate they would have preferred to place in office again) and Theodore Roosevelt was being lionized by biographers as the greatest president since Washington and Lincoln.
This has been a great biography of a man which I don't think I could ever read enough about. As with most books, or series of books on a subject, which are so well written, it is a joy to devour the pages while being conscious that this particular reading enjoyment will end. Nevertheless, this has been a great three-book adventure.
March 22, 2022
Morris’s trilogy on TR is the best biography I’ve read. I was genuinely bereaved at its conclusion, saddened not just by the death of TR, but also by fact that a fantastic series of books had come to an end.
December 13, 2015
The publication in 1979 of Edmund Morris's The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt heralded the start of a monumental multi-volume study of our nation's 26th president. Though sidetracked for a number of years by his assignment as Ronald Reagan's official biographer, Morris finally released his second volume, Theodore Rex, in 2001, which chronicled Roosevelt's life during his years in the White House. This book, which recount's Roosevelt's post-presidential years, provides a long-awaited completion to Morris's project. It bears all of the strengths and weaknesses of Morris's approach to his project, now on display in a chronicle of an eventful decade in an already active life.
Morris begins with his subject (whose insistence on being referred to post-presidency as "Colonel Roosevelt" provides the inspiration for the book's title) on safari in Africa, the first leg of a year-long voyage abroad. Designed to give his handpicked successor, William Howard Taft, an opportunity to flourish outside of his long shadow, Roosevelt's trip continued with a triumphal tour of Europe, one that the author recounts in meticulous detail. Returning to universal acclaim, he also confronted a divisive political scene, with the dominant Republican Party torn by increasingly acrimonious infighting between its progressive and conservative wings. After an initial silence, Roosevelt joined the fray, campaigning for a number of progressive Republicans in the 1910 midterm elections. Morris sees the defeat of these candidates as the first blow to his public standing, weakening him at a time when he faced growing calls from Progressives to challenge Taft for the 1912 Republican presidential nomination.
Increasingly disillusioned with his former colleague, Roosevelt entered the race in February 1912. Morris's description of his primary battle against Taft is one of the high points of this book, capturing all of the drama of a former president taking on his party's leadership. Though Roosevelt was the clear choice of the voters, the limited use of presidential primaries at the time and Taft's control of party patronage ensured Roosevelt's defeat at the national convention that June. Undaunted, Roosevelt bolted from the GOP and campaigned for the White House under the banner of the newly-founded Progressive Party. Morris eschews any analysis of the campaign in favor of a narrative that describes his travels across America, which ended with a dramatic assassination attempt by "a weedy little man" who claimed to have been urged to do so by the ghost of William McKinley. Despite the surge of sympathy the attempt generated, Roosevelt fell short in his effort, losing in November.
Financially weakened, Roosevelt turned to his pen and took to the road once more. After a trip to Arizona with his sons Archie and Quentin, Roosevelt embarked on what he viewed as his last great adventure - an expedition into the jungles of the Amazon. His journey proved difficult and physically demanding, with personality conflicts, a leg injury, and a recurrence of malaria taking its toll on the former president. Roosevelt's return coincided with the outbreak of war in Europe, leaving him chafing with inactivity as Woodrow Wilson first kept America out of war, then left the former president on the sidelines as he led the nation into it. By its end, Roosevelt nursed both the pain of losing his youngest son and an increasing range of physical ailments, a cumulative effect of decades of strenuous activity that left him dead at the age of 60 in 1919.
Morris recounts Roosevelt's life in vivid, occasionally even florid prose. He is a master of presenting the rich drama of Roosevelt's adventures, an easy enough task given the material he had to work with but well done nevertheless. Yet like his earlier volumes, this descriptive account comes with little in the way of context or analysis. There is little here to explain Roosevelt's broader impact on progressivism, his contributions of his journeys to natural history, or the importance of his participation in the preparedness movement. While this diminishes the utility of Morris's work as a study of Roosevelt's contribution to American history, it does not detract from the overall enjoyability of Morris's entertaining, masterful account. Combined with his earlier volumes, it is likely to serve as the standard by which Roosevelt biographies are judged for decades to come.
Morris begins with his subject (whose insistence on being referred to post-presidency as "Colonel Roosevelt" provides the inspiration for the book's title) on safari in Africa, the first leg of a year-long voyage abroad. Designed to give his handpicked successor, William Howard Taft, an opportunity to flourish outside of his long shadow, Roosevelt's trip continued with a triumphal tour of Europe, one that the author recounts in meticulous detail. Returning to universal acclaim, he also confronted a divisive political scene, with the dominant Republican Party torn by increasingly acrimonious infighting between its progressive and conservative wings. After an initial silence, Roosevelt joined the fray, campaigning for a number of progressive Republicans in the 1910 midterm elections. Morris sees the defeat of these candidates as the first blow to his public standing, weakening him at a time when he faced growing calls from Progressives to challenge Taft for the 1912 Republican presidential nomination.
Increasingly disillusioned with his former colleague, Roosevelt entered the race in February 1912. Morris's description of his primary battle against Taft is one of the high points of this book, capturing all of the drama of a former president taking on his party's leadership. Though Roosevelt was the clear choice of the voters, the limited use of presidential primaries at the time and Taft's control of party patronage ensured Roosevelt's defeat at the national convention that June. Undaunted, Roosevelt bolted from the GOP and campaigned for the White House under the banner of the newly-founded Progressive Party. Morris eschews any analysis of the campaign in favor of a narrative that describes his travels across America, which ended with a dramatic assassination attempt by "a weedy little man" who claimed to have been urged to do so by the ghost of William McKinley. Despite the surge of sympathy the attempt generated, Roosevelt fell short in his effort, losing in November.
Financially weakened, Roosevelt turned to his pen and took to the road once more. After a trip to Arizona with his sons Archie and Quentin, Roosevelt embarked on what he viewed as his last great adventure - an expedition into the jungles of the Amazon. His journey proved difficult and physically demanding, with personality conflicts, a leg injury, and a recurrence of malaria taking its toll on the former president. Roosevelt's return coincided with the outbreak of war in Europe, leaving him chafing with inactivity as Woodrow Wilson first kept America out of war, then left the former president on the sidelines as he led the nation into it. By its end, Roosevelt nursed both the pain of losing his youngest son and an increasing range of physical ailments, a cumulative effect of decades of strenuous activity that left him dead at the age of 60 in 1919.
Morris recounts Roosevelt's life in vivid, occasionally even florid prose. He is a master of presenting the rich drama of Roosevelt's adventures, an easy enough task given the material he had to work with but well done nevertheless. Yet like his earlier volumes, this descriptive account comes with little in the way of context or analysis. There is little here to explain Roosevelt's broader impact on progressivism, his contributions of his journeys to natural history, or the importance of his participation in the preparedness movement. While this diminishes the utility of Morris's work as a study of Roosevelt's contribution to American history, it does not detract from the overall enjoyability of Morris's entertaining, masterful account. Combined with his earlier volumes, it is likely to serve as the standard by which Roosevelt biographies are judged for decades to come.
May 19, 2025
The three book set should be the last word on a truly marvelous person. TR was what every man wants to be: stout of heart, brave in battle, masterful at writing and reading, and singularly memorable of character.
February 13, 2019
So I am a moron. I had no idea there were two other books before this one. I felt like I got plopped into Theodore Roosevelt's life and felt confused. Once I realized that I was on the third book I felt better since I was all, why is the book acting as if I read about Theodore Roosevelt before now?
I have to say though that my attention kept straying away while reading this. I thought that Morris does a good job of bringing Roosevelt out as a man who is out to explore Africa after completing his run as President after his second term. I just found most of the book to be a bit colorless after we have Roosevelt returning from Africa and hell bent on being the savior of the Republican party. This of course caused the great "schism" and the Bull Moose party of progressives emerged.
Morris does a good job I think of showing all sides of Roosevelt. He's not a saint, he's a flesh and blood man that at times refused to listen to those around him since he thought he knew best. The book also goes into his other expedition which led to him getting ill and then following him and his family through World War I. I just wish that the book had managed to keep my interest throughout. I don't know if this book should have been broken into two volumes, with volume I following Roosevelt before WWI and then after or what. I think there was so much going on with Roosevelt and his family at times I was left a bit overwhelmed and feeling like I had forgotten some things and having to go back to check myself.
I read this on my Kindle and was happy to see that the plethora of notes that Morris had actually worked. My big complaint though and why I stopped reading the notes after a while is that my book wouldn't take me back to the place I was in the biography. This books is ridiculous full of notes and the historian in me was happy to see them. But it sucked for me as a reader since I kept getting taken out of my place and had to scroll back to wherever I was. I also was happy to see the pictures and other illustrations that were included.
I have to say though that my attention kept straying away while reading this. I thought that Morris does a good job of bringing Roosevelt out as a man who is out to explore Africa after completing his run as President after his second term. I just found most of the book to be a bit colorless after we have Roosevelt returning from Africa and hell bent on being the savior of the Republican party. This of course caused the great "schism" and the Bull Moose party of progressives emerged.
Morris does a good job I think of showing all sides of Roosevelt. He's not a saint, he's a flesh and blood man that at times refused to listen to those around him since he thought he knew best. The book also goes into his other expedition which led to him getting ill and then following him and his family through World War I. I just wish that the book had managed to keep my interest throughout. I don't know if this book should have been broken into two volumes, with volume I following Roosevelt before WWI and then after or what. I think there was so much going on with Roosevelt and his family at times I was left a bit overwhelmed and feeling like I had forgotten some things and having to go back to check myself.
I read this on my Kindle and was happy to see that the plethora of notes that Morris had actually worked. My big complaint though and why I stopped reading the notes after a while is that my book wouldn't take me back to the place I was in the biography. This books is ridiculous full of notes and the historian in me was happy to see them. But it sucked for me as a reader since I kept getting taken out of my place and had to scroll back to wherever I was. I also was happy to see the pictures and other illustrations that were included.
October 23, 2017
Outstanding conclusion to Morris' trilogy about one of the biggest personalities to ever inhabit the White House. This final volume picks up with TR's African safari that began only a few weeks after he left office in March 1909, and concludes with his death almost a full decade later. As with the two prior volumes, the level of detail combined with Morris' story-telling abilities makes this eminently enjoyable to read. Admittedly, Morris has a lot to work with here: TR led a truly fascinating life, full of so man different worlds that he managed to navigate between, world travels, and highly-placed friends everywhere. Nonetheless, this is presidential biography at its highest level.
One thing that makes Morris' treatment of TR so readable is that he is scrupulously fair. We TR for all of his warts (and there were many, especially in this volume), yet Morris provides proper context and does not castrate the man. We also see the brilliance of TR: his ability to read the world situation pre-WWI, his barely-admitted realization that the electorate had changed from when he had been elected President in 1904, and his prolific correspondence and literary work. The man seemed to vet writing almost all of the time. Think of this: TR himself estimated - and Morris does his best to confirm and believes TR was accurate with this figure - that he wrote over 150,000 letters in his lifetime. 150,000! I don't know if I have written 50. How many people nowadays never write one? Only a man of super-abundant energy could manage to do that while also campaigning extensively, dictating on the side, traveling widely, enjoying his grandchildren, and exercising.
Morris spends much of the early part of the book writing about TR's split from the Republican Party in general, and William Howard Taft in particular. His coverage of the 1912 election is excellent; he shows the slow process that TR took to try to get the Republican nomination. Morris does not quite buy TR's professions that he really did not want to run again. As soon as TR left the White House, he spent the rest of his life trying to get back in. The three-way race between TR, Taft, and Woodrow Wilson may be the most important one that has ever taken place in American history. Undoubtedly U.S. involvement in WWI would have occurred much sooner, and looked quite a bit different, had Roosevelt won back the presidency, than it did with Wilson at the helm. And considering how much WWII was a direct result of the disastrous peace treaty ending WWI, one cannot help but wonder what might have been. That is not to say that TR had the solution, but we certainly know that things would have been different.
As Morris chronicles TR's final years, one is tempted to feel some sadness for the man as his body - which he has abused and pushed to the limit throughout his life - basically implodes on him. However, he is the victim of his own actions, and of his own bellicose, martial rhetoric throughout his life. He pushed - hard - all four of his sons to serve in WWI as soon as hostilities commenced. His youngest son, Quentin, was shot out of the sky over France and died before he hit the ground. Roosevelt, already ill himself, never seemed to recover. Morris on page 537: "But what made this loss so devastating to him was the truth it conveyed: that death in battle was no more glamorous than death in an abattoir. Under some much-trodden turf in France, Quentin lay as cold as a steer fallen off a hook. Look now, in your ignorance, on the face of death, the boy had written in one of his attempts at fiction. The words seemed to admonish a father who had always romanticized war."
Morris concludes by detailing TR's final days. There is irony in the fact that, had he lived, he probably would have obtained the Republican nomination for president in 1920, and given Wilson's disastrous final two years of his own presidency, he probably would have won. Unlike many biographers, Morris does not abruptly end when TR's life does. He describes the funeral in detail. He then follows up with a concise yet not hurried summary of what happened to his wife Edith and all of his children. He also writes about how TR has been viewed in the century since his death, and how his legacy has changed at times, from almost hero-worship to war monger and now back towards a more positive view. In conclusion, this is one of the finest series that I have ever read.
One thing that makes Morris' treatment of TR so readable is that he is scrupulously fair. We TR for all of his warts (and there were many, especially in this volume), yet Morris provides proper context and does not castrate the man. We also see the brilliance of TR: his ability to read the world situation pre-WWI, his barely-admitted realization that the electorate had changed from when he had been elected President in 1904, and his prolific correspondence and literary work. The man seemed to vet writing almost all of the time. Think of this: TR himself estimated - and Morris does his best to confirm and believes TR was accurate with this figure - that he wrote over 150,000 letters in his lifetime. 150,000! I don't know if I have written 50. How many people nowadays never write one? Only a man of super-abundant energy could manage to do that while also campaigning extensively, dictating on the side, traveling widely, enjoying his grandchildren, and exercising.
Morris spends much of the early part of the book writing about TR's split from the Republican Party in general, and William Howard Taft in particular. His coverage of the 1912 election is excellent; he shows the slow process that TR took to try to get the Republican nomination. Morris does not quite buy TR's professions that he really did not want to run again. As soon as TR left the White House, he spent the rest of his life trying to get back in. The three-way race between TR, Taft, and Woodrow Wilson may be the most important one that has ever taken place in American history. Undoubtedly U.S. involvement in WWI would have occurred much sooner, and looked quite a bit different, had Roosevelt won back the presidency, than it did with Wilson at the helm. And considering how much WWII was a direct result of the disastrous peace treaty ending WWI, one cannot help but wonder what might have been. That is not to say that TR had the solution, but we certainly know that things would have been different.
As Morris chronicles TR's final years, one is tempted to feel some sadness for the man as his body - which he has abused and pushed to the limit throughout his life - basically implodes on him. However, he is the victim of his own actions, and of his own bellicose, martial rhetoric throughout his life. He pushed - hard - all four of his sons to serve in WWI as soon as hostilities commenced. His youngest son, Quentin, was shot out of the sky over France and died before he hit the ground. Roosevelt, already ill himself, never seemed to recover. Morris on page 537: "But what made this loss so devastating to him was the truth it conveyed: that death in battle was no more glamorous than death in an abattoir. Under some much-trodden turf in France, Quentin lay as cold as a steer fallen off a hook. Look now, in your ignorance, on the face of death, the boy had written in one of his attempts at fiction. The words seemed to admonish a father who had always romanticized war."
Morris concludes by detailing TR's final days. There is irony in the fact that, had he lived, he probably would have obtained the Republican nomination for president in 1920, and given Wilson's disastrous final two years of his own presidency, he probably would have won. Unlike many biographers, Morris does not abruptly end when TR's life does. He describes the funeral in detail. He then follows up with a concise yet not hurried summary of what happened to his wife Edith and all of his children. He also writes about how TR has been viewed in the century since his death, and how his legacy has changed at times, from almost hero-worship to war monger and now back towards a more positive view. In conclusion, this is one of the finest series that I have ever read.
March 6, 2015
http://bestpresidentialbios.com/2015/...
“Colonel Roosevelt” is the final volume in Edmund Morris’s trilogy covering the life of Theodore Roosevelt. Published in 2010, this widely anticipated volume concluded a three-decade long effort to chronicle the life of this colorful and complex man. Morris is currently working on a biography of Thomas Edison.
The volume opens with Roosevelt embarking on an African safari just weeks after leaving the White House. Morris regales his audience with tales of adventure before returning Roosevelt to America on a wave of great popularity. Disappointed with Taft’s leadership, Roosevelt soon establishes himself as a candidate for the presidency.
After his electoral loss to Woodrow Wilson (having split the Republican vote with Taft) Roosevelt embarks on a tour of the Southwest US followed by a more harrowing journey through the South American jungle. Morris vividly and energetically describes these journeys which, particularly in the case of his Amazonian trek, are quite captivating. Only world war, the death of his youngest son and his final sad decline remain for Morris to document.
Similar to its companion volumes, “Colonel Roosevelt” is erudite and well-researched with over 150 pages of bibliography and endnotes accompanying 570 pages of text. Morris’s writing style in this volume is reminiscent of its smooth and refined predecessor rather than the first volume of the series, with its far more serpentine sentence structure.
Fans of Teddy Roosevelt will find much to like in this volume; it contains most of the drama of the first volume along with much of the political tension and intrigue of the second. But where the series opener was full of unbridled youth and the second filled with more sober political maturity, this volume is really a well-written slow-motion tragedy – a tale of the seemingly inevitable fall of a once-great figure. Roosevelt’s final descent is almost as unsurprising as it is painful, and Morris covers it adroitly.
In contrast to previous volumes, Roosevelt’s family receives its fair share of attention. This is fortunate, for they add significant color and texture to the narrative. And where important political figures (friend and foe alike) received less focus than deserved in earlier volumes, Morris more carefully documents those relationships as well.
However, Morris cannot help but see political rivals such as William Howard Taft and Woodrow Wilson through TR’s partisan lenses. As a result they come across as shallow, two-dimensional and generally incompetent political figures. Readers seeking more balanced portrayals of Taft or Wilson would do well to search for it in biographies where they – and not Roosevelt – occupy center stage.
This biography finishes on a high note, with the final chapter devoted to TR’s legacy, his surviving family and a review of his treatment by other biographers. Unfortunately, Morris does not really explore whether the traits that led to the rise of this complex, effervescent and recondite personality also led to his downfall. And where some biographers dissect and reassemble a fully-explored subject, Morris’s emphasis is clearly on description rather than interpretation.
But overall, “Colonel Roosevelt” completes Edmund Morris’s trilogy in meritorious and satisfying fashion. It possesses much of the energizing raw material of the series’ first volume and is written with the literary flair and fluidity of the second volume. This final volume in Morris’s series provides a fascinating, if at times heartbreaking, review of the post-presidency of one of our nation’s most compelling chief executives.
Overall rating: 4¼ stars
“Colonel Roosevelt” is the final volume in Edmund Morris’s trilogy covering the life of Theodore Roosevelt. Published in 2010, this widely anticipated volume concluded a three-decade long effort to chronicle the life of this colorful and complex man. Morris is currently working on a biography of Thomas Edison.
The volume opens with Roosevelt embarking on an African safari just weeks after leaving the White House. Morris regales his audience with tales of adventure before returning Roosevelt to America on a wave of great popularity. Disappointed with Taft’s leadership, Roosevelt soon establishes himself as a candidate for the presidency.
After his electoral loss to Woodrow Wilson (having split the Republican vote with Taft) Roosevelt embarks on a tour of the Southwest US followed by a more harrowing journey through the South American jungle. Morris vividly and energetically describes these journeys which, particularly in the case of his Amazonian trek, are quite captivating. Only world war, the death of his youngest son and his final sad decline remain for Morris to document.
Similar to its companion volumes, “Colonel Roosevelt” is erudite and well-researched with over 150 pages of bibliography and endnotes accompanying 570 pages of text. Morris’s writing style in this volume is reminiscent of its smooth and refined predecessor rather than the first volume of the series, with its far more serpentine sentence structure.
Fans of Teddy Roosevelt will find much to like in this volume; it contains most of the drama of the first volume along with much of the political tension and intrigue of the second. But where the series opener was full of unbridled youth and the second filled with more sober political maturity, this volume is really a well-written slow-motion tragedy – a tale of the seemingly inevitable fall of a once-great figure. Roosevelt’s final descent is almost as unsurprising as it is painful, and Morris covers it adroitly.
In contrast to previous volumes, Roosevelt’s family receives its fair share of attention. This is fortunate, for they add significant color and texture to the narrative. And where important political figures (friend and foe alike) received less focus than deserved in earlier volumes, Morris more carefully documents those relationships as well.
However, Morris cannot help but see political rivals such as William Howard Taft and Woodrow Wilson through TR’s partisan lenses. As a result they come across as shallow, two-dimensional and generally incompetent political figures. Readers seeking more balanced portrayals of Taft or Wilson would do well to search for it in biographies where they – and not Roosevelt – occupy center stage.
This biography finishes on a high note, with the final chapter devoted to TR’s legacy, his surviving family and a review of his treatment by other biographers. Unfortunately, Morris does not really explore whether the traits that led to the rise of this complex, effervescent and recondite personality also led to his downfall. And where some biographers dissect and reassemble a fully-explored subject, Morris’s emphasis is clearly on description rather than interpretation.
But overall, “Colonel Roosevelt” completes Edmund Morris’s trilogy in meritorious and satisfying fashion. It possesses much of the energizing raw material of the series’ first volume and is written with the literary flair and fluidity of the second volume. This final volume in Morris’s series provides a fascinating, if at times heartbreaking, review of the post-presidency of one of our nation’s most compelling chief executives.
Overall rating: 4¼ stars
October 23, 2015
Solid biography of Roosevelt's last ten years of life. His "retirement" would be considered a lifetime of experiences for most people and that probably contributed to his relatively early death. He simply was unable to slow down and adjust his activity level as he grew older.Between the African safari, Amazon expedition (where he almost died) and a brutal presidential campaign Roosevelt made demands on himself that his aging body was unable to meet - he literally burned out. Possibly he simply never wanted to live past seventy, but that is all speculation.
Morris does his usual outstanding work. The book is dense and covers the last decade of Roosevelt's life with a microscope. Surprisingly I found myself not liking Roosevelt when reading this installment, which was not a feeling I had with the first two books. I wanted to grab hold of the man and tell him that now it was time to live his life with his wife and simply stop to smell the roses. But ,of course, I couldn't do that - no more than Roosevelt could slow down. So while an interesting look at the end of his life it's a frustrating look. The mountains had been climbed and the giants slain, but still Roosevelt was looking for other conquests and challenges.
Many readers of the trilogy prefer the first installment and that's understandable. The first book covers Roosevelt's first 42 years. The young man in a hurry overcoming personal tragedy, moving up the political ladder, adventuring in the Dakotas and fighting a war in Cuba. Thrilling stuff. The second book is a political bio and while it might not be as exciting it's a book about Roosevelt at his pinnacle. This installment ,as I have already noted, isn't as satisfying. Endings are bittersweet at best. But Morris obviously admires Roosevelt and he gives as much effort to the end as he gave to the beginning. It's a good bio and well deserving a place on your shelf next to the first two books and other well written biographies.
Morris does his usual outstanding work. The book is dense and covers the last decade of Roosevelt's life with a microscope. Surprisingly I found myself not liking Roosevelt when reading this installment, which was not a feeling I had with the first two books. I wanted to grab hold of the man and tell him that now it was time to live his life with his wife and simply stop to smell the roses. But ,of course, I couldn't do that - no more than Roosevelt could slow down. So while an interesting look at the end of his life it's a frustrating look. The mountains had been climbed and the giants slain, but still Roosevelt was looking for other conquests and challenges.
Many readers of the trilogy prefer the first installment and that's understandable. The first book covers Roosevelt's first 42 years. The young man in a hurry overcoming personal tragedy, moving up the political ladder, adventuring in the Dakotas and fighting a war in Cuba. Thrilling stuff. The second book is a political bio and while it might not be as exciting it's a book about Roosevelt at his pinnacle. This installment ,as I have already noted, isn't as satisfying. Endings are bittersweet at best. But Morris obviously admires Roosevelt and he gives as much effort to the end as he gave to the beginning. It's a good bio and well deserving a place on your shelf next to the first two books and other well written biographies.
January 16, 2020
Morris's books look like presidential biographies -- long, densely noted, stacked in the front of Barnes & Nobles -- but their prose hits a different level than anything else in this genre. While Morris really does the research, he uses all of those facts and details to fuel his imagination. For him biography is less about contexts and ideas than people and scenes. In fact, I've always thought his books read like movies. This comes through in the opening scene of Colonel Roosevelt, which finds Roosevelt on an African safari. Morris's eye moves, camera-like, from the diary bulging in Roosevelt’s pocket to the gun case stenciled with his name to the African landscape. There’s even a montage of moments from Roosevelt’s earlier life. It really is cinematic.
When I was working on Author in Chief, I knew I wanted to work in contexts and ideas -- especially about the history of reading and writing in America. But I also wanted there to be little pops of character and scene, and whenever I needed inspiration, I would grab one of Morris's books.
When I was working on Author in Chief, I knew I wanted to work in contexts and ideas -- especially about the history of reading and writing in America. But I also wanted there to be little pops of character and scene, and whenever I needed inspiration, I would grab one of Morris's books.
December 18, 2021
The conclusion of Morris’ three volume series serves as a wonderful finale to the coverage of Theodore Roosevelt’s fascinating life, as well as providing thoughtful insights into WW1, the Taft and the Wilson Administrations, and the general culture of the US at the time.
May 13, 2025
An excellent read.
January 22, 2011
Years ago, I was throwing back beers with a friend and we raised the question: if you could go back to any point in history, as an observer, when or what event would you choose. We mulled certain battles, maybe being at the grassy knoll on Nov. 22, 1963. But I decided I would like to have been on the boat that brought my grandmother from Poland to the United States back in 1910. She was unaccompanied and all of thirteen years old. I knew her only as an old woman, sharing the few English words she knew. But I wanted to see her in 1910, to watch and maybe share her fear and hope.
In this, the concluding book of a three-volume masterpiece, Edmund Morris tells the story of Theodore Roosevelt in 1910, an ex-president fresh from an African adventure and whirlwind European tour, returning to the United States on a steamer. Roosevelt agreed to preach a lay sermon to the first-class passengers at a Sunday service. He felt uncomfortable that worship was not provided for lower-class passengers so arrangements were made for him to go to the bottom deck. There, in steerage, he found more than a thousand Polish immigrants crowded around a makeshift altar. The only light in the windowless space came from candles. Through a Polish priest he told the excited throng, "how earnestly he wished the adventure into the new land would be a turning-point in their lives; wished that they might find there all their dreams had painted for them; and how earnestly he, as a citizen of the great republic, welcomed them to see it."
I wonder. Perhaps Babcha was there as that embodiment of action and wonder welcomed them. And perhaps also that is how my fascination for that man got in my DNA.
I was a little Theodore-ed out after plowing through Douglas Brinkley's The Wilderness Warrior but Morris woke me up with that mid-ocean anecdote. Good thing, because there are gems of great writing, wonderful character sketches and a thought-provoking overview in this book. Patricia O'Toole wrote of the same period in TR's life faultlessly in When Trumpets Call. Yet there is something special in Morris' treatment.
Like many well-born men with a social conscience, Roosevelt liked to think that he empathized with the poor. He was democratic, in a detached, affable way. However, his rare exposures to squalor had been either voyeuristic, as when he encouraged Jacob Riis to show him "how the other half lived," or vicarious, as when he recoiled from the "hideous human swine" in the works of Emile Zola.
What did Roosevelt think of Charles Evan Hughes? Morris tells us, "He did not like Hughes, but then neither did anybody at close range. It was impossible to warm to a man who exuded such cold correctness, and grinned with horse-toothed insincerity." Of William Howard Taft, Morris writes, "When convinced of the rightness of a course of action, Taft pushed all obstacles out of his way, like an elephant rolling logs. However, again like an elephant, he had a tendency to listen to whichever trainer whispered in his ear."
In comparing the relative world experiences of Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, Morris summarized TR's resume:
Roosevelt had gone on four grand tours of Europe and the Middle East before he was thirty, amassing an international circle of acquaintance that now extended from emperors down to his barefoot camaradas in Brazil. He could converse in three languages and read in four. He had been blessed by a Pope, honored by the mullahs of Al-Azhar, and asked to mediate an international war. He had heard Casals play Bach, confronted Cubism, and watched the gyrations of snake priests and Diaghilev's dancers -- not to mention the goose-steps of German troops at Doberitz. He had killed a man in battle and just four months before, on the shore of a river unknown to any cartographer, confronted death itself.
Wilson, by comparison, Morris tells us, had been to Bermuda.
Morris is arguably at his best in painting the sadness that crept into and over Roosevelt in his last years, as he confronted his own decline in health and mind, the loss of a son, and perhaps worst of all, Doubt.
With global erudition, worthy of his subject, Morris sprinkles foreign phrases into his writing which enhance but do not condescend. He does not, however, speak Baseball. So I did a quadruple-take when I tripped over his observation of "Ty Cobb, champion slugger of the Detroit American League." (sic.)
Colonel Roosevelt is a great conclusion to a remarkable literary accomplishment!
In this, the concluding book of a three-volume masterpiece, Edmund Morris tells the story of Theodore Roosevelt in 1910, an ex-president fresh from an African adventure and whirlwind European tour, returning to the United States on a steamer. Roosevelt agreed to preach a lay sermon to the first-class passengers at a Sunday service. He felt uncomfortable that worship was not provided for lower-class passengers so arrangements were made for him to go to the bottom deck. There, in steerage, he found more than a thousand Polish immigrants crowded around a makeshift altar. The only light in the windowless space came from candles. Through a Polish priest he told the excited throng, "how earnestly he wished the adventure into the new land would be a turning-point in their lives; wished that they might find there all their dreams had painted for them; and how earnestly he, as a citizen of the great republic, welcomed them to see it."
I wonder. Perhaps Babcha was there as that embodiment of action and wonder welcomed them. And perhaps also that is how my fascination for that man got in my DNA.
I was a little Theodore-ed out after plowing through Douglas Brinkley's The Wilderness Warrior but Morris woke me up with that mid-ocean anecdote. Good thing, because there are gems of great writing, wonderful character sketches and a thought-provoking overview in this book. Patricia O'Toole wrote of the same period in TR's life faultlessly in When Trumpets Call. Yet there is something special in Morris' treatment.
Like many well-born men with a social conscience, Roosevelt liked to think that he empathized with the poor. He was democratic, in a detached, affable way. However, his rare exposures to squalor had been either voyeuristic, as when he encouraged Jacob Riis to show him "how the other half lived," or vicarious, as when he recoiled from the "hideous human swine" in the works of Emile Zola.
What did Roosevelt think of Charles Evan Hughes? Morris tells us, "He did not like Hughes, but then neither did anybody at close range. It was impossible to warm to a man who exuded such cold correctness, and grinned with horse-toothed insincerity." Of William Howard Taft, Morris writes, "When convinced of the rightness of a course of action, Taft pushed all obstacles out of his way, like an elephant rolling logs. However, again like an elephant, he had a tendency to listen to whichever trainer whispered in his ear."
In comparing the relative world experiences of Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, Morris summarized TR's resume:
Roosevelt had gone on four grand tours of Europe and the Middle East before he was thirty, amassing an international circle of acquaintance that now extended from emperors down to his barefoot camaradas in Brazil. He could converse in three languages and read in four. He had been blessed by a Pope, honored by the mullahs of Al-Azhar, and asked to mediate an international war. He had heard Casals play Bach, confronted Cubism, and watched the gyrations of snake priests and Diaghilev's dancers -- not to mention the goose-steps of German troops at Doberitz. He had killed a man in battle and just four months before, on the shore of a river unknown to any cartographer, confronted death itself.
Wilson, by comparison, Morris tells us, had been to Bermuda.
Morris is arguably at his best in painting the sadness that crept into and over Roosevelt in his last years, as he confronted his own decline in health and mind, the loss of a son, and perhaps worst of all, Doubt.
With global erudition, worthy of his subject, Morris sprinkles foreign phrases into his writing which enhance but do not condescend. He does not, however, speak Baseball. So I did a quadruple-take when I tripped over his observation of "Ty Cobb, champion slugger of the Detroit American League." (sic.)
Colonel Roosevelt is a great conclusion to a remarkable literary accomplishment!
January 28, 2014
Now that's what I'm talking about! This is the book I was hoping for when I read "Theodore Rex." Morris really lets you know the history AND the man in this one.
Roosevelt was such an interesting guy. Morris makes it clear that he really only started the Bull Moose Party as a big screw you to Taft just because Taft wasn't doing things the way he wanted them done. For all intents and purposes Roosevelt handed the election to Wilson.
It would have been very interesting to see what Roosevelt would have done if he were president when WWI broke out. It seems clear to me that he was war crazy and would have gotten the U.S. involved immediately. I'm so glad he didn't because I think he literally didn't understand modern warfare. He kept trying to get Wilson to send him over to fight the Germans with a regiment of calvary...on horseback! Teddy, they had machine guns and zeppelins, you'd have been smoked!
Roosevelt really comes across as a petulant man-child who never grew up and trusted no one to lead but himself. He kept wanting people to beg him to come back. It got sad as that cycle kept repeating with diminishing returns.
The ultimate ironic sadness was that Roosevelt wanted to be killed in battle and his son ended up dying in his stead. Only then did Roosevelt seem to contemplate what the cost of war really was but shortly thereafter he died.
I think Roosevelt is so fondly remembered because he was a rebel. But we must remember that rebel is the nice word for asshole when it is someone you don't like.
Great overall book that lost a star because of the unfair and inaccurate depiction of Wilson. A great read.
Roosevelt was such an interesting guy. Morris makes it clear that he really only started the Bull Moose Party as a big screw you to Taft just because Taft wasn't doing things the way he wanted them done. For all intents and purposes Roosevelt handed the election to Wilson.
It would have been very interesting to see what Roosevelt would have done if he were president when WWI broke out. It seems clear to me that he was war crazy and would have gotten the U.S. involved immediately. I'm so glad he didn't because I think he literally didn't understand modern warfare. He kept trying to get Wilson to send him over to fight the Germans with a regiment of calvary...on horseback! Teddy, they had machine guns and zeppelins, you'd have been smoked!
Roosevelt really comes across as a petulant man-child who never grew up and trusted no one to lead but himself. He kept wanting people to beg him to come back. It got sad as that cycle kept repeating with diminishing returns.
The ultimate ironic sadness was that Roosevelt wanted to be killed in battle and his son ended up dying in his stead. Only then did Roosevelt seem to contemplate what the cost of war really was but shortly thereafter he died.
I think Roosevelt is so fondly remembered because he was a rebel. But we must remember that rebel is the nice word for asshole when it is someone you don't like.
Great overall book that lost a star because of the unfair and inaccurate depiction of Wilson. A great read.
December 31, 2024
I was not expecting to get this book read as quickly as I did, but this book had me reading it at every spare moment. I read the first two books in this series a long time ago (before this one was even written), and the first book in the series is one of the best books I've ever read. This third book is a fantastic ending to this subject who is for my money the most fascinating character in American history. In the words of another TR biographer from earlier days, "the man was gigantic." Morris had a gifted writing style and clearly spent decades researching Roosevelt with a scholarly fervor. These books are some of the finest work I have read on one of the great subjects in history. If looking for a biography work that won't disappoint, I can't recommend better work than these three books.
April 1, 2014
I'M BAAAACK (OR WAS I NEVER GONE?)!
A highly suitable alternate title for the last of the Morris biographical trilogy on Teddy Roosevelt. It sees readers delve into the ever-present world of Theodore Roosevelt and his ever-evolving political life, even after seemingly drifting into the sunset. Like the zombie who cannot be slain (if one thinks of the pop culture literary themes today), Roosevelt reappears countless times to infer his own flavour of knowledge and annoy those seeking to lay new political and social foundations for America.
The ongoing expansion of my knowledge of historical figures has me tackling the post-presidential period of Roosevelt's life, ten years full of as much adventure as can be expected (and more) from one man so in touch with the world and those around him. Morris uses extensive research to give wonderful narratives and presents key themes throughout the last volume of this epic piece of non-fiction. Three overarching themes--the worldly man, the permanent politician, and advocate for sustained superpowerness-- help advance Morris's argument that Roosevelt was truly one of the most influential men of the early 20th century and used that popularity to shape the United States heading into the Great War.
The third and final volume, reviewed here, encompasses the last decade of Roosevelt's life, from 1909 to 1919. Morris picks up the thread of the previous volume, exploring the life of a recently retired president moving into the private sphere. Taking time to venture over to Africa, Roosevelt hunts wild game and soaks up the life away from the press and the limelight. He relishes this time away, when few know his name or who he was in ages past. However, Morris juxtaposes this with early chapters of Roosevelt steamrolling through Europe, making speeches at Oxford and giving tidbits of political insight to any who will listen. It may astonish the reader, as well, to see how freely and openly the European monarchs bring him into their fold, especially those of highest importance in the early 20th century (Wilhelm II of Germany, Edward VI/George V of the United Kingdom, and Archduke Franz Ferdinand), as though he were one of them. Morris aptly titled the previous volume Theodore Rex, which exemplifies this high standard on the world scene while he also ran a strong country at home while in the White House. His popularity exceeds that of President Taft, shown repeatedly throughout the text. Invitations and trips to South America, at the request of presidents and generals alike, further the argument that his popularity reaches to all corners of the globe.
Morris also explores the political roots that Roosevelt planted for himself, such that he was unable to divorce himself from the competitive side of things, even after leaving the White House. Through acute queries by media and social commentary that Roosevelt seemed unable to keep to himself, Morris weaves a story of Roosevelt as the ultimate detractor from Taft's first term. Roosevelt constantly found ways to critique Taft's style and decisions in order to embarrass and weaken the resolve of the POTUS. With powerful story-telling abilities, Morris depicts Roosevelt's involvement in the 1910 mid-term elections and the rise of Democratic power in Congress that faced Taft in the aftermath, as well as the 1912 presidential campaign. More detailed and thorough than any of the other political campaigns Morris examines in the Roosevelt trilogy, 1912 turns the political drama of a presidential campaign into something for the ages, with Roosevelt in the middle of the fray. With Taft and Wilson as other key actors, Roosevelt forges ahead like a bull moose, all in the hopes of feeding his political addiction. Seeking political power at every turn, Roosevelt opens the arena and challenges the deeply rooted ideologies of the two main powers. Leaving friends and foes in his wake, Roosevelt takes no prisoners in his attempts to stay in power at any cost. The reader will note that Roosevelt's 'political itch' arises every two years, following the political campaign cycle of America, always willing to speak out or write an article to jab at opponents, no matter their political colours. Pulled in to the fray, sure to change the campaign's direction, Roosevelt shows that his political acumen cannot be matched.
Morris raises a third and perhaps most important theme, in which he examines the role of America's superpower status after Roosevelt left office. Examining some of the national and international policies of America on the world scene receive much attention throughout, perhaps litmus tests for the larger argument. Taft is left to flail in the wind and his policies cannot be properly compared to Roosevelt's, as the latter chooses to crucify any and every comment that came from the White House. This was surely one of the reasons Roosevelt could not sit on the sidelines when '10 and '12 came along, giving Roosevelt the chance to change the make-up of Congress (and the POTUS) to rip the power away from Taft's mangled hands. As noted above, Taft did not even have the needed ties of the European leaders (both monarchs and elected) to forge ahead and hold the superpower status. When Woodrow Wilson took over in the White House, he soon found himself peering over to Europe, where a powder keg awaited. Morris builds the tension effectively (in the interlude between both parts of the biography) between the overly passive Wilson and the superpower sustaining Roosevelt. Subtle criticism from Roosevelt (and Morris through him) shows that Wilson's isolationist stance does little to advance the superpower title, leaving Roosevelt to toss invectives into the discussion to spurn on Wilson's move towards war. While Wilson sought peace and began talking about a collective of nations to negotiate situations and leave war in the past, Roosevelt saw little benefit to this academic approach, especially as the world looked to America to flex its muscle and keep the German military might from overtaking its European counterparts. Alas, it took so long and left so many Americans dead before Wilson would realise the need.
Stepping back and looking at the overall biography, through its three volumes, Morris does a highly effective job in painting a powerful and thoroughly entertaining narrative about Teddy Roosevelt. From his early days, Roosevelt sought to satiate his hunger for knowledge in any way he could, from nature, politics, and even literature. These strong themes flow freely from one chapter (and volume) to the next and build on one another to push the narrative forward. Seen as the conservationist in the history books, Morris surely supports this, but not only in its traditional (environmental) sense. Roosevelt pushed to conserve much of what he deemed important in life, including the deeply rooted political stances he held firm. One cannot finish the biography and wonder how political a man Roosevelt became and how passionate he was about its reform and progressive angles. Roosevelt was, and is, surely as interesting a man as his fifth cousin by blood and nephew by law; and surely could have run four terms had things been a little different for him, at least in Morris's view.
Kudos are due Edmund Morris for his highly entertaining biography that is full of historical and political narrative to support the chronological list of events. I learned a great deal and have a newer respect for Theodore Roosevelt, which serves to support Morris and all he sought to do. This commitment, though long, is well worth the reader's time and effort.
A highly suitable alternate title for the last of the Morris biographical trilogy on Teddy Roosevelt. It sees readers delve into the ever-present world of Theodore Roosevelt and his ever-evolving political life, even after seemingly drifting into the sunset. Like the zombie who cannot be slain (if one thinks of the pop culture literary themes today), Roosevelt reappears countless times to infer his own flavour of knowledge and annoy those seeking to lay new political and social foundations for America.
The ongoing expansion of my knowledge of historical figures has me tackling the post-presidential period of Roosevelt's life, ten years full of as much adventure as can be expected (and more) from one man so in touch with the world and those around him. Morris uses extensive research to give wonderful narratives and presents key themes throughout the last volume of this epic piece of non-fiction. Three overarching themes--the worldly man, the permanent politician, and advocate for sustained superpowerness-- help advance Morris's argument that Roosevelt was truly one of the most influential men of the early 20th century and used that popularity to shape the United States heading into the Great War.
The third and final volume, reviewed here, encompasses the last decade of Roosevelt's life, from 1909 to 1919. Morris picks up the thread of the previous volume, exploring the life of a recently retired president moving into the private sphere. Taking time to venture over to Africa, Roosevelt hunts wild game and soaks up the life away from the press and the limelight. He relishes this time away, when few know his name or who he was in ages past. However, Morris juxtaposes this with early chapters of Roosevelt steamrolling through Europe, making speeches at Oxford and giving tidbits of political insight to any who will listen. It may astonish the reader, as well, to see how freely and openly the European monarchs bring him into their fold, especially those of highest importance in the early 20th century (Wilhelm II of Germany, Edward VI/George V of the United Kingdom, and Archduke Franz Ferdinand), as though he were one of them. Morris aptly titled the previous volume Theodore Rex, which exemplifies this high standard on the world scene while he also ran a strong country at home while in the White House. His popularity exceeds that of President Taft, shown repeatedly throughout the text. Invitations and trips to South America, at the request of presidents and generals alike, further the argument that his popularity reaches to all corners of the globe.
Morris also explores the political roots that Roosevelt planted for himself, such that he was unable to divorce himself from the competitive side of things, even after leaving the White House. Through acute queries by media and social commentary that Roosevelt seemed unable to keep to himself, Morris weaves a story of Roosevelt as the ultimate detractor from Taft's first term. Roosevelt constantly found ways to critique Taft's style and decisions in order to embarrass and weaken the resolve of the POTUS. With powerful story-telling abilities, Morris depicts Roosevelt's involvement in the 1910 mid-term elections and the rise of Democratic power in Congress that faced Taft in the aftermath, as well as the 1912 presidential campaign. More detailed and thorough than any of the other political campaigns Morris examines in the Roosevelt trilogy, 1912 turns the political drama of a presidential campaign into something for the ages, with Roosevelt in the middle of the fray. With Taft and Wilson as other key actors, Roosevelt forges ahead like a bull moose, all in the hopes of feeding his political addiction. Seeking political power at every turn, Roosevelt opens the arena and challenges the deeply rooted ideologies of the two main powers. Leaving friends and foes in his wake, Roosevelt takes no prisoners in his attempts to stay in power at any cost. The reader will note that Roosevelt's 'political itch' arises every two years, following the political campaign cycle of America, always willing to speak out or write an article to jab at opponents, no matter their political colours. Pulled in to the fray, sure to change the campaign's direction, Roosevelt shows that his political acumen cannot be matched.
Morris raises a third and perhaps most important theme, in which he examines the role of America's superpower status after Roosevelt left office. Examining some of the national and international policies of America on the world scene receive much attention throughout, perhaps litmus tests for the larger argument. Taft is left to flail in the wind and his policies cannot be properly compared to Roosevelt's, as the latter chooses to crucify any and every comment that came from the White House. This was surely one of the reasons Roosevelt could not sit on the sidelines when '10 and '12 came along, giving Roosevelt the chance to change the make-up of Congress (and the POTUS) to rip the power away from Taft's mangled hands. As noted above, Taft did not even have the needed ties of the European leaders (both monarchs and elected) to forge ahead and hold the superpower status. When Woodrow Wilson took over in the White House, he soon found himself peering over to Europe, where a powder keg awaited. Morris builds the tension effectively (in the interlude between both parts of the biography) between the overly passive Wilson and the superpower sustaining Roosevelt. Subtle criticism from Roosevelt (and Morris through him) shows that Wilson's isolationist stance does little to advance the superpower title, leaving Roosevelt to toss invectives into the discussion to spurn on Wilson's move towards war. While Wilson sought peace and began talking about a collective of nations to negotiate situations and leave war in the past, Roosevelt saw little benefit to this academic approach, especially as the world looked to America to flex its muscle and keep the German military might from overtaking its European counterparts. Alas, it took so long and left so many Americans dead before Wilson would realise the need.
Stepping back and looking at the overall biography, through its three volumes, Morris does a highly effective job in painting a powerful and thoroughly entertaining narrative about Teddy Roosevelt. From his early days, Roosevelt sought to satiate his hunger for knowledge in any way he could, from nature, politics, and even literature. These strong themes flow freely from one chapter (and volume) to the next and build on one another to push the narrative forward. Seen as the conservationist in the history books, Morris surely supports this, but not only in its traditional (environmental) sense. Roosevelt pushed to conserve much of what he deemed important in life, including the deeply rooted political stances he held firm. One cannot finish the biography and wonder how political a man Roosevelt became and how passionate he was about its reform and progressive angles. Roosevelt was, and is, surely as interesting a man as his fifth cousin by blood and nephew by law; and surely could have run four terms had things been a little different for him, at least in Morris's view.
Kudos are due Edmund Morris for his highly entertaining biography that is full of historical and political narrative to support the chronological list of events. I learned a great deal and have a newer respect for Theodore Roosevelt, which serves to support Morris and all he sought to do. This commitment, though long, is well worth the reader's time and effort.
January 10, 2011
This is the third and final volume of Edmund Morris’ superb Pulitzer Prize winning biography of Theodore Roosevelt. Though the period covered here is a mere eight years (1910 to 1919) from post-presidency to death, it exhibits all of the range, excitement and exuberance of the two earlier volumes because at its core it has the larger than life – the “polygonal personality” – of sportsman, explorer, author, speechmaker, statesman, politician Teddy Roosevelt. What a romp!
After a five month African safari to “wind down” after the presidency, Roosevelt, who preferred the appellation “Colonel” to “President,” makes a grand tour of Europe. He was so popular, that, according to Morris, “even the Calvinist Academy of Geneva was threatening hospitality.” Perhaps Roosevelt’s most famous speech was delivered on this trip, at the Sorbonne: “The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena …”
While all seemed to be in adoration of the Colonel, the favor was not always returned. On Norway: “ a funny little a kingdom as ever imagined outside of opera bouffe (comic) … it is much as if Vermont should off-hand try the experiment of having a king.”
Theodoros in Greek connoted a man gifted by the gods with equal quantities positivity and personal courage. Here are some demonstrating examples of Colonel Roosevelt:
On the classic put-down of his former head of the Parks Service, Pinchot: “Sir, when I spoke of the Progressive Party as having a lunatic fringe, I specifically had you in mind.”
On a 1916 campaign swing to isolationist Kansas City: “I have been enthusiastically received – save for one playful Latin-American gentleman who threw a knife at me.” (This from a man who was shot in the 1912 campaign and delivered a speech before seeking medical assistance.)
On Roosevelt wanting to fight at the age of 58 in the First World War: “I (Roosevelt) told Wilson that I would die on the field of battle, that I would never return if only he would let me go!”
“If you could really convince the President of that,” Elihu Root said, “I’m quite sure he would send you at once.”
Reflecting on Wilson’s summer residence, Shadow Lawn, Roosevelt in a speech at the Cooper Union excoriated the President’s lack of preparedness for the First World War: “Those are the shadows proper for Shadow Lawn: the shadows of deeds that were never done; the shadows of lofty words that were followed by no action; the shadows of the tortured dead.”
From his wife, Edith: “Now, Theodore. That is one of those remarks that make it so difficult sometimes for your friends to defend you.”
The Roosevelt wit has certainly affected his biographer in a positive way. Here he is on the 1916 Presidential campaign: The future of America was in the hands of two cagey deliberators. Wilson and Hughes were men who waited for events to happen and then reacted. They lacked (Roosevelt’s) ability to see events coming and act accordingly, faster than anyone else on the political scene. Morris on Presidential candidate Charles Evan Hughes, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court: “the only virtue he lacked, in abundance, was charm.”
But Wilson was given a moment to be more than the butt of Roosevelt’s scorn when Morris correctly gave a significant excerpt from WW’s 1st inaugural address which is prophetic even for our times: “The great government we loved has too often been made use of for private and selfish purposes, and those who used it had forgotten the people. There has been something crude and heartless and unfeeling in our haste to succeed and be great. Our thought has been, “Let every man look out for himself; let every generation look out of itself,” while we reared giant machinery which made it impossible that any but those who stood at the levers of control should have a chance to look out for themselves…”
Roosevelt, the creator of the National Parks, was most eloquent on Conservation: “The extermination of the passenger-pigeon meant that mankind was just so much poorer; exactly as in the case of the destruction of the cathedral at Reims (during WWI). And to lost he chance to see the frigate-birds soaring in circles above the storm, or a flight of pelicans winging their way homeward across the crimson afterglow of the sunset; or a myriad terns flashing in the bright light of midday as they hover in a shifting maze above the beach – why, the loss is like the loss of a gallery of the masterpieces of the artists of old time.”
“The Works of Theodore Roosevelt” a memorial edition published posthumously in 24 volumes. Merely to divide that number into the years of Roosevelt’s adult life, allowing for the fact that he spent nearly eight years as president is to be persuaded by William Allen White’s remark: “The man was gigantic.”
At one of the many memorials held after The Colonel’s death, the French Ambassador gave an eloquent description of the Roosevelt: “a man who could be in every way likened to radium, for warmth, force, and light emanated from him and no spending of it could ever diminish his store.”
In perhaps Edmund Morris’ most endearing humility, this great biographer of this great man, gave the final word and the final salute to a small boy from Cove School, just down the road from the Roosevelt home on Sagamore Hill, Long Island. Tommy Maher, as part of a class exercise paying tribute to the late Colonel, comes closer to the truth than all the million of other words written about Theodore Roosevelt (including the author’s own) when he wrote: “He was the fulfiller of good intentions.”
After a five month African safari to “wind down” after the presidency, Roosevelt, who preferred the appellation “Colonel” to “President,” makes a grand tour of Europe. He was so popular, that, according to Morris, “even the Calvinist Academy of Geneva was threatening hospitality.” Perhaps Roosevelt’s most famous speech was delivered on this trip, at the Sorbonne: “The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena …”
While all seemed to be in adoration of the Colonel, the favor was not always returned. On Norway: “ a funny little a kingdom as ever imagined outside of opera bouffe (comic) … it is much as if Vermont should off-hand try the experiment of having a king.”
Theodoros in Greek connoted a man gifted by the gods with equal quantities positivity and personal courage. Here are some demonstrating examples of Colonel Roosevelt:
On the classic put-down of his former head of the Parks Service, Pinchot: “Sir, when I spoke of the Progressive Party as having a lunatic fringe, I specifically had you in mind.”
On a 1916 campaign swing to isolationist Kansas City: “I have been enthusiastically received – save for one playful Latin-American gentleman who threw a knife at me.” (This from a man who was shot in the 1912 campaign and delivered a speech before seeking medical assistance.)
On Roosevelt wanting to fight at the age of 58 in the First World War: “I (Roosevelt) told Wilson that I would die on the field of battle, that I would never return if only he would let me go!”
“If you could really convince the President of that,” Elihu Root said, “I’m quite sure he would send you at once.”
Reflecting on Wilson’s summer residence, Shadow Lawn, Roosevelt in a speech at the Cooper Union excoriated the President’s lack of preparedness for the First World War: “Those are the shadows proper for Shadow Lawn: the shadows of deeds that were never done; the shadows of lofty words that were followed by no action; the shadows of the tortured dead.”
From his wife, Edith: “Now, Theodore. That is one of those remarks that make it so difficult sometimes for your friends to defend you.”
The Roosevelt wit has certainly affected his biographer in a positive way. Here he is on the 1916 Presidential campaign: The future of America was in the hands of two cagey deliberators. Wilson and Hughes were men who waited for events to happen and then reacted. They lacked (Roosevelt’s) ability to see events coming and act accordingly, faster than anyone else on the political scene. Morris on Presidential candidate Charles Evan Hughes, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court: “the only virtue he lacked, in abundance, was charm.”
But Wilson was given a moment to be more than the butt of Roosevelt’s scorn when Morris correctly gave a significant excerpt from WW’s 1st inaugural address which is prophetic even for our times: “The great government we loved has too often been made use of for private and selfish purposes, and those who used it had forgotten the people. There has been something crude and heartless and unfeeling in our haste to succeed and be great. Our thought has been, “Let every man look out for himself; let every generation look out of itself,” while we reared giant machinery which made it impossible that any but those who stood at the levers of control should have a chance to look out for themselves…”
Roosevelt, the creator of the National Parks, was most eloquent on Conservation: “The extermination of the passenger-pigeon meant that mankind was just so much poorer; exactly as in the case of the destruction of the cathedral at Reims (during WWI). And to lost he chance to see the frigate-birds soaring in circles above the storm, or a flight of pelicans winging their way homeward across the crimson afterglow of the sunset; or a myriad terns flashing in the bright light of midday as they hover in a shifting maze above the beach – why, the loss is like the loss of a gallery of the masterpieces of the artists of old time.”
“The Works of Theodore Roosevelt” a memorial edition published posthumously in 24 volumes. Merely to divide that number into the years of Roosevelt’s adult life, allowing for the fact that he spent nearly eight years as president is to be persuaded by William Allen White’s remark: “The man was gigantic.”
At one of the many memorials held after The Colonel’s death, the French Ambassador gave an eloquent description of the Roosevelt: “a man who could be in every way likened to radium, for warmth, force, and light emanated from him and no spending of it could ever diminish his store.”
In perhaps Edmund Morris’ most endearing humility, this great biographer of this great man, gave the final word and the final salute to a small boy from Cove School, just down the road from the Roosevelt home on Sagamore Hill, Long Island. Tommy Maher, as part of a class exercise paying tribute to the late Colonel, comes closer to the truth than all the million of other words written about Theodore Roosevelt (including the author’s own) when he wrote: “He was the fulfiller of good intentions.”
February 14, 2021
(Audio) I really enjoyed the last several months of slowly journeying through the three volumes of Morris' Roosevelt biography. Volume 1: 4.5/5 stars; Volume 2: 4.0/5; Volume 3: 4.25/5. Roosevelt's post-presidency years in Volume 3 harken back to some of his most defining characteristics and beliefs explored in the pre-presidency Volume 1, especially drawn out by the events of the Great War.
“Because Roosevelt was 'polygonal,' visitors saw only certain facets of his personality at any given time.”
“He is a great big boy," Woodrow Wilson said. "There is a sweetness about him that is very compelling. You can't resist the man. I can easily understand why his followers are so fond of him.”
“Because Roosevelt was 'polygonal,' visitors saw only certain facets of his personality at any given time.”
“He is a great big boy," Woodrow Wilson said. "There is a sweetness about him that is very compelling. You can't resist the man. I can easily understand why his followers are so fond of him.”
October 20, 2020
4.5. Hard to recapture the whirlwind of Morris’s first volume on TR’s life, which chronicles his meteoric rise to the presidency. The third and final volume chronicles the descent, of life away from power, of unfulfilled ambition, of decline, loss, and death. TR is one of my favorite presidents—this “man in the arena” who lived life to the brim—and Morris’s trilogy does him justice.
December 4, 2010
A wonderful conclusion to Edmund Morris' trilogy, the biography of Theodore Roosevelt. Here he is, warts and all (and there are surely warts to be seen).
The work starts off after TR has left the White House to become "citizen Roosevelt." We see him leaving for an African tour, replete with many animal trophies from his hunting prowess. He made a tour of Europe, in which he was hailed by national leaders of all stripes--from monarchs to democratically elected officials. The visits from one country to another were a great event in the Old World, with TR being lionized. Some of his speeches ruffled feathers, as he was not always diplomatic. But that seemed itself to energize responses to him. One chapter, indeed, is entitled "The Most Famous Man in the World."
Upon his return to the United States, we learn of the slow dissolution of his relationship with then President William Howard Taft. The two were simply very different people, with distinct temperaments, energy levels, and policy views. What was a rift became a chasm, and the book tells the story well of how Roosevelt and Taft went from somewhat friendly to political enemies, culminating in TR's quixotic bid to win the Republican nomination in 1912. Roosevelt felt that Taft had betrayed key principles of progressivism and sought to wrest party control away from Taft and his allies. The political turbulence described in the book also includes Roosevelt's effort to reform the New York state Republican policy; he ended up bruised and defeated. The point? Roosevelt had a hard time getting politics out of his blood.
After his failure to win the Republican nomination, of course, he rapidly (and it appears nearly miraculous that he did it with the help of key supporters) created a "third party" and ran as what came to be called the "Bull Moose party." He understood that he was unlikely to win, but felt that the effort was necessary for the political system. The end result? Woodrow Wilson became the first Democratic president since Grover Cleveland's second term.
The book continues with the post-election life of Roosevelt. He was proud that his sons joined the military in World War I, and experienced tragedy as a result. Then, the book concludes with his precipitous physical decline, stunning for one so physical and his death at sixty--the age at which he had predicted his own death so many years before.
Morris, as a biographer, can be idiosyncratic. He is capable of being very judgmental (note his negativity toward Taft). However, this work is extremely well done and concludes most successfully his mammoth biographical project.
The work starts off after TR has left the White House to become "citizen Roosevelt." We see him leaving for an African tour, replete with many animal trophies from his hunting prowess. He made a tour of Europe, in which he was hailed by national leaders of all stripes--from monarchs to democratically elected officials. The visits from one country to another were a great event in the Old World, with TR being lionized. Some of his speeches ruffled feathers, as he was not always diplomatic. But that seemed itself to energize responses to him. One chapter, indeed, is entitled "The Most Famous Man in the World."
Upon his return to the United States, we learn of the slow dissolution of his relationship with then President William Howard Taft. The two were simply very different people, with distinct temperaments, energy levels, and policy views. What was a rift became a chasm, and the book tells the story well of how Roosevelt and Taft went from somewhat friendly to political enemies, culminating in TR's quixotic bid to win the Republican nomination in 1912. Roosevelt felt that Taft had betrayed key principles of progressivism and sought to wrest party control away from Taft and his allies. The political turbulence described in the book also includes Roosevelt's effort to reform the New York state Republican policy; he ended up bruised and defeated. The point? Roosevelt had a hard time getting politics out of his blood.
After his failure to win the Republican nomination, of course, he rapidly (and it appears nearly miraculous that he did it with the help of key supporters) created a "third party" and ran as what came to be called the "Bull Moose party." He understood that he was unlikely to win, but felt that the effort was necessary for the political system. The end result? Woodrow Wilson became the first Democratic president since Grover Cleveland's second term.
The book continues with the post-election life of Roosevelt. He was proud that his sons joined the military in World War I, and experienced tragedy as a result. Then, the book concludes with his precipitous physical decline, stunning for one so physical and his death at sixty--the age at which he had predicted his own death so many years before.
Morris, as a biographer, can be idiosyncratic. He is capable of being very judgmental (note his negativity toward Taft). However, this work is extremely well done and concludes most successfully his mammoth biographical project.
October 6, 2015
It has been so long since I read Morris' previous volumes on Theodore Roosevelt and I've been waiting for this volume for so long that I had forgotten just how wonderfully written this whole series has been. Theodore Roosevelt, the Lion of American history, has been fully realized by this author and this volume along with the preceding ones deserve to be considered as THE definitive works on the man's life. This final volume covers the last ten years of Roosevelt's life following his departure from the White House in 1909. All of the great events and small, intimate moments are covered. From Roosevelt's expeditions through Africa and Brazil and his third party candidacy for the President in 1912, to his final denouement during World War I, everything is vividly realized in prose that will strike even the most erudite dumb. Not only that, but Mr. Morris seems to convey a thematic arc in Roosevelt's final decade with incredible sublimity. The first half of the book builds up to the 1912 election, where Roosevelt is at the peak of his post-presidential influence. Then everything starts to go steadily downhill from his health, devastated by a would-be assassin's bullet and disease in South America, to his reputation, never fully recovering after his bolt from the Republican party, to his ideals, smashed by his son's, Quentin's, death in 1918. But , through it all, Theodore Roosevelt stands out as the great man he undoubtedly was. Though the vocabulary, with its recurring use of Latin and French phrases, may be a little robust for the average reader, every American owes a debt of gratitude to Mr. Morris for bringing Theodore Roosevelt back to the forefront of the American conscience.
October 28, 2024
The weakest of the three volumes by a long shot, but compelling nonetheless. Woodrow Wilson is the worst fr.
May 13, 2012
It took me awhile, but I finally finished this, the final section in Edmund Morris's splendid tripartite biography of Theodore Roosevelt. In some ways, I guess after leaving office, TR found the approval in the rest of the world that he could not as readily find at home. Whether he was killing hundreds of animals on safari in Africa, going on a quest in South America to map an uncharted river (and nearly dying in the process), or attending the state funeral of King Edward VII, Roosevelt found a way to relate to the people around him on a level that touched them deeply.
TR was very much a man of his time, and the last ten years of his life in particular, the times were changing. For example, he went to the famous Armory show in New York, puzzling his way through art forms totally alien to the Belle Époque style to which he was accustomed. To his credit, he was able to find artists in the show with whom he shared a resonance and (mostly) favorably reviewed the show in a national magazine. Also, when the world turned its back on Edgar Lee Masters, TR found him small government jobs for years to keep Masters from starving to death. Both felt vindicated when The Spoon River Anthology was a success.
Much of this book is taken up with politicking, because TR never stopped, or people would never let him stop, being immersed in politics. At Edward VII's funeral, heads of state were seeking his counsel, and many believe that if he had been more involved in American diplomacy, he could have prevented World War I. TR also had an ongoing sour/sweet relationship with William Howard Taft, who followed him as President. Then, of course, there is TR's campaign for President on the Progressive Party ticket, and the fact that had he lived, he probably would have been a candidate for President again on the Republican Party ticket in the subsequent election.
Roosevelt was impulsive: he tended to leap, then look. He made a number of mistakes both in and out of office. However, he was a man of boundless energy, charisma, curiosity, and charm. He was also a voracious reader, a prodigious writer, and a devoted family man. At the end of his days, World War I claimed the life of one of his sons, and two others were wounded. That experience, along with a lifetime of injuries, infections and sicknesses, led to a weakening of his heart. It was said that he "died of a broken heart in more ways than one."
Although biographies of Roosevelt continue to be written, Morris's work is that against which all others will be measured. As TR himself might have said, Morris did a "bully" job of depicting the life and times of a man whose world view was so vastly panoramic, it stretched damn near to infinity.
TR was very much a man of his time, and the last ten years of his life in particular, the times were changing. For example, he went to the famous Armory show in New York, puzzling his way through art forms totally alien to the Belle Époque style to which he was accustomed. To his credit, he was able to find artists in the show with whom he shared a resonance and (mostly) favorably reviewed the show in a national magazine. Also, when the world turned its back on Edgar Lee Masters, TR found him small government jobs for years to keep Masters from starving to death. Both felt vindicated when The Spoon River Anthology was a success.
Much of this book is taken up with politicking, because TR never stopped, or people would never let him stop, being immersed in politics. At Edward VII's funeral, heads of state were seeking his counsel, and many believe that if he had been more involved in American diplomacy, he could have prevented World War I. TR also had an ongoing sour/sweet relationship with William Howard Taft, who followed him as President. Then, of course, there is TR's campaign for President on the Progressive Party ticket, and the fact that had he lived, he probably would have been a candidate for President again on the Republican Party ticket in the subsequent election.
Roosevelt was impulsive: he tended to leap, then look. He made a number of mistakes both in and out of office. However, he was a man of boundless energy, charisma, curiosity, and charm. He was also a voracious reader, a prodigious writer, and a devoted family man. At the end of his days, World War I claimed the life of one of his sons, and two others were wounded. That experience, along with a lifetime of injuries, infections and sicknesses, led to a weakening of his heart. It was said that he "died of a broken heart in more ways than one."
Although biographies of Roosevelt continue to be written, Morris's work is that against which all others will be measured. As TR himself might have said, Morris did a "bully" job of depicting the life and times of a man whose world view was so vastly panoramic, it stretched damn near to infinity.
September 11, 2020
Volume 3 and the finale of the TR series, took a little longer to get through compared to the first 2 in the series. Nonetheless, it did not make it that much enjoyable. There are 2 parts to the book, though seemed more like 3. This takes us from TR post-presidency, 1910-1919. His vigor for adventure and exploration are captured in the 1st part of the book going through Africa, and in part 2 in the Amazon.
His political aspirations has him run for the Republican nomination in 1912, but loses to Taft in the primary, thereby, setting up the Bull Moose Party, or the Progressives. This section was slow for me. President Roosevelt, became more of a progressive, and his positions would be complex in today's political arena, but in all, he would be considered a moderate. Liberal on some issues, conservative on others.
The latter half of the book, dealing with WW1 and his kids, and involvement of trying to light a fire under Woodrow Wilson to get the U.S. to build up an army and send volunteers to Europe, was more readable and faster paced.
During this time, we see TR's health decline, especially after the visit to the jungles of South America. Morris does a good job of showing the positive and negative emotions of Teddy. His love of nature and children, eclipsed at times, by his disdain for those who do not agree with him (and usually TR is right in the end).
Toward the end of the book we see TR lose his youngest in WW1, and he starts to decline faster.
The epilogue covers the funeral and what happens to the rest of the Roosevelt clan following Teddy's death in January 1919, as well as TR's place in history, written by other authors. As with history, opinions of the day change on how our leaders in the past acted and what they did or didn't do.
In the end, Teddy was complex and for me a bright spot in American History. I highly recommend this 3 volume series by Edmund Morris.
His political aspirations has him run for the Republican nomination in 1912, but loses to Taft in the primary, thereby, setting up the Bull Moose Party, or the Progressives. This section was slow for me. President Roosevelt, became more of a progressive, and his positions would be complex in today's political arena, but in all, he would be considered a moderate. Liberal on some issues, conservative on others.
The latter half of the book, dealing with WW1 and his kids, and involvement of trying to light a fire under Woodrow Wilson to get the U.S. to build up an army and send volunteers to Europe, was more readable and faster paced.
During this time, we see TR's health decline, especially after the visit to the jungles of South America. Morris does a good job of showing the positive and negative emotions of Teddy. His love of nature and children, eclipsed at times, by his disdain for those who do not agree with him (and usually TR is right in the end).
Toward the end of the book we see TR lose his youngest in WW1, and he starts to decline faster.
The epilogue covers the funeral and what happens to the rest of the Roosevelt clan following Teddy's death in January 1919, as well as TR's place in history, written by other authors. As with history, opinions of the day change on how our leaders in the past acted and what they did or didn't do.
In the end, Teddy was complex and for me a bright spot in American History. I highly recommend this 3 volume series by Edmund Morris.
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